By Gary Jacob
Denver, CO -- Leading just the final four laps after making his winning pass around Jeep Berry, Dean Moore paced a Grand Junction, CO sweep of the top 3 positions in the Topless 50 special for the Colorado Late Model Association Saturday night at Rocky Mountain National Speedway. Moore's win paid $1,500 as the series allowed the teams to race without their roofs in this midseason special event. Series point leader Brett Hallmark also got by Berry on the last lap to finish second. Moore, Hallmark and Berry all tow out of the western Colorado community of Grand Junction and this was the first event for Berry since his $5,000 win in Albuquerque back in early April.
The special event drew a season high 23 entries for the traveling series and they were divided into three heat races. Berry came from sixth starting to win the first heat with a last lap pass of front row starter Jim Beaman. Beaman ran second over Bill Sabin. Dave Garmann took the lead at the start of the second heat, but crashed hard into the fence in turn 3 and his race was over. Jim Clifton raced to the win ahead of another Grand Junction racer, Butch Clark and Don Post. Outside front row starter Moore took the lead from pole starter John Kuchar on the start and he won the third heat with Kuchar second ahead of Hallmark. The top 2 finishers from each heat contested the Leary Racing Products Dash for Cash. The heat winners were started in the front and Berry won from the pole with fellow front row starter Clifton second ahead of last starter Kuchar.
The lineup for the 50 lap feature was straight up off the heat action, putting heat winners Berry, Clifton and Moore at the front of the grid. Garmann was the only driver unable to start the feature. Berry took a quick lead with Clifton and Moore continuously trading second. The trading lasted over the first four rounds before Moore secured the spot. Bill Smith pitted on lap 10 and Scott Cimfl pulled into the infield on lap 17. When Cimfl removed his helmet, the track was forced to throw the first yellow flag on lap 18. Chris Persichetti exited on this caution. Ken Brack lost his steering in a tangle with Scott Lewis, but continued to race. J T Botts and Lewis tangled for the 2nd yellow flag and the damaged car of Brack was blackflagged from the event. On lap 31, Clark collided with Kuchar. Kuchar spun and was hit by Cox. Both Kuchar and Cox had to be towed from the track and Clark's race was also over. On lap 45, Rod Glenn hit the fence coming out of turn 3. Not seeing the yellow flag, Gary Dechant tangled with Clifton, forcing Clifton into the fence only inches away from Glenn. The race was over for both Glenn and Clifton.
When green flag racing resumed, Moore made a run at leader Berry and made his winnig pass on lap 47. Terry Loos spun for a final yellow flag on lap 48. Moore paced the field over the remaining rounds for the win with Hallmark getting by Berry on the final lap to finish 2nd. Berry ran third ahead of Beaman, impressive modified graduate Dechant, Bill Sabin, Post, Rick Lieser and Lewis. With Kuchar credited with 17th place, he fell 96 points back of Hallmark. Lieser is third in points, 27 behind Kuchar and just 15 in front of Clifton. Cox rounds out the top five and Brack stands 6th.
Summary Dash-Jeep Berry, Jim Clifton, John Kuchar, Dean Moore. Heat 1-Berry, Jim Beaman, Bill Sabin, Scott Cimfl, Terry Loos. Heat 2-Clifton, Butch Clark, Don Post, Curt Daniels, Gary Dechant. Heat 3-Moore, Kuchar, Brett Hallmark, Mike Cox, Scott Lewis. Main-Moore, Hallmark, Berry, Beaman, Dechant, Sabin, Post, Rick Lieser, Lewis, Daniels, J T Botts, Loos, Mike Felton, Clifton, Rod Glenn, Clark, Kuchar, Cox, Cimfl, Ken Brack, Chris Persichetti, Bill Smith.