StormPay.com Dirt Late Model Series News Release:  Contact – ROBY HELM – (865) 207-4157

September 14, 2007

THE ANGIE ASSASSIN BLAIR MAKES SECOND COLUMBUS SPEEDWAY STORMPAY.COM DLMS HIT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

                COLUMBUS, MS – Jay Blair of Angie, LA drove the All-Star Graphics Mastersbilt to a wire-to-wire win on Friday night in the StormPay.com Dirt Late Model Series Holley Carburetors 40 Presented By NeSmith Chevrolet at Columbus Speedway.  It was the second “hit” for the “Angie Assassin” at the “Baddest Bullring In The South.”

                It was the second StormPay.com Dirt Late Model Series win of the season for Blair at Columbus Speedway, as he also won the Winter Classic back in January.  Blair was quick to express his fondness of the ¼-mile high-banked clay oval in victory lane.

                “This is without a doubt my favorite race track,” Blair said.  “We changed our set up from what we had in January, and it worked great tonight.  I had a close call with a lapped car, and got hit in the right-rear pretty hard.  I was worried about it affecting the handling, but everything was O.K.”

                Frank Ingram of Woodstock, GA finished second in the Universal Concrete Rocket, as he did in January.  Ingram, who was tied with the defending StormPay.com DLMS National Champion David Gentry of Lewisburg, TN coming into the race, took a ten point lead in the title chase.

                Anthony Rushing of Kosciusko, MS took the third spot in the American Race Tires Rocket, and Derrick Rainey of Powder Springs, GA was fourth in the Hays Racing/Barto Enterprises Warrior.  Jeff Smith of Rocky Face, GA finished fifth in the AllSouth Racing Products Warrior, and Mike Boland of Cuba, AL drove the Ware Construction Trak-Star to the sixth spot.

                Gentry finished seventh in the Dixon Plumbing Mastersbilt, and was the fast-qualifier among the 44 entrants.  Gentry toured Columbus Speedway in 14.590 seconds to earn the pole position for the race.

                Jeff Fields of Aragon, GA was eighth in the Summerville Junkyard Mastersbilt, and Marcus Minga of Shannon, MS finished ninth in the B&M Salvage Rayburn.  Chris Tays of Corinth, MS rounded out the top ten in the Ben Coley Trucking Rocket.

                There are now just 68 points separating the top four drivers in the StormPay.com Dirt Late Model Series National point standings.  Ingram has the points lead with 1,496 points, followed by Gentry with 1,486 points in the second spot, Rainey in third with 1,436 points, and Blair with 1,428 points in the fourth position.

                Mark Tice of Hollandale, MS started the TNT Graphix Mastersbilt in the 19th spot and finished 13th to earn the NeSmith Chevrolet Hard Charger of the Race Award.  Chip Brindle of Chatsworth, GA finished 14th in the CSC Trailer Repair GRT to take the Rookie of the Race Award.

                Polesitter Gentry and outside front row starter Blair brought the 25-car field down for the green flag, and raced side-by-side into the first turn.  That’s as close as anyone got to Blair all night, as he took the lead coming off the second turn on the high side.  Gentry tucked in behind Blair followed by Ingram, Rainey, and Rushing.

                The battle for second went three-wide on lap two with Rainey going to the bottom of the track, Gentry in the middle, and Ingram on the outside.  Ingram got a run on the outside of Gentry on lap three to take the second spot, and Rainey passed Gentry on the inside in turn two for third on lap four.

                Rushing and Boland got by Gentry on lap five to move into the top five, and by lap eight, Rushing stepped to the outside to battle Rainey for the third spot, and made the pass for the position on lap nine.

                Blair began lapping cars on lap 12, and as he went under Jim Till of Greenville, AL in the Dafor Heavy Timber Fabricators Trak-Star coming off the fourth turn, the two cars made contact.  Both drivers regained control of their respective race cars, and continued without incident. 

