Kelly Boen stalks leader Al Humphrey before making a late pass to the lead and sweeping the second night of racing on the MLRA/NCRA tours at Junction Motor Speedway. (Lloyd Collins)
MLRA/NCRA: Boens Owns the Weekend at Junction Motor Speedway
Trenton Berry
MCCOOL JUNCTION, Neb. - Aug. 13. Biding his time to take the lead with 13 laps to go, Kelly Boen, of Henderson, Colorado, streaked to his third consecutive sweep of the "King of the Hill" Lucas Oil MLRA Series event at Junction Motor Speedway Saturday.
"What a cruiser this thing was to drive," Boen said of his car. "I was being real careful. You hate to make a mistake early in the race. I was pacing myself, seeing if I could run good on the bottom or the top, as long as the guys
John Anderson slips under #14 Kyle Berck before later reeling in Al Purkey and getting by for third on the last lap. (Lloyd Collins)
weren't getting way away from me. I killed my right rear bumping around the bottom and had to move up. It was just a great race for us. We're really happy."
Nebraska veteran Al Humphrey paced the first seven laps of the feature and raced in the top three all evening, coming home second. "We've been struggling the last couple of years trying to get some top finishes," said Humphrey. "We began to wonder if we really belonged here. I showed myself I can still compete with these guys. We haven't won one of these yet, but tonight we came really close."
Kelly Boen after his second win of the weekend at Junction Motor Speedway. (Lloyd Collins)
John Anderson made a last lap pass on Al Purkey to finish third. "We've got a good car. I've just got to drive her. I made a few mistakes again, and I've got to clean them up," Anderson said.
Disaster nearly struck Anderson early in the feature when he spun in turn two, while running in third place. He rejoined the back of the field and worked through the pack. "I knew I needed to be patient and stay out of trouble and pick them off. We we're going at a pretty good pace there, so I just kept it up and kept digging," the Nebraska veteran added.
Boen pilots a Rocket Chassis with a Cornett Engine. He is sponsored by Road Runner Fabrication and Pannell Chipping. This is Boen's 20th career Lucas Oil MLRA win. He moved into a tie for 8th place on the series all time wins list. Boen has now won 8 of the last 11 Lucas Oil MLRA races at Junction, including the last 6 consecutively.
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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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