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Parrish Dominates in Outlaw Feature at
Desoto
Ask any short track race driver,
or race fan for that matter, and they will tell you that strange (usually bad) things
can happen when racing under a full moon. Tom Meyer said "we ignore
it, avoid
looking at it and don't even mentioning that its there until we come off the
track". But, for the
Outlaws last Saturday, the full moon proved to be an illuminating back drop for
an exciting, caution free, 25 lap feature race won by John Parrish.
A fairly large crowd came to
Desoto as the Outlaws shared the bill with a 100 lap late model race. Nine
Outlaw cars were on hand. Dan Akard (14) brought the family out for his
second appearance of the season and it was the first appearance for John Parrish
who is racing on a limited schedule due to funding.
All nine cars ran in one heat
race, won by Mike Endee (26). Mike then drew to invert the top eight cars
for the feature line up.
The inversion put Ric Mills (22)
on the pole with Melanie Braden (7) on the outside. When the green flag
dropped, the outside line went but one car in the inside row didn't fire and a
number of cars in the back of the field stacked up coming out of turn 4.
The gap that opened on the inside allowed Hopper (15) to drop from the outside to
get under Braden (7)
and run up on the leader Mills (22). Parrish (9P), who started
behind Hopper (15), followed.
With a hole left behind from
Parrish's move from the outside, Raymond Jones (28) cut in front of Akard (14) on the outside and
passed Richards (61) going into turn 1. Down the back stretch, Jones (28)
crossed back low to the inside pulling along side Braden (7).
Mills (22), Hopper (15) and
Parrish (9P) lead the rest of the pack that had formed three rows of two racing side by side. Jones (28)
was on
the inside and Braden (7) on the outside with Richards (61) and Meyer (04)
behind them and then Endee (26) and Akard (14) tight behind them. The six cars stayed side by side until Jones (28) started pulling ahead of Braden (7).
While Jones (28) was pulling ahead
of Braden,
Dan Akard (14) started falling back. That left Richards (61) and Braden
(7) side by side followed by Endee (26) and Meyer (04) racing
side by side for the next two laps. Going into turn three on lap three, Mike Endee
(26), running seventh at the time, dove down with all four wheels on the
apron. Endee pulled along side the 61 of Richards in the middle of the
turn before backing off to get back on the track. Once on the racing surface
again, Endee stayed low on the yellow line to make it three wide coming out of
turn four to make the pass on
both Richard (61) and Braden (7) .
Up front, Hopper (15) was able to
pass Mills (22) on the inside but Parrish (9P) wasn't far behind. John
knew that he had to keep Hopper close if he was going to have any chance to
challenge him. It didn't take long for Parrish to pass Mills (22) and
focus on Hopper (15).
Endee (26) having gotten by the
pack had a lot of ground to make up to catch the leaders. Endee caught and
passed Jones (28) before setting his sights on Mills (22). Further back,
Paul Richards (61) and Mel Braden (7), were putting
on a great show racing side by side with neither driver giving in. Meyer
(04) found himself trapped behind them not knowing which would win the hard
fought battle. Finally, on lap 8, Richards (61) started pulling away from
Braden (7) and Meyer (04) was quick to follow.
After settling in behind Hopper
(15), Parrish (9P) showed his muscle by taking Hopper on the outside.
Hopper made an effort to fight back with more bottom end power coming out of the turns, but
Parrish had a stronger top end as he slowly distanced himself from Hopper.
On lap 10, Endee (26) chased down
Mills (22) and passed him to take the third position. Jones (28) was
running comfortably in the fifth position. Meyer (04) was able to work his way past
Braden (7) and then Richards (61). That left Jones ahead of him. As Meyer (04)
caught Jones (28) going into turn 3 of lap 12 and almost ran over Jones
coming out of turn 4 as Jones slowed and pulled to the infield. On lap 16,
Meyer (04) caught Mills (22). Mills was fast in the straightaways, but
Meyer (04) was faster holding his car to the bottom through the turns. On
lap 18, Meyer cleared Mills for fourth.
Endee (26) was fast on the out
side as well. On lap 20, Endee caught Hopper (15) and drove around the
outside of him to take the second spot. By then, however, Parrish (9P) had
established a sizable lead over Hopper and by the time Endee passed Hopper,
Parrish's lead was insurmountable.
Parrish (9P) took the win
with Endee (26) in second and Hopper (15) third. Meyer (04) finished
fourth ahead of Mills (22). Richard (61), Braden (7) and Akard (14)
rounded out the field with Jones (28) in the infield.
The Outlaws next race is 19 May
where they will be welcomed at Bronson Speedway.
Meyer Runs (But Can't Hide) From Hopper
Eight Outlaw Modifieds visited
Auburndale Speedway on the Saturday before Easter. Tom Meyer summed up the
night's feature race from the winner's circle saying, "I just lived through the
Outlaw's worst nightmare: leading with Doug Hopper in your mirror when the
caution comes out with two to go."
It was a nice evening for racing;
kind of relaxing for the Holiday weekend. Eight Outlaws were on hand with
Austin Kirkpatrick back behind the wheel of the 08 car.
