SUPR: Litton Turns Luck Around With Battleground Win
Bryan Wimberley
HIGHLANDS, Tex. - Aug. 27. Ending his season's struggle, Rob
Litton of Alexandria, La., captured a $2,500 victory in the O'Reilly Southern United
Professional Racing series' return to Battleground Speedway on Saturday. Sixth-starting
Litton led the final 33 laps en route to a five-second win over Ronny Adams of Diana, Texas,
marking the series first race in over 13 years at the 3/8-mile oval.
Litton had carburetor issues throughout the 50-lap
feature and still powered away in the late stages of the race to grab the victory. It was his first
series win in 23 events, dating back to last season's Floyd Clausen Louisiana State Championship
at Baton Rouge Raceway in October.
%20-%20car%20-%20Skinner.jpg "Rob Litton at Battleground Speedway") Rob Litton tackled the fast, black gumbo at the Houston area Battleground Speedway Saturday and came home with his first SUPR Series win of the season. (Ron Skinner)
"This place
reminds me of Houston Raceway Park, Texas Motor Speedway Dirt Track, those type places where we
have had a lot of success. So we decided to come on our same type program that we run at those tracks
and it worked for us. We felt like we had a good car in the heat race, even though we ran fourth and
started ninth. It showed in the feature, I am not sure how long it took us to get into the lead, but
it seemed like about 15 laps. The car was strong, but the carburetor was acting up a little bit and I
was worried someone was going to catch us, but I was getting told that we had a pretty
good advantage. We was having carburetor problems theough the whole feature and we almost
actually spun out a couple times because it died, then when it would pick back up, it broke
the tires loose. I quit matting the throttle and then it pushed out a few times, because it was
stumbling and dying so bad. We will get that ironed out and hopefully be a lot better next weekend,"
Litton said.
Third-starting Ronny Adams led the first 17 laps, but
later settled for second.
DeRidder, La. driver Robbie Stuart battles local ace Chris Holley at Battleground. (Ron Skinner)
Front-row starter, Doug Begnaud of Cypress, Tex., nailed
down his best series run of the year to finish in third-place, before hopping aboard a plane and flying to
Ecuador on business.
"We were tight in the hot laps, because it was so greasy. We
made one little bar change for the heat race, the car was real fast, you really had to keep the car
bent pretty good to keep it turning and on the gas hard. It really likes to work and that is the way
the car drives the best. After the heat, we left it alone outside of putting a right front tire on
it. I felt it would be better to steer it than anything else and it did, I could turn it wherever I
wanted too, so that made all the difference in the world," said Begnaud.
"It feels great! One thing that's nice is not having to travel too
far from home and that is rare for me if I want to race anywhere. Running up where we did was good,
but we was hoping to do better. We went all the way back to seventh and then back up to third. We got
kind of banged around on those restarts, it was a little push-fest going on out there. The holes
were a half-car wide and they would put them through there, so we had to do the same to get back to the
front a little bit. It all worked out pretty good, just a little wrinkled up sheetmetal, nothing
major.
SUPR points leader Morgan Bagley chases Allen Tippen, who followed up last week's win with a fourth place at Battleground. (Ron Skinner)
The car was
real, real good! Trying to pick out the right lines to run was tough. If I did get it around there real
good, then it would tow the left front over the top of the infield tires, but if I didn't do it right,
then it would go straight for them. We would just have to back off a little bit and see what we could get
out of it. Luckily the race wasn't 51 laps, because we broke a brake line coming to the checkered flags,
going into turn three. We were about to go backwards in a hurry! We were real fortunate there,"
stated third-place Begnaud.
Allen Tippen of Minden, La., took home fourth, while
impressive rookie, Morgan Bagley of Longview, rounded out the top five.
At the drop of the green flag, Adams, Begnaud and
Robbie Stuart all battled down the backstretch of the wide, 3/8-mile oval. Adams would lead lap one over
Stuart, Timothy Culp, Doug Begnaud and Rob Litton.
Litton's climb to the front would continue, as he made his
way around Culp and Begnaud, putting him in third position, just four laps into the feature. Two laps
later, Litton took over second from Stuart, but trailed leader Ronny Adams by two seconds.
Greenwood, La. driver Lee Davis and Doug Begnaud, who raced to an impressive third place at the southeast Texas race track. (Ron Skinner)
Adams paced the field and reached traffic on lap 11,
but his advantage would be erased when the first yellow waved three laps later. A right rear flat for
Robbie Starnes of Baytown, Tex., halted his progress, while he ran sixth in the order. Starnes would continue
on, but a broken shock would later claim the Texan veteran, relegating him to a 14th-place
finish.
On the restart, Stuart edged Begnaud to re-claim third,
before another quick caution appeared. With Adams still in control from the outset, Stuart hit the cushion
on lap 17 to challenge the low-riding Litton for second. Litton not only fought off Stuart's move,
but on the next circuit, the 2010 series champion, took over the race lead from Adams.
Chris Holley of Dayton, Tex., shuffled up the order and
broke into the top five, racing Stuart and Adams along the way. Enjoying a rare hometrack
event, Holley's forward momentum from the eighth-row, had his newly wrapped No. 28 marching to the
front.
Rob Litton and Ronny Adams fight for the lead at Battleground. Adams picked up the second spot at the finish. (Ron Skinner)
Adams was able to
lock down second from Stuart, just before a third caution appeared. The yellow was for Zach McMillan of
Gladewater, Tex., spinning just in front of leader Rob Litton, missing him by mere feet out of turn
four.
The race would see another caution on lap 29, but not before
Holley was able to squeeze into second over Stuart and Adams. On the restart, those drivers
would take it three-wide to try to settle the score, but Begnaud would re-enter the picture to stake his claim
as well.
