SUPR Late Models
USA Speedway
September 2, 2011
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Moore breaks Bagley's streak with SUPR win at USA

by Bryan Wimberley
STERLINGTON, La. (September 2) - Grabbing his fourth series win of the season and delivering some payback in the meantime, Ray Moore of Haughton, La., cruised to victory Friday night at USA Speedway in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Southern United Professional Racing Series. The former SUPR champion and polesitter, Moore, claimed the $2,000 payday by beating Ronny Adams of Diana, Tex., by five-lengths.

"When we first took off, my crew showed me that my lead was getting bigger and bigger, so I started taking it real easy. When I got to lap traffic, Adams was definitely closing, but I was trying to stay slow enough to not catch lap traffic, but that didn't really work out either. I knew he (Adams) was closing when we got into lap traffic completely, then I had a little altercation in front of me and I didn't really know whether to go high or low. I just decided to just stay in the rubber and luckily they got it all worked out and we had a caution. Every time we had a caution and got out of lapped traffic, Adams was never really a threat to us. If I wanted to pick the pace up and move on, we was always able to do that. My crew guys was able to signal that to me and we would have a good lead when we would get on out there," said Moore.

Moore never looked back after jumping out to the lead, en route to his 18th series victory and placing him 8th on SUPR's all-time win list with Ricky Ingalls. It was Moore's second win at the quarter-mile oval in the last 12 months.

Moore exacted a little revenge on series points leader, Morgan Bagley, who had halted Moore's five race winning streak in early July at Champion Park Speedway. Coming into Friday night's 40-lap feature, Bagley had won five consecutive sanctioned Late Model events held at USA Speedway, until Moore re-paid the favor.

Moore added, "We took off after the Wisconsin trip for a little while and went to a little local track by the house to do some testing and other things. Afterwards, we went to a SUPR race and crashed out, it tore the car up real bad and we had to rebuild it. We went back to the local track and ran again, then we had these three races coming up (on Labor Day weekend). I didn't really want to come here, since it was one lane around the bottom and comes down to the luck of the draw, but we were a little bit bored and thought we could gamble. It is on our way to Greenville for the next stop, so we decided to stop in to see if we could get a good number and start upfront in the heat race to win it. We did draw good, it put us on the pole for the feature and we was able to lead all the laps. It was really just luck, I think if we would have started third row in the feature, I don't think we would have won. I think we had the best car, but I still don't think we would have been able to get up through there. It worked out in our favor, in the plan of us being on the way to the other races. If we would have started mid-pack, I was just going to make one lap and pull off, so luck was on our side tonight to pull off the win."

Jeff Chanler of Minden, La., returned to series competition after serving a one-race suspension and rebounded to record a solid third place finish. Sixth-starting Chris Holley of Dayton, Tex., took home fourth place, followed by Rob Litton of Alexandria, rounding out the top five.

The race got off to a shaky start, as the yellow immediately waved before one lap could be completed. SUPR points frontrunners, Timothy Culp of West Monroe and Allen Tippen of Minden, made contact in the middle of turns one & two, calling for a second attempt to get the feature underway.

A successful re-try had Moore taking the point over Adams, Chanler, Darin Patrick and Kennith Crowe. The feature would stay green for seven laps, as Patrick overtook Chanler to steal a spot before the next caution. A slowed Kyle Pleasant in turn four warranted the yellow, briefly stopping the action.

Only one circuit would be completed before the field would be bunched up again. Culp and Bagley would literally get together in turn two, with both becoming entangled momentarily by the front bars.

When the race resumed, Ray Moore again paced the field and approached traffic on lap 13. Moore carefully negotiated lapped cars as Adams drew closer for the lead one lap later. With Adams baring down, Moore continued to lead the way until progress was subsided due to Wesley Chanler's slowed car bringing out caution four.

Moore's excellent restart had Adams and Jeff Chanler shuffling for the runner up position. Just past the halfway mark, Adams averted a near spin, saving his No. 1A car in turn four and not relinquishing a position.

At lap 26, most of the pack was hugging the bottom groove, as the feature clicked off its longest green flag run. Moore built better than a four-second advantage on Adams, Chanler, Holley and Patrick.

With ten to go, Moore seemed to be coasting his way to victory until a kink in his plan occurred on lap 35, with the final yellow appearing. Moore would have to fight off all challenges one more time, to solidfy his first SUPR win in 11 weeks.

Adams would not let Moore get away on the restart, but mounting a late-race pass on the high side would prove to be an unwieldy task. Adams stayed within mere lengths of Moore, but the No. 93 would make no errors and crossed the finish line, claiming the victory.

"Considering the last few weeks, even though we have some local show wins, it is good to get off to a fast start. The car is feeling extremely good, but the local show wins don't mean anything at our level. This win here tonight is great for the momentum we need. Hopefully they can do some work to this track in the off-season to help it get more racy, because they have a lot of SUPR races here and I would love to come and support these guys. It is close to my house and that's a plus too. The way it is right now here, it is just the luck of the draw and that turns some drivers away. There was a lot of tore up stuff with drivers trying to get to the front and the only way to do it, is to knock somebody out of the way. We will take the win though and move forward, certainly would like to tie some of these together again," Moore explained.

Notes: Moore's MB2 Customs Chassis is powered by a Jay Dickens Racing Engine and sponsored by Moore Wireline Inc, tic Tools International, X-Treme Graphics, Mars Race Cars, J&J Motorsports and Smith's Towing.

