By Gary Jacob
Dodge City, KS -- A large contingent of Colorado dirt late models towed east to race in the two-day Thunder through the Prairie special at Dodge City Raceway Park in Kansas on Friday and Saturday night. Friday’s event ran despite very bad weather throughout the area and was completed despite it’s own 20 minute rain delay. Bret LaFollette from Kansas City was a wire to wire $2000 winner that night with Alan Vaughn from Missouri a race long second for the $1100 second place prize. Jeep Berry was the highest Colorado finisher on Friday night as he ran fifth behind Al Purkey from Kansas and Nebraska star Steve Kosiski. Another western Colorado racer Curt Daniels was 9th. The weekend was sanctioned by CLMA and WDRA from Colorado and Midwestern bodies NCRA and MLRA. In the bigger money Saturday night action, pole starter Kelly Boen was chased down by Mike Conkwright from Manhatten KS, but battled back to retake the lead in the final corner to score the $3000 win in that 40 lapper. Conkwright settled for second ahead of Purkey and Johnny Bone Jr as Grand Junction CO long tow Jeep Berry was fifth for a second straight night. Twenty teams from Colorado towed east and they were joined by Utah’s Mike McGinn in the 45 car event.
Rick Lieser from CLMA won the opening heat on Friday night ahead of Bone Jr and Purkey. LaFollette captured heat 2 over Colorado’s Mike Cox and Gary Billings. Vaughn beat local Gary Gorby and Frank McGhee in heat 3 and Kosiski won heat 4 over Colorado strong runner Gary Dechant and WDRA’s Dean Moore. McGinn attended this event for a second straight year and ran fourth in heat 4. Colorado drivers took the top 3 spots in heat 5 as Berry won over Boen and Dan Shepard. Veteran Colorado racer Jim Clifton was fifth behind Kansas star Eric Main. Three B Mains helped complete the 24 car A main grid and Colorado drivers won two of them. D Moore won the first B Main over Ryan McAninch and Rod Bencken. Terry Loos was sixth in this race and McGinn finished 9th. 67 year old Clifton won the second B Main over Nebraska’s Billy Murphy and Colorado’s D Shepard. Colorado rookie Sten Johnson was 6th and J T Botts ran 8th. Dave Garmann was 10th. David Barker won the third B Main ahead of Raymond Merrill and Daniels. LaFollette had the pole for the 30 lap feature and took a quick lead over Vaughn. Purkey and Kosiski were battling for third. Berry joined the third place duel and briefly got around Purkey, but allowed Purkey to regain his spot. In the duel for the win on the 3/8 mile clay oval, Vaughn was able to nose underneath LaFollette but could never complete a pass on a heavy racing surface that saw some of the teams collect 300 pounds of mud during the feature. LaFollette got the win ahead of Vaughn, Purkey, Kosiski, Berry, Main, Shane Essary, Gorby, Daniels, Murphy, Barker and Colorado’s Craig Baukema. Moore finished 14th, Lieser 18th, M Cox 19th, Dechant 20th, Boen 22nd with an early flat tire and Clifton 23rd. M Cox and Lieser crashed on lap 8 and Lieser’s weekend was done. Bone Jr crashed into the front wall to end his race and Moore was involved in a late race crash with McGhee as only 12 cars saw the checkered flag.