Begnaud reached third as Stuart began to fade from the
frontrunners, back to fifth. Stuart solid night would be capped off by disappointment, due to a faulty
wheel bearing. Stuart's crew had concluded a long day, which put him at the track late, because
the team had made a spec engine change at 1 pm that afternoon -Stuart finished 11th.
As Litton began to get away, the battle that raged on behind
him became more intense. Although nearly three-seconds back, Adams, Begnaud, Holley and points
frontman, Morgan Bagley, were wishing for one more caution to have a shot at Litton.
Not only would that shot never come, but Litton
would solidify the point by expanding his lead even more. With ten to go, the front of the field began to
spread out a little. While running as high as sixth, Patrik Daniel of Wills Point, Tex., ran out of
fuel with the laps trickling down -Daniel finished 12th.
Second-row starter Allen Tippen, took a late charge
around Bagley for fourth, with under five laps to go. Litton found his groove late and nobody had anything for
him as the race wore on. Even though the two-time series titlist had the field covered near the
end, racing amid the top five changed hands many times.
Litton seized the victory in imposing fashion, as Adams
subdued Begnaud at the checkers for second.
"It has been
13 years for me at this place and to be honest, I had forgotten what it looked like. When we got here
and I looked at it, I said 'Oh no!' and then I changed everything on the car. I changed shocks,
springs, bar angles, everything that I could think of and still in the heat race, we wasn't free
enough and I had a bad throttle push. We freed it up some more and then the track changed in the
feature after I ran about ten laps out front, then we had it too free then. When you are in the
feature like that and that happens, you just have to figure out how to drive it and keep the car under
you.
We was
leading and I thought I had a good line, the car was going really good. Later we started having those
restarts, then you could tell the car was getting much too free. Some of these slicks spots on the
black dirt is hard to see, usually you can tell by the shine of the racetrack, but the slick spots was
in between the tacky spots, so they were real narrow and you couldn't pick that shine up. The only way
you found it was when you hit them. When that happened, I let the car get out from under me and Rob
(Litton) got by me, (Chris) Holley got by me and (Robbie) Stuart got by me. I believe at one time I
was fourth and almost in fifth. I finally figured out, if I could get down on that bottom and really
hug it, which hardly anybody could, then my car was okay. I decided to do that and finish out the race
down there and was able to drive back to second to get some of those positions back that we had lost,"
said runner-up Ronny Adams.
Notes: Litton's Rocket Race Car is powered by Wall 2 Wall Performance Engines
and sponsored by LMS Truck Center, Litton Motorsports, Larry Grayson & Son Trucking, TWM Racing
Products, Stuckey Enterprises Racing and Erb Racing.
Litton ranks sixth all-time on SUPR's win list, behind Kenny
Merchant, Doug Ingalls, David Ashley, Ronny Adams and Ronnie Poche, with his 24th victory.
Rob and Mrs. Litton at Battleground Speedway. (Ron Skinner)
"It has definitely been a down year for us and part of it has been
our own fault. We have been trying some things and because last year when we was points racing, we
couldn't afford to try things. So some of it is because we have done it to ourselve, but some
has been because of wrecks, different problems, parts failure and stuff like that.
Hopefully, just hopefully, we are on the upswing of things to turn it around again," said
Litton.
Litton added,
"It costs so much to chase this whole series and we race this
team on our own, so we will probably pick-and-choose what we are going to do for next season and
what is closer to us. I think SUPR has got a great deal, we just can always go everywhere. If you
start running consistent then it is easier to follow a series, but with the year we have had this season,
we should be staying at the house. The car has been good all year, we have just had bad finishes
of no luck. It seems like the car is strong every weekend, but we have very few finishes to show for
it."
The 25-minute feature that ended at midnight, was
slowed by four cautions, with six cars on the lead lap.
Chris Holley of Dayton, Tex., earned the top ten hard
charger of the race, going from 15th-to-sixth. Involved in a heat race accident, Holley and the Erb Racing
Team has some cosmetic sheetmetal damage to repair, along with some nose/front cap work to fix
before the feature.
Current SUPR points leader, Morgan Bagley, was another big
mover of the feature, finishing fifth from 13th-starting position. Bagley's Team 14 had some repairs from
a heat race accident that left the driver with lower ball joint, upper control arm and spindle
damage.
Bad luck struck Timothy Culp of West Monroe, La., who had
his night cut short due to the radiator getting into the fan and retiring him to 15th. Culp loses 47 points to
Bagley and now has third-place Allen Tippen lurking just 50 points behind.
A rare season appearance for Lee Davis of Greenwood, La., at
Battleground, saw his No. 21D experience a popping noise during the heat race. The Davis crew tried
diagnosing the problem, thinking it may be a spring or valve. The team opted to change the
battery, since not finding it initially -Davis finished 13th in the feature.
Marlon Wild of Springfield, La., is one of four active
drivers (Coleman, Frye, Willis) that has won a series race at Battleground Speedway, during SUPR's fifteen
previous visits to the facility. Wild was in attendance to add to his total, but a lifter would
subject him to a start-and-park in the feature.
Steven Whiteaker Jr. of Corpus Christi,
Tex., took the Gary Rollo-owned No. 17 car to a seventh-place finish.
The O'Reilly Southern United Professional
Racing tour continues next weekend with a tripleheader of events. The first takes place Friday, September
2nd at USA Speedway in Sterlington (LA), where Morgan Bagley has won every series event there this season. The
second stop is Saturday, September 3rd at Greenville (MS) Speedway, for a co-sanction event with the
Mississippi-based PRO Dirt Car Series. It will be SUPR's biggest paying race of the 2011 season, at
$4,000-to-win.
The SUPR tour wraps up the tripleheader at Champion
Park Speedway near Haughton (LA) on Sunday, September 4th.
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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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