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Kraig Kinser Takes Hoosier Fall Classic Win ; Wilson Narrowly Edges Smith for Championship
LAWRENCEBURG, IN (9-15-07) – Drama! That was the one word to best
describe the 2007 O’Reilly All Star Circuit of Champions season finale.
There could not have been more drama if it had been scripted. Greg
Wilson and Danny Smith entered the pits in a tie for the $50,000 points
championship as Smith cut Wilson’s three point lead to zero on the
preliminary night. Who would walk away with the top honors? Would Wilson
repeat and defend his 2006 title? Would the sentimental favorite Smith
get the first elusive series title of his storied career?
As Wilson started the A-main event from the front row with a two point
deficit due to heat race points earlier in the evening, it looked as
though he would be a lock to win the title over 10^th place starting
Smith. An early spin by Smith in turn two all but sealed his fate as
Wilson lead the race early on, but then Wilson nearly snatched defeat
from the jaws of victory as his nose wing got knocked loose and the car
would not turn. He dropped several spots as Smith continued to climb.
The two met in the middle to settle the dispute. Smith fought for
position after position until there was only one car between him and
Wilson when he ran out of laps in the 50 lap event. All Wilson could do
was hold on and hope that Smith would not get to him in time. He did not
and Wilson pulled off the championship by just two points over the
veteran Smith. The two then made one victory lap side by side and parked
on the front stretch, exited their cars, and congratulated each other
with a hug and a hand shake.
“Its going to take a while for this to sink in,” said Wilson. “The way
the race unfolded was frustrating behind the wheel. I was leading the
race and saw Danny spin in the infield and thought – alright just keep
on it and try to win the thing but we knocked the nose wing off and
struggled the rest of the way through.” He continued to say, “Danny is a
helluva racer, especially on a short track like this, and you know he’s
going to be coming back up through there. I was nervous, but I had my
hands full and had to concentrate on running my own race and we got a
little bit lucky there.”
Danny Smith won the 2007 Owner Points due to the incident at Waynesfield
Motorports Park during Ohio Sprint Speedweek. Wilson crashed in his heat
race and was forced to run a team car (the #m20) during the A-main. That
allowed him to maintain his driver points, but the #w20 car was given
B-main points only. In the end, Wilson and Smith will split the first
and second place money down the middle as Wilson’s car owner Verl
Warnimont finished second in owner points.
“We had a pretty good year,” said Smith. “It’s disappointing for my fans
and my sponsors and everybody who works on this thing for us to come up
just two points short. I learned over the last several years that things
happen for a reason. Sometimes you don’t know why, but you just go on
down the road. I’m really proud of all my guys. We won the Owner Points
so Greg and I will split the money. He isn’t going to take all of it.
I’m going to get a little bit of it.”
Wilson was challenged early by front row starting Brian Paulus, who
looked to be the car to beat as he held off Brandon Martin and Kraig
Kinser and eventually drove around Wilson. Then disaster struck as his
rear end broke going into turn one ending his night. The lead was handed
back over to Wilson on the restart. Chad Blonde had been putting on a
show coming from mid-pack and driving toward the front like a man
possessed and got past Martin and trailed Wilson and Kinser.
After the restart, Kinser took off and bolted into the lead as Wilson’s
backward slide began. Then Blonde picked him off and chased Kinser
through heavy traffic as the two thrilled the large crowd. Kinser was
content on the low side as Blonde screamed around the top catching
Kinser off guard. He passed him for the lead, but Kinser’s elbows came
up and he got the lead back. The two exchanged the lead several times
over the second half of the race before the final caution flew. Kinser
was leading over Blonde, Martin, Dale Blaney, and Kelly Kinser. At that
time you could see Blonde had a broken front end which then folded under
as the cars circled the track under caution. He was done for the night.
This gave Kinser a clear track to the checkered flag as Martin would
finish second and Blaney third.
