TRI CITY SPEEDWAY
MAY 6, 2011
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Knight takes Northern Tier Inc ULMS 2011 season opener at Tri City Speedway

FRANKLIN, Penn. (May 6) - Ripley, New York’s, Mike Knight kicked off Tri City Speedway season opener and took home the Northern Tier Inc ULMS 2011 season opener. “Hollywood” took home $2000 for his efforts in the 25 lap event on threatening night of weather.

All-time ULMS feature winner, David Scott and local favorite Matt Lux paced the field to Mark Matthews green flag. “Slowride” took the lead immediately on the start. As the field completed lap one it was Scott, Lux, Knight, Dennis Lunger and Dutch Davies. The first yellow of the season came out on lap four for late arrival Greg Oakes as he spun in turn two. On the restart, chaos took place as the drivers were in a dog fight for positions behind the top three. Dick Barton, Chris Hackett, Rob Blair and Russ King were all battling for fifth. Lap seven would see the second yellow come out for Bump Hedman. The top four was still the same with Hackett now in fifth over Barton, Blair, Dutch Davies and King.

The restart was again wild as the battle for fourth thru eighth was very contested and on lap eight the third yellow would come out as Hackett would get loose on the outside of turn two and would collect the cars of Blair and Dutch Davies. Davies and Hackett were done for the evening while Blair received extensive body damage from the incident.

On the restart, Knight pressured Lux for second and would take second over and lap ten the fans were on their feet as Knight and Scott ran door to door with Scott leading at the striped by inches. At the halfway point on lap 12, Knight had a half of a car length lead at the stripe, but Scott would power back down the long backstretch to race side by side going into turn three. Knight would take over completely as the duo exited turn four for lap 13.

With ten laps remaining the top five was Knight, Scott, Lux, Dick Barton was now fourth from his eleventh starting spot and Russ King was fifth. Blair was backing up through the field as it appeared the body damage was affecting the Won11 Rocket. Lap sixteen would see the final yellow of the event for Dereck Frank on the front stretch.

With the double file restart, Knight chose the inside lane over Scott and would jump into the lead over “Slowride”. Barton would move into third on lap 17 and one lap later would move Scott back to third. With five to go, Knight was checking out with Lux now in fourth was in a battle with Russ King.

King would be the car on the move in the final laps as he would take fourth from Lux and on lap 22 would take third from Scott. Scott would come back with two to go to retake third back. With the white flag falling, Knight was already heading for “Hollywood” and Barton was solidly in second as King would give Scott a slide job to grab third one final time to come home third as the checkers fell. Lux finished fifth followed by Dennis Lunger, Blair limped home seventh with Bump Hedman coming back from his early caution for eighth. Greg Oakes salvaged ninth after missing hot laps and the heat race due his late arrival and Brent Rhebergen came home tenth.

Knight finished 3.252 seconds ahead of Barton at the finish and had the best lap of the feature at 18.099 seconds. Heat winners for the Northern Tier Inc ULMS Late Models were David Scott and Dennis Lunger. Rob Blair broke the track record in his heat with a lap time of 17.5 seconds and average lap speed of 103MPH.

The Northern Tier Inc ULMS Late Models return to action next Saturday, May 14 at Pittsburgh PA Motor Speedway for a pair of Twin 28 events paying $2000 each to win. This event will be co-sanctioned with the UFo Series and ULMS will be joined by their sister series, the UEMS Emods. ULMS Late Models then take a week off and return on Thursday, May 26 at McKean County Raceway for the Dave Lundgren Memorial.

ULMS Racing Series is supported by the following: Northern Tier Inc., Hoosier Tire Mid Atlantic, Lias Tire – American Racer, Keizer Aluminum Wheels, AERO Race Wheels, Close Racing Supply, Carley Motorsports, Rocket Chassis, R2C Performance, Cousins Designs (official Decals of ULMS Racing), Bernheisel Race Cars, Allen’s Wine and Liquor, JB’s Distributor (Coors Light) and 4AM Graphics

RESULTS
25 LAP $2000 FEATURE:

#9K MIKE KNIGHT
#14B DICK BARTON
#56 RUSS KING
#3 DAVID SCOTT
#21 MATT LUX
#71L DENNIS LUNGER
#W11 ROB BLAIR
#22H BUMP HEDMAN
#22 GREG OAKES
#07R BRENT RHEBERGEN
#22B DARRELL BOSSARD
#21* BILLY HENRY
#90 WALLY FOX
#12B ANDY BOOZEL
#16* DERECK FRANK
#33 CHRIS HACKETT
#26G DUTCH DAVIES

Northern Tier Inc Heat #1
David Scott, Blair, Lux, Hackett, King, Barton, Boozel, Bossard, Frank

Keizer Aluminum Wheels Heat #2
Dennis Lunger, Knight, Davies, Henry, Fox, Rhebergen, Hedman, Oakes

CLOSE Racing Supply & Bernheisel Race Cars Hard Charger: Dick Barton 9 spots
Keizer Aluminum Wheels: Mike Knight and Dick Barton
R2C Performance: Mike Knight
Hoosier Tire: Mike Night
American Racer: David Scott

2011 Northern Tier Inc ULMS Points:
1) #9K Mike Knight 68*
2) #3 David Scott 62
3) #71L Dennis Lunger 58
4) #14B Dick Barton 56
5) #56 Russ King 56
6) #21L Matt Lux 56
7) #W11 Rob Blair 54
8) #22H Bump Hedman 44
9) #22 Greg Oakes 42
10) #07R Brent Rhebergen 40
11) #21* Billy Henry 40
12) #22B Darrell Bossard 38
13) #90 Wally Fox 36
14) #12B Andy Boozell 32
15) #33 Chris Hackett 32
16) #26G Dutch Davies 32
17) #16* Dereck Frank 30