Charlotte LMS results 2004-04-03

Veteran Ricky Elliott Mows Down the Competition, Wins Ferris 100 presented by DynoMax at The Dirt Track

CONCORD, N.C. (April 3, 2004) - Ricky Elliott mowed down the competition Saturday night as the Seaford, Del., driver scored a convincing victory in the Ferris 100 presented by DynoMax at The Dirt Track @ Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Elliott has been competing in the big-block DIRT modifieds for nearly 15 years, but the $10,000 triumph was his first victory in an Advance Auto Parts Modified Super DIRT Series event.

"This is a brand new team and we've only been out four times this year," Elliott said. "The motor was just flawless, but we lost a cylinder with two to go and I'm like, oh my God, it's going to get away from us.

"This is just great-here in Charlotte in front of all these fans," an emotional Elliott continued. "I'm tickled to death."

Steve Paine, who started from the pole, was able to close on Elliott at times in lapped traffic, but the Waterloo, N.Y., driver had to settle for the $7,000 runner-up prize. Sixth-starting Matt Sheppard finished third.

Kenny Tremont charged forward from the 18th-starting spot to finish fourth with Brett Hearn rounding out the top five in the 33-car field.

Paine and Tim McCreadie led the early laps as Elliott moved up from the eight-starting spot. Elliott was second after only 10 trips around the four-tenths-mile clay oval and he drove around McCreadie on lap 14 to take command. Once in front, Elliott sliced through traffic with precision and was 3.87 seconds ahead of Paine at the checkered flag.

Paine, Elliott, Danny Johnson, Billy Decker and Andy Bachetti topped the eight-lap heat races for the big-block modifieds while Jimmy Chester and Chris Shultz posted easy victories in the two consolation races.

Gary Tompkins, winner of the series season opener one week earlier in Hagerstown, Md., topped the 54-car field in time trials with a track record lap of 15.317 seconds.

The Charlotte Pro Stock Challenge turned into a brother act as Jamie McGannon held off older brother Bob McGannon to win the 20-lap feature for the full-bodied stock cars. Pete Gulick was third in the 28-car field with Steve Miller and Ron Morin next under the checkered flag.

Glenn Donnelly, founder and president of DIRT Motorsports, was inducted into The Dirt Track Walk of Fame during pre-race ceremonies. Patterned after the Court of Legends at Lowe's Motor Speedway, The Dirt Track Walk of Fame recognizes outstanding contributions to short-track racing.

The Dirt Track @ Lowe's Motor Speedway will return to action May 28-29 with the Southern Showdown Championship featuring the late model stock cars of the O'Reilly Southern All Star Racing Series. Reserved seats can be obtained by calling 1-800-455-FANS or online at www.lowesmotorspeedway.com.

The results:

Qualifications: 1. Gary Tomkins, 15.317; 2. Tim Fuller, 15.658; 3. Steve Paine, 15.685; 4. Jack Johnson, 15.716; 5. Danny Johnson, 15.721; 6. Matt Sheppard, 15.725; 7. Tim McCreadie, 15.740; 8. Steve Poirier, 15.748; 9. Ricky Elliott, 15.753; 10. Justin Haers, 15.753; 11. Billy Decker, 15.763; 12. Andy Bachetti, 15.788; 13. Dale Planck, 15.796; 14. Brian Swartzlander, 15.797; 15. Vic Coffey, 15.813; 16. Jerry Higbie, 15.818; 17. Bob McCreadie, 15.873; 18. Chris Shultz, 15.928; 19. Chad Brachmann, 15.931; 20. Carl Edwards, 15.937; 21. Jimmy Horton, 15.979; 22. Brett Hearn, 15.987; 23. Ryan Phelps, 16.014; 24. Pat Ward, 16.021; 25. Alan Johnson, 16.021; 26. Mike Lles, 16.033; 27. Bobby Varin, 16.070; 28. Craig Mullins, 16.122; 29. Chuck Bower, 16.142; 30. Vince Vitale, 16.149; 31. Kevin Bolland, 16.241; 32. Brain Berger, 16.267; 33. Kenny Tremont Jr., 16.295; 34. Pete Bicknell, 16.325; 35. Brian Weaver, 16.356; 36. Brian Malcolm, 16.384; 37. Mike Adderley, 16.399; 38. Gary Gallerie Jr., 16.409; 39. Butch Tittle, 16.409; 40. Laurent Ladouceur, 16.419; 41. Richie Tobias Jr., 16.434; 42. Jeremie Corcoran, 16.444; 43. Mark Lowe, 16.466; 44. Mike Schene, 16.531; 45. Ron Cartwright, 16.558; 46. Frank Hoard, 16.572; 47. Don Hallowell, 16.747; 48. Jimmy Chester, 16.749; 49. Ray Bliss, 16.820; 50. Dave Rauscher, 17.146; 51. Brian Swarthout, 17.212; 52. Donnie Wetmore, 17.322; 53. Zack Aubertine, 18.387; 54. Ryan Bartlett, 19.715.