Former Outlaw driver and Race
Director Steve Brigham came from the East coast with his son Phillip.
Phillip also drove in the series for nearly a decade. Steve and Phillip
spent quite some time looking over their old #11 car, now the #7 of Mel Braden.
Were they possibly looking to make a purchase?
The night's first heat race was
won by Paul Richards in the #61. Kirkpatrick's night ended half way through the
heat with an expired motor. Doug Hopper (15) won the second heat race with
Mike Endee (26) losing a motor during that race.
The random inversion for the
feature line up was "0" putting Richards (61) on the pole. Hopper (15)
elected to go to the rear moving Meyer (04) to the outside front row.
Endee (26) managed to make the start, salvaging any points he could muster.
Meyer took full advantage of his
front row start pulling to a four car length lead coming out of turn two on the
first lap. Ric Mills (22) pulled along side Richards (61) with
Braden (7) and Hopper (15) side by side. Coming out of turn two,
Jones (28) drove below Braden (7) making it three wide with Hopper (15) on the
outside. Jones (28) completed the pass on Braden (7) in turn three.
By the time they crossed the finish line, Hopper (15) also made it past Braden
(7) falling in behind Jones (28).
Meyer (04) ran from the rest of
the field with a half straight away lead on lap three. Second (Richards)
through sixth (Braden) raced in a line, bumper to bumper, as Endee pulled his
broken car to the infield. Going into turn three, Ric Mills (22) dove
below Richards (61). Mills completed the pass out of turn four and, with
Richards rooted up from the bottom, Jones (28)and Hopper (15) followed Mills
past Richards (61). Mills, however, appeared to be fighting a push.
So, just as the previous lap, Jones (28) made a move under Mills (22) in turn
three. This time, Hopper (15) followed Jones (28) past Mills (22) coming
out of turn two on the fifth lap.
On lap six, Meyer's lead stretched
to nearly a full straight away. Second through sixth were again nose to
tail as they were on lap two except that the order had changed with Jones
(28)second, Hopper (15) third, Mills (22) fourth, Richards (61) fifth and Braden
(7) sixth.
Hopper (15) started working Jones
(28) on lap seven. Hopper took to the outside of Jones. Hopper
couldn't make the pass around the outside of Jones and fell back behind him down
the backstretch of lap eight. Hopper (15) followed Jones for the next two
laps. Jones (28) also seemed to be fighting a push. Coming out of
the turns, Jones had to slow the car allowing Hopper to get right up to Jones
bumper. Hopper almost had Jones going into turn four of lap ten, but Jones
closed the door, forcing Hopper to back off.
Finally, on lap thirteen, Hopper
(15) pulled along the inside of Jones (28) down the backstretch and was able to
establish his position through turns three and four. Mills (22) had a good
view of the battle in front of him, Richards (61) was several car lengths behind
with Braden (7) several car lengths behind him.
Having worked his way past the
rest of the field Hopper was now faced with a lot of clear track between him and
Meyer (04) in the lead. Hopper, always up to the challenge, hunted Meyer
down, gaining lap by lap. As Hopper narrowed the lead, Meyer seemed to
slow a bit. After the race Meyer said he was preparing for a real fight.
"Hopper's run hard lap after lap heating up his tires. So, I had two
choices: either try running away and get my tires hotter or cool my tires a bit
so that I can take advantage of him when he catches me." Meyer's strategy
backfired when Mills (22) spun in turn two of lap 18. The caution erased
all of the lead Meyer had left over Hopper and allowed Hopper to cool his tires
too.
On the restart, Meyer (04) got a
great jump on Hopper coming out high of turn four. Meyer held a two car
length advantage over Hopper (15) through the next four laps. Meyer
carried plenty of speed through the turns about a half groove up the track.
Hopper was looking for an opening to get under Meyer but there was none to be
had. On lap 22, Meyer slipped up just enough coming out of turn two that
Hopper was able to stick his front bumper under Meyer's rear tire going into
turn three. Too low on the track, though, Hopper had to back off to make
it through the turn. That allowed Meyer to carry more speed through turn
four and pull back ahead. It also allowed Jones (28) to close in on
Hopper.
Completing lap 24, Meyer regained
a two car length lead and was expecting to see the white flag. Instead,
the flag was yellow due to the 61 of Richards spun in turn two. Imagine
what Meyer was thinking after holding off Hopper and pulling a little ahead
expecting to just have to hang on for one more lap when, in fact, he had to
restart and run ahead of Hopper for two more laps.
Meyer (04) got another great
restart on lap 23 with Hopper looking inside and outside for a way by.
Hopper (15) was trying to set Meyer up, but Meyer didn't give any ground on the
inside. Hopper made one last dash down the backstretch but Meyer's car was
working well low. Coming out of turn four for the checkers, Meyer opened
it up a bit, but by then it was too late for Hopper as he could only draw up to
Meyer's rear bumper.
Following Hopper across the line
for third was Mills (22), Braden (7) fourth and Richards (61) fifth. Jones
(28) hung in until the final lap when a radiator hose let go and he had to
settle for sixth.
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