SUPR Late Models
USA Speedway
June 4, 2012
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Tippen takes win at USA, capitalizes on Hebert/Litton misfortune        

by Bryan Wimberley
STERLINGTON, La. (May 25) - The current Southern United Professional Racing Series points' leader, Allen Tippen of Minden, will not have to wait until early fall to stand in victory lane this season. Tippen inherited first, when Shane Hebert and Rob Litton tangled while battling for the lead, bringing out a caution. Tippen led the final (13) laps, collecting $2,000 for his second-and-a-half victory over Kevin Sitton of Baytown, Tex., at USA Speedway in Sterlington.
 
"Earlier tonight in the heats, we had a pretty good car, Sitton was a little better than us in the heat race, although we got side-by-side. I worked some things out and kind of felt what the car was going to do in the center of the track. When we got to the feature, we made a pretty good tire choice and was good from the start of it. When we took off, we passed a few cars and right off-the-bat, I knew we were going to be good and have something for them. We got to third-place and started gaining on the first two. I was worried that the track may get to be one-laned, so if that happened then you are at the mercy of hoping someone messes up or misses their mark. I felt like we had the car to beat in my opinion! When (Rob) Litton got underneath Shane (Hebert) and started their deal, whatever they were doing, I was able to get by them, since they got penalized or had to go to the back from their caution. We did have a few more cautions towards the end and I thought maybe someone was on me, pressuring for the lead, but was able to get word from my crew that we was pulling away. It is a well-deserved victory for the hard work we have put in, I know that!" Tippen said.  
 
The 40-lap victory was Tippen's 8th career SUPR Series win and his first since last August at Chatham. He also expands on his quest for a championship title, stretching the points lead from 8 to 52 over Rob Litton of Alexandria, Louisiana.
 
Local favorite Bubba Mullins of West Monroe, finished third, while Steven Whiteaker Jr of Corpus Christi, Tex., took home fourth place. Ronny Adams of Diana, Tex., advanced seven positions from his 12th-starting spot, to round out the top five finishers.
 
Polesitter Kevin Sitton was slighted at the drop of the green flag by Shane Hebert of Lafayette, La., with Litton, Mullins and Tippen closely following on lap 1.
 
Hebert extended his lead as another modified ace, Steven Whiteaker Jr., put the pressure on Tippen to break into the top five.
 
As Hebert got away from the pack, Litton passed Sitton to put claim on the runner-up position. Hebert's pace drew him up to the back of the field, lapping cars on the 13th circuit. Once Hebert started negotiating traffic, Litton closed the gap on the Allgayer Racing No. 9 machine, challenging him by lap 15.
 
Two laps later, Litton pushed his nose to the inside of Hebert's rear wheel. Both drivers run door-to-door on laps 18 & 19, before a caution for a spun car would fly one lap later. On the pace lap, Bud Mullins would pull his smoking No. X car to the pits.
 
More yellows would follow over the next three laps, briefly altering the race tempo. As the racing action picked back up on the restart, the frontrunners dipped towards the bottom groove of the speedway.
 
Litton slides low on Hebert, as the pair raced side-by-side out of turn two. Both drivers leaned on each other as the No.6x & 9 cars became hooked together exiting the corner, after Litton's nose lifted towards the sky. With neither driver giving an inch, both used their throttles to try to free their race cars, as they head down the back straightaway and drifting towards the wall. Hebert would suffer nose damage as Litton would have a flat tire. The caution flag waved and Litton headed to the hot pit area to change tires -Litton would restart 13th.
 
"I did have one of the best seats in the house on seeing what took place between Hebert and Litton. Now this is my opinion, Rob was good and I think Shane was good at the start, then he (Hebert) started pushing. Rob started getting up underneath him, I was watching Rob and knew he had a good car. Shane opened the door and when he did, Rob took advantage of it -I don't blame him, because I would have taken the chance for the lead also. When Rob capitalized on that, he slid up just a little bit. Hebert had pushed and then turned to come back down, Litton was already there and they hit. Both drivers seemed to get aggrevated and turn into each other. I slowed way down after seeing it and tried to start looking for a hole to go through to avoid it. When I spotted one, I went for it and hoped not to get caught up in their ordeal. I never seen what happened with the No. 22* car afterwards though. I hate it for Rob a lot, I like him and we talk all the time and are friends. He (Litton) was having a good run up until everything happen," Tippen said of the incident taking place directly in front of him, while racing in third.
 
Moments after Hebert and Litton's caution, things took a turn for the worse as Derek Perkins of Oakdale, La., would get spun in the middle of turn three & four, as smoke appeared from under his hood. Perkins raced to the other end of the speedway, colliding with Hebert's car at the top of turn one & two. Taking both cars out of contention, tempers heat up as both driver's exit their cars for a face-off. Series' officials and track safety crew rush to the scene as a war of words nearly turns into fisticuffs, with Perkins stating that Hebert came across his nose, terminally crippling the No. 22* car. Both drivers retired with Hebert finishing 16th and Perkins in 17th. Perkins would later be suspended one race for his on-track actions by SUPR. Perkins currently leads the Rookie of the Year chase and stands third overall in series' point standings.
 
