By Gary Jacob
Belleville, KS -- Rebounding from a tough night in Nebraska, Al Purkey from Coffeyville KS was the $2000 winner in the 25 lap feature Sunday night at the famed Belleville High Banks as the NCRA dirt late models finished off a grueling three race weekend. Purkey's second win of 2004 in his Larry Shaw chassis leaves him 95 points back of season point leader Kelly Boen, who won the Wichita KS and McCool Junction NEB races to open the weekend. Purkey won his heat race from third starting and that earned him the pole position for the 25 lap feature. Boen crashed hard in the same heat race and had to do major repairs before lining up at the rear of the 20 car grid for the feature run. Doniphan NEB charger Tommy Rowe ran second and moved into fourth place in series points. Nebraska's Billy Murphy followed up a third at Junction Motor Speedway with another third this night and recent Belleville winner Mike Wiarda gave Nebraska racers the 2nd, 3rd and 4th spots. Boen made a hard charge to fifth to protect his point lead. Boen came out of the weekend with a 95 point lead on Purkey and 195 ahead of Jason Bodenhamer. Rose is just 35 points back of Bodenhamer and just 5 ahead of fifth ranked Gary Gorby from Kansas.
With 23 cars checking in, the teams were divided into three heat races and everyone was going to make the feature. Purkey won the first heat over Murphy and Grand Junction CO long tow Dean Moore. John Anderson, the runnerup on Saturday night ran fourth in this heat. On lap 6, Boen drove straight across the track and slammed into the turn 1 wall. TORA star Delbert Smith won heat 2 over Bodenhamer and Mike Conkwright. Hampton NEB's Wiarda won heat 3 over Earl Kinderknecht and Rowe. The feature was lined up using the passing points earned in the heat action and Purkey sat on the pole. Purkey took a quick lead over Wiarda and Smith. Smith edged ahead of Purkey on lap 2 only to push too high and hand the lead back to Purkey. Smith and Murphy also drove by Smith for the 2-3 slots. The first yellow flag fell on lap 13 and six cars got tangled on the restart for a red flag. Purkey paced the field on this next restart ahead of Murphy, Wiarda, Smith and Rowe while Purkey had charged from the rear to 8th. Another push in the corner cost Smith fourth to Rowe. Rowe then raced around Wiarda for third before the 14th lap finished. Kinderknecht replaced Smith in the top five and both Boen and Anderson passed Smith for the 6-7 slots on lap 15. Purkey held a strong lead as the laps ran down with Rowe passing Murphy on the final lap for second. Wiarda was a distant fourth and Boen's late charge netted him fifth over Kinderknecht, Anderson, Smith, Moore and Bodenhamer. Purkey credited Smith with showing him that bottom line early in the action. Purkey's two NCRA wins in 2004 have tied him with Larry McDaniels on the career win chart with 18 behind all time leader Larry Phillips who had 24. John Kuchar got 12th and Colorado point leader Gary Dechant 13th. Chris Mayes and Tony Gregg were both feature scratches. By racing the whole weekend with NCRA, Moore climbed to 12th in their point listing.
After a $6,000 to win show at Mid-Nebraska Speedway on July 17, NCRA will combine forces with MLRA, WDRA and the Colorado Late Models for the third annual Rumble in the Rockies at Rocky Mountain National Speedway near Denver on July 23-24. Boen won the earlier race at Mid-Nebraska that opened the 2004 NCRA season.
Summary Heat 1-Al Purkey, Bill Murphy, Dean Moore, John Anderson, John Kuchar. Heat 2-Delbert Smith, Jason Bodenhamer, Mike Conkwright, Rusty Miller, Ted Martin. Heat 3-Mike Wiarda, Earl Kinderknecht, Tommy Rowe, Dan Topliff, Gary Dechant. Main-Purkey, Rowe, Murphy, Wiarda, Kelly Boen, Kinderknecht, Anderson, Smith, Moore, Bodenhamer, M Conkwright, Kuchar, Dechant, Topliff, Mike Martin, Gorby, Joe Conway, Dave Conkwright, T Martin, Miller.