The first caution flag came out on lap 16 when J.J. Nye of Ballground, GA spun his C&C Grading and Hauling Rocket in turn two.  Blair led Ingram, Rainey, Rushing, Boland, Gentry, Fields, Stephen Brantley of Monroeville, AL in the Airport Sports Center Rocket, Smith, and Frankie Beard of Hartwell, GA in the Freeman Plumbing Mastersbilt down for the restart.

The second and final caution flag of the race came out on lap 17 when Till spun coming off the fourth turn.  When the field went back to green, Blair pulled away from Ingram, but there was plenty of action behind the leaders for position beginning with Rainey getting by Rushing for the third spot.

Fields got around Gentry for the sixth spot on lap 19, and by the halfway point, Rushing and Boland were battling for the fourth spot. Boland dove inside Rushing in turn four on lap 20 to take fourth, but Rushing came back on lap 21 to retake the spot with an outside move coming off the second turn.

Blair caught the lapped traffic again on lap 24, and Ingram used the opportunity to close in on the leader.  Blair was able to quickly slip through the traffic, putting a couple of lapped cars between himself and Ingram.

Smith went to the high side of the track on lap 25, and a three-car battle for the sixth spot developed among Fields, Gentry, and Smith.  Rushing also went to the high side of the track and passed Rainey for the third spot coming off the second turn on lap 28.

Smith climbed into the top five when he passed Fields and Gentry for the sixth spot on lap 30, and then got around Boland to take the fifth position on lap 37.  Blair was able to pull away in the late laps of the race went Ingram got caught in lapped traffic.

The StormPay.com Dirt Late Model Speedway returns to action at Columbus Speedway on Saturday night for the $2,500-to-win Trak-Star Race Cars 40 Presented By NeSmith Chevrolet.

OFFICIAL RESULTS OF ROUND 17 AT COLUMBUS SPEEDWAY IN COLUMBUS, MS ON 9/14/07:

POS       STRT     CAR #    DRIVER                                HOMETOWN                      LAPS     $ WON 
1.             2              2x            Jay Blair                               Angie, LA                             40           $2,500
2.             4              F9           Frank Ingram                      Woodstock, GA                    40           $1,250
3.             5              70-1/2    Anthony Rushing                Kosciusko, MS                    40           $850
4.             3              87           Derrick Rainey                   Powder Springs, GA           40           $700
5.             7              00           Jeff Smith                             Rocky Face, GA                   40           $650
6.             8              4              Mike Boland                         Cuba, AL                               40           $550
7.             1              56           David Gentry                        Lewisburg, TN                     40           $600
8.             6              16           Jeff Fields                             Aragon, GA                          40           $450
9.             9              19           Marcus Minga                     Shannon, MS                        40           $375
10.          12           8              Chris Tays                            Corinth, MS                         40           $350
11.          10           02           Stephen Brantley                Monroeville, AL                   40           $300
12.          17           F1           Keith Freeman                     Commerce, GA                    40           $280
13.          19           77t          Mark Tice                             Hollandale, MS                    40           $260
14.          15           38c         Chip Brindle (R)  Chatsworth, GA                   40           $250
15.          20           G33        Greg Dedwylder                   Vossburg, MS                      40           $240
16.          18           34           Brandon Keeton                   Toomsuba, MS                     39           $220
17.          16           10           Matthew Turner                  Dawsonville, GA                  39           $200
18.          11           F21         Frankie Beard                     Hartwell, GA                        39           $200
19.          14           00h         Chris Hoomes                      Brenton, AL                         39           $200
20.          21           m6          Marty Hardy                         Terry, MS                             38           $200
21.          23           302         Robert Stutts (R) Murfreesboro, TN               38           $200
22.          24           44t          Jim Till (R)                           Greenville, AL                     38           $200
23.          25           21           Jamie Pickard                     Columbus, MS                     30           $200
24.          22           55           J.J. Nye                                 Ballground, GA                   15           $200
25.          13           58           Larry Boutwell                    Baker, FL                             10           $200