“Chad was racing me hard. I’m not sure what happened to him, but he woke
me up there,” said Kinser from victory lane. “I started taking it easy
there around the bottom and he just blew right by me. I was running hard
to get back to him. I lost my brakes there at the end and moved to the
top and the track was real good up there.” Kinser continued, “The Fall
Classic goes way back with the Kinser family and to get my name up there
with some of the great drivers of Southern Indiana is just awesome.”
Blonde and Blaney made the A-main the hard way as they both flipped in
their heat races. (Blonde won the B-main and Blaney finished second).
Kelly Kinser, who also transferred through the B-main, would finish
fourth in the main event. This was Kelly’s final race as he announced
his retirement prior to the event adding more drama to the night.
Rounding out the top five was Dean Jacobs. His finish vaulted him into
the final Top 10 standings in championship points over 8th place
finishing Bill Rose to take the final spot.
In addition to everything else going on in the pits and on the track,
Bert and Brigitte Emick were on hand for the weekend as the event Grand
Marshals and were honored with a plaque prior to the event. The large
crowd cheered as they were given recognition for creating such a great
racing series and building it into something special over the years
prior to their retirement after the 2001 season and for their service
and dedication to Lawrenceburg Speedway and the Hoosier Fall Classic.
The All Star staff, drivers, and fans wish them the very best in their
retirement.
The All Star points season has concluded for 2007, but one more
sanctioned event will be run as a co-sanction with the Midwest All Star
Series on October 5^th at Morgan County Speedway in Jacksonville, IL.
This event will mark the end of the 2007 All Star racing season for both
series.
For more information visit www.allstarsprint.com
or www.midwestallstarseries.com
*Lawrenceburg Speedway - 9-15-07 - O'Reilly All Star Circuit of Champions*
Mettech Qualifying
1. 11K-Kraig Kinser, 10.217; 2. 71M-Paul May, 10.257; 3. 11M-Brandon
Martin, 10.272; 4. 5B-Chad Blonde, 10.318; 5. 6-Bill Rose, 10.348; 6.
2-Dale Blaney, 10.360; 7. 28-Brian Paulus, 10.361; 8. W20-Greg Wilson,
10.371; 9. 4K-Kelly Kinser, 10.419; 10. 75-Jesse Hockett, 10.478; 11.
4N-Neil Shepherd, 10.498; 12. 11B-Brock Mayes, 10.502; 13. 4-Danny
Smith, 10.504; 14. 92-Jimmy Stinson, 10.516; 15. 4B-Tom Busch, 10.532;
16. 56R-Ryan Myers, 10.573; 17. 7K-Dean Jacobs, 10.595; 18. O0-Nick
Nabor, 10.631; 19. 7M-Geoff Dodge, 10.769; 20. 22-Wayne Mcpeek, 10.776;
21. 6K-Todd Kane, 10.792; 22. 33S-Keith Baxter, 10.805; 23. 34-Luke
Hall, 10.824; 24. 54-Matt Westfall, 10.841; 25. 5J-Joss Moffat, 10.952;
26. 9S-Brad Stevens, 10.966; 27. 10-Shannon Jodrey, 10.969; 28. 9-Kent
Wolters, 11.012; 29. 48-Ty Deckard, 11.073; 30. 95-Hud Horton, 11.075;
31. 6C-Chris Nabor, 11.103; 32. 17W-Scotty Williams, 11.223; 33. 4M-John
Memmer, 11.239; 34. 16-Lee Stark, 11.278; 35. 34M-Arin Mcintosh, 11.288;
36. 23K-Kyle Simon, 11.386; 37. 8H-Mike Miller, 11.439; 38. 59-Kirk
Jeffries, 11.466; 39. 22T-Miranda Throckmorton, 11.555; 40. 87-Lance
Grimes, 11.790; 41. 2H-Dallas Hewitt, 12.236; 42. 72J-Johnny Johnson,
12.326; 43. 20E-Brian Ellenberger, (NT)
Outerwears Heat Race 1
1. 4-Danny Smith; 2. 6K-Todd Kane; 3. 7K-Dean Jacobs; 4. 11K-Kraig
Kinser; 5. 6-Bill Rose; 6. 4K-Kelly Kinser; 7. 8H-Mike Miller; 8.
