ASCoT: Magnolia results 2007-04-21

Wright Rumbles to O'Reilly ASCoT Win at The Mag

COLUMBUS, Miss. (April 21, 2007) -- Three-time and reigning series champion Gary Wright of Hooks, TX, padded his current O'Reilly American Sprint Cars on Tour National point lead by racing to victory lane in Saturday night's 30-lap Boll Weevil Rumble at Magnolia Motor Speedway. Wright chased down early leader Jason Johnson on the 16th round and lapped all the way up to fifth place as he picked off his fourth ASCS National Tour feature win of the year aboard the Wesmar-powered Richwood Construction/Whiteco Commercial Funding No. 9 Maxim.

"This is a really nice place, you can really get around here in a hurry," Wright commented of the ASCS National Tour's first visit to the 3/8-mile clay oval. "There was so much lapped traffic that you really couldn't tell if anybody was close or not so I just had to keep picking 'em off as fast as I could."

While Wright will officially be credited with passing zero cars in his 110th career series win after starting from the pole, "The Texan" actually passed 29 machines including his race-winning pass of Johnson along with eight cars that he lapped once, another eight cars two laps off the pace and one car down three laps along with lapping the only car to drop out of the fast-paced event.

Wright  led the feature field to the green flag with young shoe Brad Bowden
alongside.  But with Wright sticking  to the low side on the opening circuit,
it was third-starter Johnson moving to  the topside of the track exiting turn
two and motoring past Wright exiting turn  four to lead the opening round.
Gunning  for his first ASCS National triumph of the year after nine trips to
National  Tour victory lane in 2006, Johnson set a scorching pace in the early
laps aboard  Lanny Row's Wesmar-powered The Shop Motorsports/Custom Equipment
Design No. 41  Eagle, reaching lapped traffic by the fifth round.

Johnson  sliced through lapped traffic with ease in the early stages, with
seven lapped  cars and a substantial amount of real estate between himself and
Wright by the  eighth lap.  But Wright soon picked  up the pace and began
closing the gap as the midway point  approached.

Wright  had on unobstructed view of Johnson at the lap 15 mark and then
charged past  "The Ragin' Cajun" exiting turn four on the 16th lap to take
command.  Once in front, Wright  wasted little time stretching his lead out as he
continued to put laps on most  of his rivals.

But  just as Wright took the white flag, the race's only caution appeared
when Brodix  Rookie of the Year contender Foster Landon came to a stop on the
front  straightaway with a cut right rear tire, setting up a two-lap dash to the
checkered flag.  Landon had been  running as the sixth and final car on the
lead lap when his tire went down,  limping around for two laps before finally
running out of  steam.

With  four lapped cars separating Wright from Johnson on the restart and a
clear  racetrack in front of him, Wright cruised to the checkered flag in easy
fashion,  with Johnson settling for runner-up honors.

Tenth-starter  Travis Rilat and fourth-row starters Wayne Johnson and Darren
Stewart diced for  the show position much of the way, with Wayne Johnson
making a move past Rilat  following the lap 28 restart to snare third in Mike
Hammers' Wesmar-powered  H&H Enterprises No. 94 Eagle.

Rilat crossed the stripe fourth in the Motor Mike-powered F&J Construction No. 29 Triple X, with Stewart rounding out the top five aboard Bobby Sparks' Ostrich-powered RESM Transport No. 91 Eagle.

Bowden  claimed sixth in his ASCS National Tour debut, with Aaron Berryhill
in  seventh.  Danny Martin, Jr., was  eighth, with Rookie of the Year contender
Andy Shouse and  17th-starter Terry Gray completing the top ten.
Another  Rookie of the Year contender, Canada's Chris Schmelzle, narrowly
missed out on  his first career ASCS National Tour top-ten feature finish by
crossing the  stripe in eleventh.

Current  ASCS Coastal Region point leader and 2002 ASCS National Tour
runner-up Michael  Dupuy advanced the most positions in the feature by climbing from
23rd to twelfth.  Dupuy  was forced pitside in heat race action when his car
jumped out of  gear.