Moore scored his 10th win in only 28 total starts this season, giving him a remarkable .357 winning percentage, while finishing in the top five in 17 events.

The 30-minute feature ended at 11:40 pm and was slowed by six cautions.

Last week's winner and two-time SUPR champion, Rob Litton, was the top 10 hard charger of the race, going from 9th-to-fifth.
B.J. Robinson of Shreveport, La., had an eventful night is his newly wrapped red and yellow Childress Racing No. R5. It started with a black flag in the heat race, when Robinson clipped Chris Holley from behind, spinning him out to warrant a caution. Robinson and Holley was racing in tight quarters for third before Robinson drew the black flag and told to leave the track. In the consolation, Robinson lost a left front wheel before a lap could be completed and was forced to take a series provisional into the feature -Robinson finished 15th.

Brooks Strength of Byram, Miss., made his first series start in his MasterSbilt/Jay Dickens No. 444. Strength has four wins this season at his hometrack of Jackson Motor Speedway -two in the MSCC Series and two unsanctioned Late Model events. Strength also has another unsanctioned win at Greenville Speedway in May.

Strength took the last transfer spot in the consolation at USA Speedway, but would be forced to an early feature exit -finishing 20th.

Chris Buhler of Central, La., had a short evening, losing an engine in hot laps.

Modified driver Kyle Pleasant of Natchitoches, La., entered the Late Model ranks for the first time in his career, driving the Allen Lenard-owned Warrior/Clements No. 24/7 Race Car. In his first attempt, Pleasant made the feature, but was the first car to retire from the field of 22.

Another driver testing the late model waters was Bud Mullins, son of longtime SUPR regular, Bubba Mullins. The younger Mullins made his first series start and sat on the eighth-row for the feature, but it would be short-lived as he pulled off early to finish in 21st.
Drivers failing to make the feature included, Chris Buhler, Gary Christian, Shawn O'Toole, Mark Underwood Jr and Drew Zeigler.

SUPR @ USA Speedway: (1) Ray Moore, (2) Ronny Adams, (3) Jeff Chanler, (4) Chris Holley, (5) Rob Litton, (6) Darin Patrick, (7) Kennith Crowe, (8) Bubba Mullins, (9) Robbie Starnes, (10) Allen Tippen, (11) Timothy Culp, (12) Jody Prince, (13) Morgan Bagley, (14) Robbie Stuart, (15) B.J. Robinson, (16) Jay Brunson, (17) Wesley Chanler, (18) Chad Dupont, (19) Jim Bryant, (20) Brooks Strength, (21) Bud Mullins, (22) Kyle Pleasant.
Heat race winners (among 27 cars): Patrick, J.Chanler, Moore
Consolation race winner: Bryant

O'Reilly SUPR Series points
(Top 15 through September 2nd)

1. Morgan Bagley - 2,440
2. Timothy Culp - 2,225
3. Allen Tippen - 2,180
4. Rob Litton - 1,698
5. Chris Holley - 1,672
6. Kevin Sitton - 1,629
7. Jeff Chanler - 1,551
8. Jody Prince - 1,530
9. Ronny Adams - 1,464
10. B.J. Robinson - 1,206
11. Ray Moore - 1,182
12. Robbie Stuart - 1,169
13. Jay Brunson - 1,068
14. Bubba Mullins - 877
15. Robbie Starnes - 818


A-Main
1 93 Ray Moore
2 1A Ronny Adams
3 11C Jeff Chandler
4 28H Chris Holley
5 6X Robert Litton
6 21 Darin Patrick
7 77C Kennith Crowe
8 11 David Mullins
9 77S Robbie Starnes
10 71A Allen Tippen
11 C8 Timothy Culp
12 10P Jody Prince
13 14M Morgan Bagley
14 6R Robbie Stuart
15 R5 B J Robinson
16 23B Michael Jay Brunson
17 117C Wesley Chandler
18 F5 Chad Dupont
19 7X Jim Bryant
20 444 Brooks Strength Jr
21 X Dillon Mullins
22 24-7 Kyle Pleasant

Last Chance
1 7X Jim Bryant
2 23B Michael Jay Brunson
3 F5 Chad Dupont
4 444 Brooks Strength Jr
5 58X Gary Christian
6 6R Robbie Stuart
7 99 James Mark Underwood
8 2 Shawn Otoole
9 Z23 Drew Ziegler
10 R5 B J Robinson
11 5C Chris Buhler

Heat #1
1 21 Darin Patrick
2 C8 Timothy Culp
3 77S Robbie Starnes
4 6X Robert Litton
5 10P Jody Prince
6 X Dillon Mullins
7 99 James Mark Underwood
8 6R Robbie Stuart
9 444 Brooks Strength Jr

Heat #2
1 11C Jeff Chandler
2 71A Allen Tippen
3 28H Chris Holley
4 11 David Mullins
5 14M Morgan Bagley
6 7X Jim Bryant
7 2 Shawn Otoole
8 R5 B J Robinson
9 F5 Chad Dupont

Heat #3
1 93 Ray Moore
2 1A Ronny Adams
3 77C Kennith Crowe
4 24-7 Kyle Pleasant
5 117C Wesley Chandler
6 23B Michael Jay Brunson
7 Z23 Drew Ziegler
8 58X Gary Christian
9 5C Chris Buhler