By David Smith, Jr.

ENID, Okla. (May 17, 2008) - Five-time defending champion Brian Franz of Halstead, Kansas must wonder about being involved in last lap theatrics in Enid. One year ago, it looked as though he would go unchallenged to take the victory, only to be passed on the backstretch of the final lap. The same almost happened again Saturday night but this time Franz would hold on to take his first victory of the season as the O'Reilly/NCRA modified Series presented by ICM/Ethanol invaded Enid Speedway Park.

 

Jon Herring of Woodward, Oklahoma earned his first ever pole with the series to start the thirty lap feature but it was outside pole sitter Franz who took the lead and quickly built a ten car length advantage as the race went green. Jeremy Massey, who won the season opening feature two weeks earlier, settled into third while Greg Stephens, Mike Jarvis and Randy Timms battled for the fourth position. Timms and his Shaw by Taylor quickly moved up to challenge Massey for third but on lap three, both drivers made contact entering turn one with Timms taking a rollover. Mark Smith and Joe Adams had nowhere to go and also got caught in the mishap. No drivers were injured but all were done for the night.

 

Once the track got cleared it was back to green flag racing the rest of the way as Franz, powered by Shadow Racing Engines, once again pulled away from the field and by lap six, had built a seemingly comfortable half stretch lead. Behind him, however, the battle for second was back and forth as Herring, Stephens, Jarvis and Troy Gemmill all battled for position before Stephens officially took the runner up spot on lap nine. One lap later, seventh starting Gemmill made his way into second on lap ten and would began to pull away from the rest of the field, setting his sights on the leader.

 

By the races midway point, Gemmill had cut Franz's half stretch lead down to half and slowly began working his way towards the leader. While the two front runners had begun to pull away from the rest of the field, the battle for third was intense as Herring, Stephens, Dan Daniels and Kip Hughes all traded positions each lap until the end.

 

With five laps to go, Gemmill had closed the ten car length deficit down to five car lengths before the leader began approaching lapped traffic with two laps to go. This allowed Gemmill to make his move, trying to get around Franz down the front stretch, only to run out of room. On the final lap and down the back stretch which ended Franzs chance for victory one year ago, Gemmill tried his hands at an upset and dove underneath Franz entering turns three and four. Franz and his Bills Built modified had the momentum coming out of four and out dragged Gemmill to the finish line for a one car length victory.

 

"Wow, thought we lost another one here," said Franz in victory lane. "I kept looking for my crew to see what kind of lead we had but never could find them. There at the end I heard somebody behind me and saw him there on that last lap but we held on." For Franz, it was the first victory of season and 25th career series victory aboard the Bills Built, Shadow Racing Engines, Pro Motor Sports, BSB Manufacturing and Millennium Machine and Tool sponsored modified.

 

Daniels would emerge from that race long battle for third late to take that position while Herring and Hughes rounded out the top five. Jordan Whitehead was the highest placing rookie of the feature as he started thirteenth and came home seventh.

 

The ten lap heat races for the thirty-six car field were won by Franz, Jarvis, Troy Gemmill and Don Renfro with Casey McClaskey taking the ten lap "C" feature. Joe Adams started sixth but took the lead late to win the fifteen lap "B" feature.

 

The next event for the O'Reilly/NCRA modifieds will be held on July fourth as they make their first appearance at the Highbanks of Belleville on Friday night, July 4th. From there the series will head straight south to 81 Speedway in Park City, Kansas.

   

The National Championship Racing Association is entering it's 38th season of sanctioning dirt track races, this year in five different states in its sprint car, modified and late model divisions combined. The 2008 race season will see the series' modified division compete for the 11th consecutive year. To learn more on the history of NCRA, rules, schedules and more, log on to their official website http://www.ncraracing.org/. To schedule an NCRA event, climb aboard as contingency partner or for any questions concerning the series, contact the office (316) 755-1781.

  

HEAT 1 - 1, Brian Franz. 2, Jon Herring. 3, Dan Daniels. 4, Jordan Whitehead. 5, Mark Smith. 6, Bob Lane. 7, Jeremy Green. 8, Grant Junghans. 9, Dusty Robbins.

HEAT 2 - 1, Mike Jarvis. 2, Jeremy Massey. 3, Kip Hughes. 4, Jim Johnson. 5, Casey McClaskey. 6, Nic Baalman. 7, Richard Shearon. 8, Jimmy Hobbs. 9, Todd Decker.

HEAT 3 - 1, Troy Gemmill. 2, Marc Hurd. 3, Randy Timms. 4, Greg Burt. 5, Tyler Propps. 6, Marlin Farr. 7, Brendon Gemmill. 8, Jim Ciampi. 9, Brandon Morton.

HEAT 4 - 1, Don Renfro. 2, Greg Stephens. 3, Joe Adams. 4, Brian Powers. 5, Jason Roe. 6, Brian Casey. 7, Kenny Morris. 8, Tony Foster. 9, Brian McGowen.

C FEATURE - 1, Casey McClaskey. 2, Mark Smith. 3, Marlin Farr. 4, Brendon Gemmill. 5, Kenny Morris. 6, Brandon Morton. 7, Todd Decker. 8, Brian McGowen. 9, Jeremy Green. 10, Jim Ciampi. 11, Tony Foster. 12, Jason Roe.

B FEATURE - 1, Joe Adams. 2, Dan Daniels. 3, Jordan Whitehead. 4, Brendon Gemmill. 5, Greg Burt. 6, Tyler Propps. 7, Brian Casey. 8, Brian Powers. 9, Mark Smith. 10, Jim Ciampi. 11, Jim Johnson. 12, Brandon Morton. 13, Marlin Farr. 14, Nic Baalman. 15, Todd Decker. 16, Bob Lane. 17, Brian McGowen. 18, Kenny Morris. 19, Jeremy Green. 20, Casey McClaskey.

A FEATURE - 1, Brian Franz. 2, Troy Gemmill. 3, Dan Daniels. 4, Jon Herring. 5, Kip Hughes. 6, Greg Stephens. 7, Brendon Gemmill. 8, Jordan Whitehead. 9, Mike Jarvis. 10, Tyler Propps. 11, Greg Burt. 12, Brian Casey. 13, Brian Powers. 14, Marc Hurd. 15, Don Renfro. 16, Jeremy Massey. 17, Randy Timms. 18, Joe Adams. 19, Mark Smith.