InsideGroove - Race Report

DEAN MOORE BREAKS BOEN-PURKEY NCRA DOMINATION

Hutchinson, KS -- After earlier winning his heat race, Dean Moore from Grand Junction CO was untouchable in the feature action as he raced his Rayburn to a $2000 win in the NCRA sanctioned dirt late model feature Saturday night at the 48TH Annual Hutchinson Nationals on the big dirt half-mile at the Kansas State Fairgrounds. Moore's father Leon Moore is in charge of the WDRA, a traveling dirt late model group based in Western Colorado and Dean has expanded his travel schedule in 2004 to include more Kansas and Nebraska action. He called tonight a perfect night, one where you hit the setup dead-on. Fellow front row starter Ted Martin ran second and stands sixth in the NCRA standings. Jason Bodenhamer used a third place finish from 7th starting to climb past Nebraska's Tommy Rowe into third place in points. Al Purkey ran fourth behind David Brack and increased his small point lead over Henderson CO star Kelly Boen. Boen ran 8th. The Moore win snapped a six race streak where Purkey and Boen had captured every NCRA sanctioned event. All the top NCRA teams are among the many disappointed individuals that had to sit and watch it rain all weekend long the previous weekend in Denver CO as the Rumble in the Rockies was cancelled.

A solid 30 car turnout appeared for this historic race and Brack won heat 1 from the pole with outside front row starter Boen second ahead of Charlie Randolph, who had started 4th. Colorado's J T Botts started 7th and ran fourth. Moore started outside front row in his heat 2 win as pole starter Joe Conway ran second ahead of third starter Earl Kinderknecht. Purkey had to come from 8th to finish fourth in heat 2. Ted Martin had an outside front row assignment in heat 3 and won with pole starter Bodenhamer second ahead of fourth starting Steve Foster. Rowe lined up sixth and finished fourth. Pole starter Dan Topliff got the win in heat 4 over fellow front row starter Chris Mayes and fourth starting Lyle Shepard. The top 16 passing point collectors from the heat action moved into the A Main and the remaining cars dueled for 8 transfers out of the B Main. Outside front row starter Brett LaFollette was the B Main winner over pole starter Mike Martin, Jarrod Reimer, Diamond Mundy, Mike Conkwright, Rod Bencken and David Conkwright.. Two provisionals made up the back row of the 26 car grid for the feature action. They were TORA star Delbert Smith and Robert Garst.

Moore and T Martin took advantage of their front row assignments for the feature action as they finished 1-2. Purkey lined up four spots behind championship rival Boen for the start, but moved into sixth behind Boen as the field finished lap 1. The red flag fell on lap 8 with D Smith against the back wall and Eric Main upsidedown 20 feet further down the backstretch. Mike Martin and both Conkwrights were also involved. When racing resumed, Moore, T Martin, Brack, Bodenhamer, Boen and Purkey continued in the top six spots. A restart after a lap 11 yellow allowed Bodenhamer to take third from Brack. The last caution came on lap 14 when Botts got into the turn 2 fence. On this restart, Boen got pushed high on the track and he lost several spots. Third starter Brack ran fourth and 7th starter Bodenhamer came forward to a third. Purkey started 9th and finished 5th ahead of 10th starter Randolph and 15th starting Kinderknecht. Boen lined up fifth and settled for an 8th place finish ahead of Foster, LaFollette and Topliff. Botts, Gary Gorby and D Smith all failed to finish as 18 of the 26 starters were racing at the end.

The NCRA Series returns to the big half-mile during the State Fair on September 19.

Summary Heat 1-David Brack, Kelly Boen, Charlie Randolph, J T Botts, Brett LaFollette. Heat 2-Dean Moore, Joe Conway, Earl Kinderknecht, Al Purkey, Diamond Mundy. Heat 3-Ted Martin, Jason Bodenhamer, Steve Foster, Tommy Rowe, Mike Martin. Heat 4-Dan Topliff, Chris Mayes, Lyle Shepard, Gary Gorby, Robert Garst. B Main-LaFollette, M Martin, Jarrod Reimer, Mundy, Mike Conkwright, Rod Bencken, David Conkwright, Eric Main, Garst, Jeremy Bishop. Main-Moore, Bodenhamer, Brack, Purkey, Randolph, Kinderknecht, Boen, Foster, LaFollette, Topliff, Reimer, Mayes, Shepard, Conway, Martin, Mundy, Rowe, D Conkwright, Botts, Gorby, Garst, Bencken, M Conkwright, Delbert Smith, Main.

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