By Gary Jacob
Belleville, KS -- Finishing off a two win weekend that virtually wrapped up the NCRA dirt late model championship, Al Purkey from Coffeyville KS drove his Larry Shaw mount to a $2000 win Sunday night at the Bellville KS high banks. Purkey won his heat race from 2nd starting, but that only earned him a second row assignment for the feature as both third ranked Tommy Rowe from Doniphan NEB and second ranked Kelly Boen from Henderson CO earned more points in the passing point system. Boen took a quick lead in the feature at his favorite track and Purkey settled into third behind Rowe. Purkey got second from Rowe on lap 5 and had chased down Boen when the Colorado driver coasted into the infield on lap 7 with a broken valve. Purkey led the remainder of the 20 lapper with former IMCA Modified car builder Kevin Larkins from Giltner NEB making a solid drive to second ahead of Rowe, Ryan McInanich from Kansas and Grand Junction CO long tow Dean Moore. Purkey came out of the weekend with six NCRA wins on the year and a healthy 224 point lead on championship rival Boen. Rowe is another 109 points back in third as Missouri's Jason Bodenhamer and Kansas racer Gary Gorby are dueling for fourth in points. Bodenhamer is only 28 points up on Gorby but 298 behind Rowe. Moore has climbed to 8th in points behind Ted Martin and Oklahoma's Joe Conway. Purkey's other weekend win came Saturday night at Junction Motor Speedway in McCool Junction, NEB.
Nineteen cars checked in for the night's racing and Rowe earned the pole for the feature by capturing the first heat race from sixth starting. Larkins ran second ahead of TORA star Delbert Smith and McAninch. Purkey won heat 2 from second, but Boen came from last to finish 2nd to rank second on the passing point charts. Rowe and Boen thus held down the front row for the 20 lap feature with Purkey right behind. On the start, it was Boen and his Rocket charging out front with Rowe settling into second ahead of Purkey. Delbert Smith settled into fourth ahead of Larkins and McAninch. In turn 2 on lap 5, Purkey was able to take second from Rowe and he had caught leader Boen when a broken valve parked Boen in the infield on lap 7. On lap 9, Delbert Smith took second from Rowe and Larkins passed Rowe for third on lap 11. The only yellow flag came on lap 12. On the restart, Purkey continued to command the action and Delbert Smith got shuffled from 2nd back to fifth as Larkins, Rowe and McAninch all got by him. Purkey's sixth win ties the NCRA single season record held by Tom Laster and he has an Oct 24th date in Enid Oklahoma to attempt to break the mark. Larkins ran second with McAninch challenging Rowe for third as the laps ran down. McAninch settled for fourth ahead of Moore, Lyle Shepard, Delbert Smith, Gorby, Bodenhamer and Brett LaFollette.
Summary Heat 1-Tommy Rowe, Kevin Larkins, Delbert Smith, Ryan McAninch, Mike Wiarda. Heat 2-Al Purkey, Kelly Boen, Dean Moore, Gary Gorby, Ted Martin, Lyle Shepard. Main-Purkey, Larkins, Rowe, McAninch, Moore, Shepard, Delbert Smith, Gorby, Jason Bodenhamer, Brett LaFollette, Danny McFadden, Herb Nagy, Robert Garst, Chris Mayes, Martin, Joe Conway, Boen, Daniel Smith.