Maier Sprints to Fourth O'Reilly/NCRA Sprint
Victory
By David Smith, Jr.
PARK
CITY, Kan. (July 27, 2007) -
Garry Lee Maier of
Cimmaron, Kansas started on the pole and held
off late race charges by Marc Robe to pick up
his fourth series victory of the season as the
O'Reilly NCRA Sprint Series presented
by ICM/Ethanol second stop of the season at 81
Speedway in Park City, Kansas Friday night.
Maier, aboard the Lubbock Wrecker, Jantz
Excavating sponsored No. 11x sprinter, jumped
into the lead past fellow front row started Cody
Forshee and led the rest of the field on the
start. Robe, who started fourth, got past rookie
Forshee and settled into second with Gavin Punch
and Mike Woodruff the top five after the first
lap was complete. Maier would open a six car
length lead by lap three before the first of
four caution flags would have for Forshee, who
spun coming out of turn two and hit the wall at
the top of the track ending his night.
The restart Maier again stretch out his lead
over Robe, who inherited the runner up position
after the caution. Three laps after the restart
the caution would be seen once again as Koby
Barksdale would come to a stop on the
backstretch.
Once the race resumed, Maier would motor his
Wesmar-powered Maxim to a ten car length
advantage by lap ten as he drove the top of
turns one and two and near the middle in three
and four. At the races midway point it was
Maier, followed by Robe, Woodruff, Derek Drown
and eleventh starting Mike Peters. Maier looked
to have the race well in hand but by lap
fifteen, he began approaching lapped traffic
allowing Robe to close the gap.
While battling lapped traffic on lap
nineteen, Maier got caught between a couple of
lapped cars allowing Robe to make the apparent
pass for the lead on the front stretch. But the
lead change was all for not as the third caution
of the feature fell for Punch as he came to a
stop in turns one and two.
With the caution, Maier restarted with a
clear track ahead of him while behind him, Robe
had his hands full with third running Woodruff,
who tried several attempts for the runner up
position by diving low in turns one and two as
Robe used the cushion at the top of the track.
A late race caution for Scott Lehman on lap
twenty-two would slow the pace one last time but
on the restart, there was no catching Maier as
he set sail to his 60th career series victory.
"I was a bit worried about finding the rubber
late as I have had alot of trouble finding it
this year," said Maier in victory lane. "I was
running about mid track in three and four before
he (Robe) showed me he was there on that
restart. Then I decided it was better if I went
back down to the bottom in three and four."
Robe would hold off several challenges from
Woodruff to finish second while Peters hard
charge would end with a fourth place finish.
Luke Cranston would round out the top five.
The first heat race for the twenty-seven car
field got off to a rough start as several cars
came together entering turn one on the start.
J.D. Johnson and James Riner both flipped and
collected Jason Johnson, Mike Peters, Corey
Moore and Koby Barksdale. Johnson Eagle would
suffer the most damage as he would suffer a
broke chassis and broken injectors ending his
night early. All other drivers, except for
Johnson and Moore, would be back to compete in
the "B" feature later. Woodruff would go on to
win that first heat race with Maier and Punch
the other two heat race victors. Peters would
waste little time from his third starting
position in the "B" feature to take the lead and
go on to the ten lap victory over David Wheeler,
Stu Snyder and Mike Chadd.
Next up for the O'Reilly NCRA Sprint Series
presented by ICM/Ethanol will be a non points
race as drivers head to the Knoxville 360
Nationals in Knoxville, Iowa August 2-4 and the
Brodix Tournament of Champions August 5th. The
next scheduled NCRA points race will be Saturday
night, August 18th back at 81 Speeway before the
series heads north to the the Belleville
Highbanks the following night. (David
Smith Jr./www.oklahomatidbits.com).
O'Reilly
Finish Line
A Feature --
1, Garry Lee Maier. 2, Marc Robe. 3, Mike Woodruff. 4, Mike
Peters. 5, Luke Cranston. 6, Shane Howard. 7, Andy Shous.e
8, J.D. Johnson. 9, Scott Lehman. 10, Jon Freeman. 11,
Dwight Schroeder. 12, Mike Chadd. 13, Stu Snyder. 14, Dan
Freeman. 15, Derek Drown. 16, Gavin Punch. 17, David
Wheeler. 18, Roger Sundquist. 19, Koby Barksdale. 20, Cody
Forshee.
B Feature --
1, Mike Peters. 2, David Wheeler. 3, Stu Snyder. 4, Mike
Chadd. 5, Jon Freeman. 6, Dwight Schroeder. 7, Koby
Barksdale. 8, Dan Freeman. 9, Roger Sundquist. 10, J.D.
Johnson. 11, A.J. Selenke.
Heat 1:
1, Mike Woodruff. 2, Marc Robe. 3, Luke
Cranston. 4, James Riner. 5, Mike Peters. 6, J.D. Johnson.
7, Corey Moore. 8, Koby Barksdale. 9, Jason Johnson.
Heat 2: 1, Garry Lee
Maier. 2, Shane Howard. 3, Scott Lehman. 4, Andy Shouse. 5,
Stu Snyder. 6, Mike Chadd. 7, Dwight Schroeder. 8, Kenneth
Walker. 9, Jon Freeman..
Heat 3:
1, Gavin Punch. 2, Cody Forshee. 3, Derek Drown. 4, David
Wheeler. 5, Dan Freeman. 6, Roger Sundquist. 7, A.J. Selenke.
8, Dusty Murry. 9, Derrick Ortega.