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Boen Rocks at Belleville
By Randy Fisher
BELLEVILLE , Kan. (Sept. 2, 2007) – When a driver is hooked up, they look like they are running on rails around the track. Sunday for the second time in three years, Kelly Boen was hooked up and shot around the top of the famed half-mile Belleville High Banks to complete a Labor Day weekend sweep in the O’Reilly NCRA Late Model Series, presented by ICM/Ethanol.
“The engine in that car hardly ran in hot laps and it didn’t run that much better in the heat race,” Boen said, “These guys worked on it, worked on it, worked on it. They changed everything but the engine. And they got it pretty good.”
To say his crew “got it pretty good” was the understatement of the night. The Henderson , Colo. , driver started the feature on the pole and when the green came out, shot off like the Rocket Chassis he pilots.
At the end of the first lap, he was already a half-straightaway in front of second place. Boen started lapping slower cars on the fourth lap. By lap 10, he was a half-lap in front of second place. With 20 caution-free laps, Boen lapped everyone but John Anderson for his second win of the weekend, having taken the checker the night before at 81 Speedway .
“When you start up front you don’t want to see any yellows and we didn’t get any,” he said. “It did not hurt my feelings because we’ve lost a lot of races this year because of yellow flags towards the end of the race. It felt good just to run 20 laps and be done with it.”
One driver who would have loved to see a caution was Anderson, who finished second after starting 20th after breaking the A-frame in the heat.
“We started 20th with no cautions and only 20 laps,” he said. “That’s a lot of ground to make up.”
Anderson was up to sixth by lap four and moved into second just four laps later. But without a caution, he couldn’t get any closer to the leader.
“A caution would have been nice just to see if we had anything for him,” he said. “Not saying I would have won, but it would have been fun.”
Former series champion Kyle Berck also had problems in his heat race. He started 17th in the feature but worked his way up to finish third.
“When you come from the back to third up here, to me that’s like a win,” he said. “But when Kelly laps you, it takes the thunder back out of it.”
Mike Wiarda, John Kuchar and Jimmy Segraves rounded out the top five. It was the second straight top-five finish for Segraves, who leads in the rookie of the year standings and is sixth in points overall.
For Boen, it was his seventh win of the season, which ties a record he set in 2005.
“The car drove great. It just didn’t run quite as well as some of the other cars I’ve had here before,” he said of his 28th career NCRA win, also a series record.
Boen put on a similar performance in 2005 when he lapped everybody but runner-up Al Purkey.
“I enjoy winning races and I enjoy racing for NCRA. Nights like tonight are pretty special to me,” he said. “People come around and we leave the car out, let them look at it, sit in it. We enjoy having the people over just as much as they enjoy being here.”
Heat #1:
1. Jimmy Segraves, Valley Center , Kan. ; 2. Delbert Smith, Wichita , Kan. ; 3. Ronnie Warman, Wichita , Kan. ; 4. Steve Foster, Abilene , Kan. ; 5. Ryan Rairden, Brookville , Kan. ; 6. Justin Kinderknecht, Salina , Kan. ; 7. Greg Larson, Plattsmouth , Neb. ; 8. Bill Koons, Omaha , Neb. ; 9. Wylan Petrie, Solomon , Kan.
Heat #2:
1. Bo Egge, Kearney , Neb. ; 2. Mike Wiarda, Aurora , Neb. ; 3. John Kuchar, Henderson , Colo. ; 4. Kelly Dunn, Salina , Kan. ; 5. Mike Danburg, Council Bluffs , Iowa ; 6. Kyle Berck, Marquette , Neb. ; 7. John Anderson, Omaha , Neb. ; 8. Earl Kinderknecht, Salina , Kan.
Heat #3:
1. Kelly Boen, Henderson , Colo. ; 2. Jim Beaman, Littleton , Colo. ; 3. Ted Martin, Bennington , Kan. ; 4. Brian Kenkel, Elkhorn , Neb. ; 5. Bryant Goldsmith, Corning , Iowa ; 6. David Brack, Great Bend , Kan. ; 7. Jason Schobinger, Wiggins, Colo. ; 8. Bill Koons Jr., Omaha , Neb.
Feature:
1. Kelly Boen, 2. John Anderson, 3. Kyle Berck, 4. Mike Wiarda, 5. John Kuchar, 6. Jimmy Segraves, 7. Earl Kinderknecht, 8. Bryant Goldsmith, 9. Jim Beaman, 10. Ryan Rairden, 11. Ronnie Warman, 12. Ted Martin, 13. Brian Kenkel, 14. Bill Koons, 15. Bo Egge, 16. Wylan Petrie, 17. Jason Schobinger, 18. Mike Danburg, 19. Delbert Smith, 20. Steve Foster, 21. Justin Kinderknecht, 22. David Brack, 23. Bill Koons Jr., 24. Greg Larson.
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