ENTRIES:  44
FAST QUALIFIER:  Gentry, 14.590 Seconds
PROVISIONALS:  Stutts and Till
TRACK PROVISIONAL:  Pickard
LEAD CHANGES:  None
LAP LEADER:  Blair, 1-40
NeSMITH CHEVROLET HARD CHARGER:  Tice (started 19th and finished 13th)
ROOKIE OF THE RACE:  Brindle
CAUTIONS:  2

QUALIFYING (Top 10 Transfer To Main Event):

HEAT RACES (12 Laps – Top 4 Transfer To Main Event):

                1ST HEAT:  1. Beard; 2. Hoomes; 3. Freeman; 4. Dedwylder; 5. Mi. Page; 6. Till (R); 7. Kelley; 8. M. Stokes; 9. Ma. Page; 10. Shaw; 11. Washington; 12. J. Stokes DNS.

                2ND HEAT:  1. Tays; 2. Brindle (R); 3. Keeton; 4. Hardy; 5. Mosley (R); 6. Cline; 7. Hoge; 8. Allen; 9. Derryberry; 10. Ponds; 11. Shelton.

                3RD HEAT:  1. Boutwell; 2. Turner; 3. Tice; 4. Nye; 5. Pickard; 6. Flowers; 7. Godsey; 8. Stutts (R); 9. Reed; 10. Guess; 11. Leal.

STORMPAY.COM DIRT LATE MODEL SERIES NATIONAL POINT STANDINGS THROUGH 9/14/07:

1. F9 Frank Ingram – 1496

2. 56 David Gentry – 1486

3. 87 Derrick Rainey – 1436

4. 2x Jay Blair – 1428

5. 38c Chip Brindle (R) – 1314

6. 16 Jeff Fields – 1268

7. 8 Chris Tays – 1252

8. 302 Robert Stutts (R) – 1190

9. 10 Matthew Turner – 1126

10. 44t Jim Till (R) – 1022

11. 21 Rusty Hoge – 830

12. 06 Bill Flowers – 694

13. 44c Curtis Cline – 654

14. 22 William Thomas – 572

15. 44 Shanon Buckingham – 566

16. 1 Johnny Stokes – 450

17. 21x Kody Barber – 416

18. 58 Larry Boutwell – 406

19. 90 Jimmy Kay – 400

20. 75 Carnell Parker III - 396

 R – Denotes Rookie of the Year Candidate

Open Wheel Modified Feature
FINISHING POSITION CAR #/DRIVER NAME
1ST X TRINITY WYERS
2ND 77 RANDOL HARLOW
3RD 59 DAVID GRIFFIN
4TH 7 TODD GRAY
5TH 2 LEE RAY
6TH 35 TONY GRAY
7TH CB1 ERIC HUGHES
8TH 2S JACOB STAPP
9TH 77 STEVE SMITH
10TH 29 KALI DELOACH
11TH 2X JEREMY ROBERTSON
12TH 31 BLAKE KOENIGSBERGER
13TH 04 RODNEY ETHERIDGE
14TH 97 HAROLD TRIMM
15TH 25 JAY BURCHFIELD

Late Model Stock Feature
FINISHING POSITION CAR #/DRIVER NAME
1ST 7 STACY TYLER
2ND 12 TIM DAVIS
3RD 8 JACKSON MCCOOL
4TH 60 JERRY LUCAS
5TH 7M CHAD MCCOOL
6TH 33C ERIC COOLEY
DQ 27 MIKE BARTON
DQ 50 ALLEN SIMMONS
DQ 7 JEREMY GLASGOW

Street Stock Feature
FINISHING POSITION CAR #/DRIVER NAME
1ST 1 BEN WILLIAMS
2ND K24 TONY SILVESTRI
3RD 69 JEREMY ROBERTSON
4TH 11 JAMIE SUDDUTH
5TH 81 DUSTY ROBERTSON
6TH 47 DANNY GABLE
7TH Q32 QUITERIO AREVALOS
8TH 22 JOHN BEARD
9TH KB9 SCOTT THRASH
10TH 3 BRENT MITCHELL
11TH 56 CLIF SWEDENGERG
12TH 99 ROBBY TILLEY
DNS 3S MARVIN BEARD