First Big-Block Modified Heat (8 laps): 1. Steve Paine, 2. Dale Planck, 3. Steve Poirier, 4. Kenny Tremont Jr., 5. Chris Shultz, 6. Ryan Phelps, 7. Craig Mullins, 8. Gary Gallerie Jr., 9. Mark Lowe, 10. Ray Bliss.

Second Big-Block Modified Heat (8 laps): 1. Ricky Elliott, 2. Jack Johnson, 3. Brian Swartzlander, 4. Pat Ward, 5. Chard Brachmann, 6. Chuck Bower, 7. Butch Tittle, 8. Ron Cartwright, 9. Mike Schane, 10. Dave Rauscher.

Third Big-Block Modified Heat (8 laps): 1. Danny Johnson, 2. Justin Haers, 3. Vic Coffey, 4. Alan Johnson, 5. Vince Vitale, 6. Carl Edwards, 7. Ryan Bartlett, 8. Frank Hoard.

Fourth Big-Block Modified Heat (8 laps): 1. Billy Decker, 2. Matt Sheppard, 3. Jerry Higbie, 4. Jimmy Horton, 5. Mike Lles, 6. Kevin Boland, 7. Don Hallowell, 8. Brian Malcolm, 9. Richie Tobias Jr., 10. Don Wetmore.

Fifth Big-Block Modified Heat (8 laps): 1. Andy Bachetti, 2. Tim McCreadie, 3. Brett Hearn, 4. Brian Berger, 5. Jimmy Chester, 6. Jeremie Corcoran, 7. Zach Aubertine.

First Big-Block Modified Consolation (8 laps): 1. Chris Shultz, 2. Vince Vitale, 3, Chad Brachmann, 4. Ryan Phelps, 5. Craig Mullins, 6. Chuck Bower, 7. Ryan Bartlett, 8. Butch Tittle, 9. Gary Gallerie Jr., 10. Ron Cartwright, 11. Mike Schane, 12. Mark Lowe, 13. Ray Bliss.

Second Big-Block Modified Consolation (8 laps): 1. Jimmy Chester, 2. Don Hallowell, 3. Brian Malcolm, 4. Richie Tobias Jr., 5. Kevin Bolland, 6. Frank Hoard, 7. Carl Edwards, 8. Zack Aubertine, 9. Dave Rauscher, 10. Mike Lles, 11. Donnie Wetmore.

Big-Block Modified Non-Qualifiers (15 laps): 1. Ryan Phelps, 2. Richie Tobias Jr. 3. Gary Gallerie Jr., 4. Butch Tittle, 5. Ryan Bartlett, 6. Mark Lowe, 7. Frank Hoard, 8. Craig Mullins, 9. Mike Schane, 10. Kevin Bolland, 11. Chuck Bower, 12. Dave Rauscher, 13. Ray Bliss, 14. Zack Aubertine, 15. Ron Cartwright.

Charlotte Pro Stock Challenge (20 laps): 1. Jamie McGannon, 2. Bob McGannon, 3. Pete Gulick, 4. Steve Miller, 5. Ron Morin, 6. Tom Kuck, 7. Chad Homan, 8. Roger Chrysler, 9. Louis Jackson, 10. Todd Buskirk, 11. Pete Stefanski, 12. Beamer Guzzardi, 13. Jody Swamp, 14. Casey Swamp, 15. Mike Ward, 16. P.J. Peters, 17. Bill Pascual, 18. Allan Peters, 19. Pat Zimmer, 20. Matt Smith, 21. Joe Santoro, 22. Roy Delomier, 23. Patrick Hobbs, 24, Phil Retter, 25. Dan Mayer, 26. Bob Waters Jr., 27. Fred Dennis, 28. Allan Cheney III.

Ferris 100 presented by DynoMax (100 laps): 1. Ricky Elliott, 2. Steve Paine, 3. Matt Sheppard, 4. Kenny Tremont, Jr., 5. Brett Hearn, 6. Vic Coffey, 7. Billy Decker, 8. Gary Tomkins, 9. Tim McCreadie, 10. Jerry Higbie, 11. Tim Fuller, 12. Richie Tobias Jr., 13. Ryan Phelps, 14. Butch Tittle, 15. Pat Ward, 16. Jimmy Chester, 17. Alan Johnson, 18. Andy Bachetti, 19. Chad Brachmann, 20. Brian Swartzlander, 21. Danny Johnson, 22. Vince Vitale, 23. Chris Shultz, 24. Dale Planck, 25. Brian Berger, 26. Jack Johnson, 27. Don Hallowell, 28. Brian Malcolm, 29. Steve Poirier, 30. Jimmy Horton, 31. Justin Haers, 32. Bobby Varin, 33. Chuck Bower.

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