4M-John Memmer; 9. 5J-Joss Moffat; 10. 2H-Dallas Hewitt; 11. 48-Ty Deckard;
Hoosier Racing Tire Heat Race 2
1. 75-Jesse Hockett; 2. 92-Jimmy Stinson; 3. O0-Nick Nabor; 4. 71M-Paul
May; 5. 59-Kirk Jeffries; 6. 9S-Brad Stevens; 7. 95-Hud Horton; 8.
33S-Keith Baxter; 9. 2-Dale Blaney; 10. 72J-Johnny Johnson; 11. 16-Lee
Stark;
Engler Machine & Tool Heat Race 3
1. 34-Luke Hall; 2. 4B-Tom Busch; 3. 11M-Brandon Martin; 4. 28-Brian
Paulus; 5. 4N-Neil Shepherd; 6. 7M-Geoff Dodge; 7. 6C-Chris Nabor; 8.
22T-Miranda Throckmorton; 9. 10-Shannon Jodrey; 10. 34M-Arin Mcintosh;
CarMate Heat Race 4
1. 22-Wayne Mcpeek; 2. 11B-Brock Mayes; 3. W20-Greg Wilson; 4. 54-Matt
Westfall; 5. 56R-Ryan Myers; 6. 9-Kent Wolters; 7. 17W-Scotty Williams;
8. 23K-Kyle Simon; 9. 87-Lance Grimes; 10. 5B-Chad Blonde;
O'Reilly All Star Dash
1. 71M-Paul May; 2. 11M-Brandon Martin; 3. 11B-Brock Mayes; 4. W20-Greg
Wilson; 5. 4-Danny Smith; 6. 28-Brian Paulus;
University of Northwest Ohio B-main
1. 5B-Chad Blonde; 2. 2-Dale Blaney; 3. 4K-Kelly Kinser; 4. 7M-Geoff
Dodge; 5. 4M-John Memmer; 6. 17W-Scotty Williams; 7. 9S-Brad Stevens; 8.
8H-Mike Miller; 9. 22T-Miranda Throckmorton; 10. 95-Hud Horton; 11.
23K-Kyle Simon; 12. 72J-Johnny Johnson; 13. 34M-Arin Mcintosh; 14.
6C-Chris Nabor; 15. 10-Shannon Jodrey; 16. 2H-Dallas Hewitt; 17. 16-Lee
Stark; 18. 5J-Joss Moffat; 19. 9-Kent Wolters; 20. 33S-Keith Baxter
(DNS); 21. 48-Ty Deckard (DNS); 22. 87-Lance Grimes (DNS);
MSD Ignition A-main - Starting Position [#]
1. 11K-Kraig Kinser[6]; 2. 11M-Brandon Martin[4]; 3. 2-Dale Blaney[12];
4. 4K-Kelly Kinser[13]; 5. 7K-Dean Jacobs[17]; 6. 11B-Brock Mayes[9]; 7.
W20-Greg Wilson[1]; 8. 6-Bill Rose[3]; 9. 4-Danny Smith[10]; 10. 4B-Tom
Busch[15]; 11. 71M-Paul May[5]; 12. 4N-Neil Shepherd[8]; 13. 7M-Geoff
Dodge[19]; 14. 34-Luke Hall[22]; 15. 54-Matt Westfall[23]; 16. 22-Wayne
Mcpeek[20]; 17. 59-Kirk Jeffries[24]; 18. 92-Jimmy Stinson[14]; 19.
5B-Chad Blonde[11]; 20. O0-Nick Nabor[18]; 21. 6K-Todd Kane[21]; 22.
56R-Ryan Myers[16]; 23. 28-Brian Paulus[2]; 24. 75-Jesse Hockett[7];
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