"There is history between my and (Shane) Hebert, we have ran modifieds door-to-door and there has always been some little thing with us apparently. I seen him and Rob (Litton) get together, so I told myself, 'I will just go right underneath them both'. About the time I went underneath, Shane just drove over the front of my car. I got a little hot-headed after I seen steam come from under the hood, busting our radiator and I retaliated. I know it wasn't the right thing to do, but I was caught up in the heat of the moment," said Perkins.
 
Perkins continued, "I have to look at it a different way, I will take a different approach from now on, we had a real good car and I felt it was a top 3 finish going. I know I let it get to me and I should have dealt with it later on, away from the track, when things cooled down. We will pick up after this and go to Houston next week. I have never raced there or even seen that track before, but it is a bigger track and I like those. We are ready to move on from here."
 
With virtually the entire frenzied crowd standing, order was restored on the racetrack, as the lineup was being sorted out for green-flag racing to continue. Tippen moved from 3rd-to-first, followed by Sitton, Bubba Mullins, Whiteaker and Ronny Adams for the restart on lap 27. 
 
Tippen seized the opportunity, opening up a four-second advantage on Sitton with four laps remaining. But Allen Murray's flat right rear, coupled with Kellick's spun car, gave Sitton two additional chances to forge a plan to get by Tippen on restarts.
 
Each time Tippen showed too much muscle, pulling Sitton, en route to securing the victory at the quarter-mile oval.
 
"We have been slow towards the early part of the season and to get a win on Memorial Day weekend before we get into the meat of the schedule, means so much. We normally pick things up later in the year and have to battle from behind usually. It was August before we visited Victory Lane last year, so definitely glad we fired off a win early and just hope it doesn't go in the other direction. We know that we have to get it as it comes available, just in case if something does happen, we can be better prepare for it since we have started out good so far this season. I can't thank the people that helps us enough, especially my dad, Troy Tippen. I could not do this without him!" added Tippen.
 
NOTES: Tippen's Mars Race Car is powered by a PTS Racing Engine and sponsored by Troy's Auto Salvage and Metal Recycling, Tippen Racing, Hayco Transport, Smith's Towing, J&J Motorsports, Hoosier Tires and X-Treme Graphics.
 
Tippen has never finished outside the top 10 in (7) SUPR Series' events held at USA Speedway. Before picking up the victory on Friday night, Tippen's best series finish at USA was fourth, coming in March 2011.
 
"On a racetrack like we had here tonight, I wished we would have stayed in double-file restarts, because it would have cleaned the racetrack up in my opinion. It would have made it to where you could have moved around a little bit more. In the heat races, it was good racing. I know you have the flip side of it, having more wrecks on a track of this size with double-file restarts -I understand that point. The way things worked out for me by the end of the race, I was happy to have single-file restarts!" explained Tippen.  
 
The 35-minute feature ended at 12:10 am, was slowed by seven cautions and had thirteen cars on the lead lap.
 
Robbie Stuart of DeRidder, La., was the hard charger of the feature, going from 17th-starting position to finish in seventh.
 
Ronnie Adams of Diana, Tex., has been another strong series performer at USA Speedway, Adams has six out of seven top 10's since SUPR debuted at the quarter-mile track in May 2010. Adams was the series' first victor at USA and reeled off a 2nd-place in September 2011, as well as finishing third last March.
 
Fresh off a same-day trip from Wall 2 Wall Performance Engines to install a powerplant, Robbie Starnes of Dayton, Tex., wasn't able to shake off bad luck, when a faulty oil line sent him to the pits as the first retiree of the race. Starnes slipped a position in the series' standings because if the incident, back to fourth place, trailing Perkins by just six points.       
 
Drivers not making the feature included Jeff Allgayer and Shane Walker.
 
SUPR @ USA Speedway: (1) Allen Tippen, (2) Kevin Sitton, (3) Bubba Mullins, (4) Steven Whiteaker Jr, (5) Ronnie Adams, (6) Jim Bryant, (7) Robbie Stuart, (8) Troy Berdan, (9) Zach McMillan, (10) Rob Litton, (11) Richard Duke Jr, (12) Chris Huckabay, (13) Allen Murray, (14) Tanner Kellick, (15) Chris Patton, (16) Shane Hebert, (17) Derek Perkins, (18) Kyle Cummings, (19) Bud Mullins, (20) Stephen Chevallier, (21) Jody Prince, (22) Robbie Starnes.
 
Heat race winners (among 24 cars): Sitton, Hebert, Litton.
Consolation race winner: Stuart
Provisional starters: Patton, Kellick
 
SUPR Dirt Late Model Points Standings
 
(Top 15 through May 25th)
 
1. Allen Tippen (Minden, LA) - 734
2. Rob Litton (Alexandria, LA) - 682
3. Derek Perkins (Oakdale, LA) - 572
4. Robbie Starnes (Dayton, TX) - 566
5. Jim Bryant (Natchitoches, LA) - 548 
6. Zach McMillan (Gladewater, TX) - 542
7. Bubba Mullins (West Monroe, LA) - 421
8. Chris Holley (Dayton, TX) - 407
9T. B.J. Robinson (Shreveport, LA) - 396
9T. Kevin Sitton (Baytown, TX) - 396
11. Timothy Culp (West Monroe, LA) - 342
12. Chris Patton (Ruston, LA) - 320
13. Jody Prince (Sibley, LA) - 291
14. Chris Huckabay (West Monroe, LA) - 289
15. Robbie Stuart (DeRidder, LA) - 270