Jason  Johnson, Landon and Wright each scored heat race  victories.
Sixteen-year-old  Kathryne Minter of Bedford, TX, scratched from the "A" Main
due to mechanical  woes, with 22 of the 23 features starters still on track
as the checkered flag  flew.

O'Reilly ASCoT Magnolia Motor Speedway Boll Weevil Rumble Results:

Heat Races

Brodix Heat  One (8 Laps):  1. 41-Jason Johnson,  2. 27-Andy Shouse, 3.
94-Wayne Johnson, 4. 29-Travis Rilat, 5. 57c-Chris  Schmelzle, 6. 10-Terry Gray, 7.
k9-Robert Casada, 8. 86-Buster  Dickerson.

Wesmar-Shaver Heat Two (8 Laps): 1. 11F-Foster Landon, 2. 97-Aaron Berryhill, 3. 00-Danny Martin, Jr., 4. 64J-Johnny Miller, 5. 93-Chris Sweeney, 6. 1h-Tommy Hall, 7. 2-Todd Fayard, 8. 94c-Stephen Chevallier.

Brodix Heat  Three (8 Laps):  1. 9-Gary Wright,  2. 15-Brad Bowden, 3.
91-Darren Stewart, 4. 01-Shane Morgan, 5. 7-Michael  Herrington, 6. 09-Timmy Thrash,
7. 13m-Kathryne Minter, 8. 12-Michael  Dupuy.

Pole Dash  (Top 6 in Passing Points from Heat Races; Finishing Order
Determines Front Three  Rows of "A" Main):

Pole Dash (5  Laps):  1. 9-Gary Wright, 2. 15-Brad  Bowden, 3. 41-Jason
Johnson, 4. 97-Aaron Berryhill, 5. 11F-Foster Landon, 6.  00-Danny Martin, Jr.

O'Reilly ASCoT Magnolia Motor Speedway Boll Weevil Rumble "A" Main Event:

"A"  Feature (30 Laps):  1. 9-Gary  Wright, 2. 41-Jason Johnson, 3. 94-Wayne
Johnson, 4. 29-Travis Rilat, 5.  91-Darren Stewart, 6. 15-Brad Bowden, 7.
97-Aaron Berryhill, 8. 00-Danny Martin,  Jr., 9. 27-Andy Shouse, 10. 10-Terry
Gray, 11. 57c-Chris Schmelzle, 12.  12-Michael Dupuy, 13. 64J-Johnny Miller, 14.
7-Michael Herrington, 15. 01-Shane  Morgan, 16. k9-Robert Casada, 17.
86-Buster Dickerson, 18. 93-Chris Sweeney, 19.  09-Timmy Thrash, 20. 1h-Tommy Hall,
21. 2-Todd Fayard, 22. 94c-Stephen  Chevallier, 23. 11F-Foster Landon, 24.
13m-Kathryne  Minter.

Lap Leaders: Jason Johnson 1-15, Gary Wright 16-30.

O'Reilly  ASCoT Points (Top Fifteen):  1. Gary  Wright 877, 2. Wayne Johnson
828, 3. Darren Stewart 781, 4. Travis Rilat 777, 5.  Jason Johnson 759, 6.
Foster Landon 663, 7. Chuck Swenson 654, 8. Andy Shouse  628, 9. Johnny Miller
604, 10. Aaron Berryhill 558, 11. Chris Schmelzle 552, 12.  Garry Lee Maier 520,
13. Danny Jennings 492, 14. Nick Smith 466, 15. Kevin Ramey  453.
ASCS  Coastal Region Points (Top Ten):  1.  Michael Dupuy 568, 2. (tie)
Robert Casada and Michael Herrington 534, 4. Chris  Sweeney 516, 5. Todd Fayard
512, 6. Shane Morgan 502, 7. Timmy Thrash 494, 8.  Lane Whittington 335, 9.
Michael Miller 326, 10. Hunter Phillips  315.

-credit: ascs