Ray Moore celebrates Saturday's SUPR Series win at the tour's most prestigious venue, Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. (Owen Richards)

SUPR: Moore Makes Most of Sitton Miscue for "National Dirt Track Championship" Win at TMS

J. M. Hallas

FORT WORTH, Tex. - Sept 17.  Haughton, La's Ray Moore became the first person to back up his "U.S. National Dirt Track Championship" win in the 40-lap SUPR Late Model A-main at Texas Motor Speedway Saturday. Moore, who started back in row five, worked his way forward in the early stages chasing down Kevin Sitton for the lead in traffic. Sitton had trouble with a lapped car

Ray Moore and his family celebrate his second win in the annual late-season special at Texas Motor Speedway. (Lynne Richards)

 that saw him take an off road excursion through the infield just past halfway. This gave Moore the opening to get out front, take advantage of his tire conservation, and motor away to full straightaway margin over Sitton as the checkers waved.

It was a long but record breaking day of sorts, as the event finally got under way in what would prove to be a marathon, not a short sprint. After suffering a total rain-out on Friday, the 4/10 mile, semi-banked, clay oval opened early for it's first ever 'daily double' of racing. The propsed Friday night portion would be run early enough in the day to give drivers, crews and cars a short break before completing the champion events in basically the normal fashion, albeit a little later start than planned.　

Kevin Sitton (20) led the early going before a scrape with a lapped car backed him up to second as #93 Ray Moore took over and drove away. (Lynne Richards)

The 21-car SUPR Late Model feature got off to a rocky start with Sitton jumping out front, but Loni Richardson and Chris Holley tangled to quickly bring the yellow out. The second try saw Sitton get the point coming off turn two, pursued by Wendall Bolden, Jason Ingalls, Timothy Culp, Eric Turner and Morgan Bagley. Ingalls got by Bolden for second, with Culp up on top going by for third.  Culp then ducked to the bottom to go under Ingalls for second, while Turner worked the low side to move up to third.

Yellow waved on lap six when Holley found the wall in turn two. Sitton jumped out on green, with Moore making a big charge up to third. Sitton, Culp and Moore began to break away as Rob Litton and Robbie Starnes grabbed fourth and fifth.

Missouri's Eric Turner races inside of East Texans Morgan Bagley (14) and Jason Ingalls (87) at TMS. (Lynne Richards)

The top three were still out from the pack coming to halfway with Sitton, Culp, Moore, Starnes and Litton in the top five. Moore used traffic to get by Culp for second and close on Sitton. Sitton got hung up with az lapped car, sending him through the infield as he gave up the top spot to Moore on lap 22. Once clear, Moore quickly began stretching out an advantage.

Moore caught heavy traffic with five to go, still holding a comfortable margin over Sitton and Culp, who had a substantial gap back to Starnes and Litton. Neither Sitton or Culp could capitalize on traffic to gain on Moore, who cleared still holding a safe lead. At the checkers, it was Moore in the Moore Wireline, Tools International, J&J Motorsports, Smith Towing, Extreme Graphics, Jay Dickens Race Engines, Mars Race Car crossing the line with no challengers in site.

Wendall Bolden races in front of Morgan Bagley before dropping off early. (Lynne Richards)

"It was a lot of hard work tonight," commented Moore. "We had to start in the back of our heat race and the track was kind of one groove, so I didn't get the passing points I needed to start further up in the main. Starting in the fifth riow I had my work cut out for me. I honestly didn't think we'd be able to get up through there. I love this place. I wish we would come here moire often. It's real fun to race on."

"I think I had something for Kevin (Sitton) even before he got hung up with a lapped car," Moore continued. "I watched him and Culp up there battling. It was early in the race and I mwas just trying to save my tires. When I saw him get tangled up with that lapped car, I went full speed ahead."

Chad Dupont navigates the big Fort Worth track en route to a seventh place showing at TMS. (Owen Richards)

"There were a lot of good cars in front of me and I thought the track would be pretty top down, and around the ciushion and not sure how much passing we could do. Luckily the cushion blew off and I was able to get down to the bottom and pass some cars."

"I made a good move on that one restart. I preferred to be on the outside since I noticed the bottom was bottling up. I was glad to get out there on that restart and bailed off in there as hard as I could, get by some cars, then back to the bottom. It worked out to our favor."

"We run the spec motor with the big blade. The times we've been here and tried an open motor, the track has been real slick. Tonight it was definitely slick and it worked out. The bigger motors are harder to control on this type of track. It's a lot easier to drive a small motored car and the bigger spoiler and less weight break help a lot."

	SUPR Late Models - Texas Motor Speedway 1) Ray Moore, 2) Kevin Sitton, 3) Timothy Culp, 4) Robbie Starnes, 5) Rob Litton, 6) Eric Turner, 7) Chad Dupont, 8) Patrik Daniel, 9) Allen Tippen, 10) Brett Frazier, 11) Morgan Bagley, 12) Gary Christian, 13) Jeff Chanler, 14) Jody Prince, 15) B.J. Robinson, 16) Mike Palasini, 17) Jason Ingalls, 18) Skip O'Neal, 19) Wendall Bolden, 20) Loni Richardson, 21) Chris Holley Heat winners (34 entries): Bagley, Ingalls, Turner; Last Chance winners: O'Neal, Holley
Scott Burson photo