Track conditions were considerably different for the second night as the racing surface went dry slick from top to bottom. M Conkwright won the opening heat race over Vaughn and Raymond Merrill. Dirt modified star Ronnie Wallace joined the action and won heat 2 ahead of Berry and McAninch. Colorado drivers were again 1-2 in heat 3 as Boen beat Paonia’s Daniels as Scott Drake ran third. Boen battled from 8th to get that win. Bone Jr won heat 4 ahead of Utah star McGinn and S Johnson. Garmann and John Kuchar were 4-5 in heat 4. Clifton won heat 5 ahead of Purkey and Gary Dechant with Moore 4th. Again, three B Mains helped finish off a 25 car grid for the 40 lap feature. Delbert Smith won the first B Main over Dechant, Steve Kempt, Moore and Gorby with Mike Cox in sixth. Barker beat Friday night winner LaFollette in the second B Main as Jason Bodenhamer ran third ahead of Ted Martin and C J Lyle. Colorado’s Ken Brack won the third B Main in front of David Turner and Kosiski as Garmann and Kuchar ran 5-6 behind Murphy. An 8 car dash to determine the starting order in the front of the 40 lapper saw Boen winning the pole position ahead of Purkey, Clifton, M Conkwright, Daniels, Bone, Vaughn and Wallace. Boen took a quick lead in the 40 lapper over Purkey and Clifton. The only yellow dropped on lap 17 when Wallace crashed and Boen was leading M Conkwright, Purkey, Bone Jr and Berry. With six laps to run in the 40 lapper, Kansas star M Conkwright raced around Boen on the outside for the top spot, but Boen never gave up and M Conkwright pushed high in the last corner and Boen drove underneath for the $3000 win. Boen was two car lengths in front at the checkered flag. M Conkwright was second ahead of Purkey, Bone Jr, and Berry. Clifton was a solid sixth ahead of Vaughn, Daniels, McAninch, Merrill, Bodenhamer and Drake. Moore ran 14th, Brack 15th, LaFollette 16th, M Cox 19th, S Johnson 20th, McGinn 22nd, Wallace 24th and Dechant 25th.
Summary
Friday Heat 1-Rick Lieser, Johnny Bone Jr, Al Purkey, Delbert Smith, Chris Mayes. Heat 2-Brett LaFollette, Mike Cox, Gary Billings, Curt Daniels, Sten Johnson. Heat 3-Alan Vaughn, Gary Gorby, Frank McGhee, David Barker, David Cronkwright. Heat 4-Steve Kosiski, Gary Dechant, Dean Moore, Mike McGinn, Rod Bencken. Heat 5-Jeep Berry, Kelly Boen, Dan Shepard, Eric Main, Jim Clifton. 1st B Main-Moore, Ryan McAninch, Bencken, D Conkwright, C J Lyle, Terry Loos, Jason Bodenhamer, Lyle Shepard, McGinn. 2nd B Main-Clifton, Billy Murphy, D Shepard, Mike Conkwright, Lyle, Johnson, David Turner, J T Botts, Smith, Dave Garmann. 3rd B Main-Barker, Raymond Merrill, Daniels, Mayes, Ted Martin, Shane Essary, John Kuchar, Terry Boushee, Chris Persichetti, Ken Brack. A Main-LaFollette, Vaughn, Purkey, Kosiski, Berry, Main, Essary, Gorby, Daniels, Murphy, Barker, Craig Baukema, McGhee, Moore, Merrill, Bone, McAninch, Lieser, Cox, Dechant, M Conkwright, Boen, Clifton, Billings.
Saturday Heat 1-M Conkwright, Vaughn, Merrill, Martin, Mayes. Heat 2-Ronnie Wallace, Berry, McAninch, Barker, Smith. Heat 3-Boen, Daniels, Scott Drake, Brack, LaFollette. Heat 4-Bone, McGinn, Johnson, Garmann, Kuchar. Heat 5-Clifton, Purkey, Dechant, Moore, Bodenhamer. 1st B Main-Smith, Dechant, Steve Kempt, Moore, Gorby, M Cox, Mayes, Boushee, Loos, Rusty Miller. 2nd B Main-Barker, LaFollette, Bodenhamer, Martin, Lyle, L Shepard, D Conkwright, Baukema, Bencken. 3rd B Main-Brack, Turner, Kosiski, Murphy, Garmann, Kuchar, Main, Persichetti, D Shepard. Pole Dash-Boen, Purkey, Clifton, M Conkwright, Daniels, Bone, Vaughn, Wallace. A Main-Boen, M Conkwright, Purkey, Bone, Berry, Clifton, Vaughn, Daniels, McAninch, Merrill, Bodenhamer, Drake, Turner, Moore, Brack, LaFollette, Kosiski, Gorby, M Cox, Johnson, Smith, McGinn, Barker, Wallace, Dechant.