Kelly Boen (right) is congratulated by runner up Kyle Berck after the two battle to the wire in the Junction Motor Speedway MLRA event on Friday.(Lloyd Collins)
MLRA: Boen is Back, Nips Berk For Junction Motor Speedway Win
Trenton Berry
MCCOOL JUNCTION, Neb. - Aug. 13. Henderson, Colorado's Kelly Boen won Friday's Lucas Oil MLRA feature in thrilling fashion over Marquette, Nebraska's Kyle Berck at Junction Motor Speedway. The win came by half of a nose for Boen.
"I want to thank Greg Lee, he pieced this car together for us," Boen said to the fans following the race. "We hadn't been racing our own stuff for a long time. Now, we decided to go back and race our own stuff for a while. Terry Pannell, the guy that was letting me drive his other car, he's been such a great guy, and I want to thank him."
Kyle Berck streaks under Colorado traveller Dean Moore on his way to a close second place finish at JMS. (Lloyd Collins)
This was Boen's seventh win in the last 10 MLRA races at Junction Motor Speedway. However, it was his race car's first win at the York County oval. "It's pretty good," said Boen of his Rocket Chassis. "I've got to believe if we're going to win tomorrow, we're going to have to get a little faster. "Kyle made it a little too interesting at the end."
Berck was pleased with his performance. He now has three runner up finishes in Lucas Oil MLRA Series competition this season. "I got a little rhythm going on the bottom," Berck said of his late race charge to get around Dave Eckrich. "I kept eyeballing that top side. I wanted to go up there so bad, but the car
Dave Eckrich, #33 Al Purkey, and #14 Kyle Berck get after it during preliminary action at JMS. (Lloyd Collins)
didn't want to. That last lap I thought, he's protecting. He hasn't been up there. I just gritted my teeth going down the back straightaway and I said, I'm going to beat him off turn four. We needed about 50 more horsepower to do that. We had a good run. It was fun, I really thought I had him. That's as close as it gets and we'll try again tomorrow night." Berck firmly holds third place in the championship standings.
Kelly Boen takes the checkered flag by the narrowest of margins at Junction Motor Speedway. (Lloyd Collins)
The 25 lap feature had several cautions sprinkled throughout. A lap eight incident involving multiple cars, included series point leaders Al Purkey and John Anderson. Anderson received the more serious damage of the two. He went to the pits a couple of times for work, before retiring to an 18th place finish. Purkey had some rear sheet metal damage and stuck it out for a 12th place finish, gaining 14 points over Anderson in the process. This now pushes Purkey's lead to 34 points over Anderson.
Dave Eckrich had one of his stronger runs of the season tonight. He went from fifth to second immediately, and wound up third. Mike Collins and Travis Dickes finished fourth and fifth.
Troy Daly settles into his new role as spectator after being the first to retire to the infield at at McCool Junction. (Lloyd Collins)
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Big Gains for Hubbard, Pearson, Ogle - The A-Team Has Been Updated 05-15-12
Scott James battles #13 Barry Doss in heat race action at Florence (Ky.) Speedway, but in the $2,000-to-win feature, the only thing anyone saw was the tail end of James' #81 car. (Roy Walker)
After plenty of trash-talking via the electronic media between Jeff Matthews and Ivedent Lloyd last week, it was #21 Lloyd who got the final word as he reeled in #33 Matthews to win Friday's LM feature at Oclala, Fla.'s Bubba Raceway Park. (R.E. Wing)
Fans at Markleysburg, Pa.'s Roaring Knob Motorsports Comlex were treated to dual LM features Saturday - one a makeup from a May 5th rainout. (Above) Tim Senic challenges eventual regular feature winner Chuck Harper, while Jared Hawkins (below) claimed the makeup race. (Tommy Micheals)
Henley, Missouri's Jason Russell leads the way to Victory Lane in the ULMS Late Model feature at Lucas Oil Speedway Saturday. (Chris Bork)
Some fierce racing action at Lucas Oil speedway. (Chris Bork)
Dalton, Ga.'s Craig Reece returned to Dixie Speedway Saturday and led all the way to win the Crate LM victory. (Steve Hixson)
Ray Guss Jr. races last week's Quad City Speedway winner, Mike Murphy, Jr. This time, it was advantage Guss. (Chris Damitz)
With a strong motor back into his mount, Veteran Lamar Scoggins claimed last Friday's Crate LM victory at Boyd's Speedway. (Steve Hixson)
Veteran racer Lance Matthees navigates Spring Lake, Minnesota's Deer Creek Speedway before taking Saturday's WISSOTA Late Model checkers. (Jason Durst)
Racing hard at mid-pack, it's the dueling 55s of Cory Mahder (inside) and Greg Nippoldt at Deer Creek. (Jason Durst)
Ryan King (above and below) swept both the Ltd. Late Model and Crate Late Model features Saturday at 411 Motor Speedway in Seymour, Tenn. (Chad Wells)
Still riding his wave in Iowa, Mike Murphy, Jr. in early action before taking the main event win at Davenport last Friday. (Chris Damitz)
Jason Jameson ran a gauntlet to finally capture another win Friday night at Moler
Raceway Park (see main page). (Roy
Walker)
After holding back a charge from Alex Ferree, Chub Frank drove home with a Friday night win at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa. (John Stivason)
Bobby Pierce, Brett Sievert, and Mike Glynn race in a tight pack in Kankakee (Ill.) Speedway's "Crosstown Cup", but (below) it was ultimately Shawn Toczek (42) here racing the high side of Mike Provenzano, who sailed to the win. (Dan Simpson)
NALMS Suspends Remaining Season
In a statement released to the racing media Monday, Northern All All Stars Late Model Series (NALMS) owners Shawn Hall and Bob Mooney relased the following statement:
To all NALMS drivers and fans,
Northern Allstars Late Model Series regrets to inform all of our drivers and fans that as of today (May 14, 2012) we will suspend all series races for the remaining 2012 season. The primary reason for the decision to discontinue the series was mainly economics. Tracks, teams and fans are having a hard time these days with the cost of living in general. With the cost of fuel, parts, tires, tickets and lodging, many people just cannot afford to travel to our shows, so we feel it's best to stop for now and try to regroup for the 2013 season.
Our series needs to be able to have at least 18 to 20 shows to cover our cost of putting on these shows and our drivers point funds. With many tracks cutting back on their special events and other tracks just choosing not to have specials at all, it's has really cut our options for race tracks down to a very few unless you are willing to travel several hours away from the Central Illinois area, and that is not cost effective for the racing teams or fans.
In closing we would like to thank all of the drivers and fans whom have supported the series over the years and we hope to be able to come back with a bigger and better season for everyone in 2013.
A-Team Leaders from 1997-2011 (Click on link for complete rundown)
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