Bluegrass
Speedway
2221
New Haven Road
Bardstown,
KY 40004
2009
Official Media Release #15 (For Immediate Distribution: May 9, 2009)
“The
Kentucky Colonel” Wins 6th Annual Jerry Rucker Memorial at
Bluegrass Speedway
Bardstown,
KY-May 9, 2009- Steve Francis of Ashland, KY would use an off weekend from the
World of Outlaws Late Model tour to visit Bluegrass Speedway on Saturday evening
and score the $2,000 payday in the 6th edition of the Jerry Rucker
Memorial event for the 44 Auto Mart Super Late Model division.
Other feature winners for the evening would include Bryan Barber of
Greensburg, KY in Modifieds, Pat Hagan of New Haven, KY in Sportsman, and Johnny
Cecil of Bardstown, KY in Street Stocks.
After
a false start, Dustin Neat and Steve Francis would bring the 6th
Annual Jerry Rucker Memorial event to the green flag, with Neat taking the race
lead, followed by Francis, Larry Greer, Dustin Linville, and David Webb.
Linville would take third on lap 2, with Greg Johnson going to fifth on
the same lap. Francis would begin
to mount a charge on Neat for the lead and would grab the top spot with a pass
off of turn two on lap 5. Francis
would hold the top spot, while Neat and Linville would battle side-by-side on
lap 7 and 8, with Linville going to the runner-up slot on lap 9.
Greer would begin to battle Neat for third at this point, with disaster
striking for Neat with a spin and flat left rear tire on lap 12, with Neat
retiring his mount for the evening. The
restart would see Linville hang with Francis, with Johnson now third, followed
by Greer and Michael Chilton. Chilton
would go to fourth on lap 13, as Linville continued to attempt to challenge
Francis for the lead as the halfway signal went up on lap 15.
Meanwhile, 13th starting Jeff Watson was charging his way
through the field on the bottom side of the racing surface and would make his
way past Greer into the top five on lap 16.
Linville would look beneath Francis for the lead in turns one and two on
laps 18 and 19 before Francis would put a lapped car between himself and
Linville on lap 20. Lap 23 would
see the lead pair finally clear slower traffic, while Watson would take fourth
from Chilton on the same circuit. With
five laps remaining, Francis and Linville had pulled away from third place
Johnson, while Watson would quickly close on Johnson for third and take the spot
one trip later on lap 26. Chilton,
David Webb, and 19th starting Justin Rattliff would then begin to
battle for the fifth position, with Webb winning a three-wide battle to move
into fifth as the field received the white flag.
Francis would take the checkered flag first in the event in a guest
appearance in the D.J. Wells owned Wells Motorsports/Expressions Floral and
Gifts/ Wells Racing sponsored #11 Rocket Chassis, Custom Race Engines powered
machine. Linville would claim
runner-up honors, with Watson, Johnson, and Webb completing the top five.
The remainder of the top ten would be 12th starting Chilton,
Rattliff, Mike Jewell, Tim Tungate, and Jason Keltner.
Twenty entries would see Linville be top qualifier at 15.220 seconds,
while Neat won the dash. Heat race
checkered flags would fall to Jarryd Holshouser and Tim Tungate.
The
20 lap Modified event would be plagued by five cautions in the first eight laps
of the event, with Bryan Barber and Joey Kramer dealing slidejobs on each on the
restarts, with Barber finally winning the battle of sliders on the lap 9 restart
and survive one more caution after that to claim the win while debuting a brand
new race car. The win by the third
generation racer behind the wheel of the B&B Motorsports/Roby’s Country
Garden/ All Star Performance sponsored #10 Bandit Race Cars, Jay Dickens Race
Engines powered mount. Kramer would
finish the evening in the runner-up slot, while Benji Lee would garner third
place honors, with 10th starting J.T. Ayers coming home in fourth,
and Dion Benningfield would round out the top five at the checkered flag.
Completing the top ten finishers would be Joe Mattingly, Rocky Wilson,
Johnny Lee, 17th starting Adam Cole, and Brad Schlosser.
Nineteen entries would draw for heat race starting positions and those
checkered flags would fall to Barber and Kramer.
In
the 15 lap WBRT 1320-AM Sportsman feature event, it would be Pat Hagan winning
out over fellow front-row starter Rick King to pick up the feature event victory
in the Sportsman division. The win
by Hagan came in the seat of the Billy Holbert owned Willard’s Heat and
Air/New Haven NAPA/New Haven Car Wash/Holbert Auto Recovery sponsored #88 Chevy
Monte Carlo machine. King would
finish a close in a rare Bluegrass Speedway appearance, with defending track
champion Roger Cecil claiming third, while Barry Chesser and Rob Jones completed
the top five. Rounding out the top
ten finishers would be Jimmy Bryan, Avral Thompson, Paul Lewis, Jr., Joe Dunbar,
and Ronnie Rogers. Thirteen entries
would see Chesser as top qualifier, while King would score the dash win and
Wayne Hager would win the heat.
In
the Street Stock main event, Johnny Cecil would get around early race leader
David Bayans with four laps remaining to pick up the Street Stock feature event
checkered flag for the evening aboard his M&M Get-N-Go sponsored #69 Ford
Crown Victoria unit. Cecil would
hold off a hard charging Shane Lafollette over the final three circuits to take
the win, with Lafollette finishing second, followed by Willie Edelen, Jason
Bartley, and Bayans. The remainder
of the top ten was Bruce Burch, Adam Burch, Brad Leake, Joe Walker, and Terry
Bartley. Twelve entries drew for
heat race positions, with those wins going to Bayans and Cecil.
SUMMARY-Bluegrass
Speedway-Bardstown, KY-May 9, 2009
44
Auto Mart Super Late Models (20 entries)
Top
Qualifier- Dustin Linville 15.220
Dash-
Dustin Neat, Steve Francis, Larry Greer, Dustin Linville, David Webb, Greg
Johnson
1st
Heat- Jarryd Holshouser, Steve Barnett, Bobby Carrier, Jr., Jeff Watson
2nd
Heat- Tim Tungate, Mike Jewell, Michael Chilton, Jason Keltner
6th
Annual Jerry Rucker Memorial- Steve Francis, Dustin Linville, Jeff Watson, Greg
Johnson, David Webb, Michael Chilton, Justin Rattliff, Mike Jewell, Tim Tungate,
Jason Keltner, Jason Smith, Dylan Preston, Terry Keltner, Bobby Carrier, Jr.,
Larry Greer, Lee Devasier, Dustin Neat, Steve Barnett, Jarryd Holshouser (DNS-Jeremy
Hines)
Modifieds
(19 entries)
1st
Heat- Bryan Barber, Benji Lee, Robbie Gullion, Dion Benningfield
2nd
Heat- Joey Kramer, Rocky Wilson, Josh Lucas, Joe Mattingly
Feature-
Bryan Barber, Joey Kramer, Benji Lee, J.T. Ayers, Dion Benningfield, Joe
Mattingly, Rocky Wilson, Johnny Lee, Adam Cole, Brad Schlosser, Randall Basham,
Gary Parks, Robbie Gullion, Terry Edwards, Jeremy Hisel, Josh Lucas, Joe David
Humphrey, Michael England (DNS-Sam Huffer)
WBRT
1320-AM Sportsman (13 entries)
Top
Qualifier- Barry Chesser
Dash-
Rick King, Pat Hagan, Roger Cecil, Robbie Settles, Barry Chesser, Jimmy Bryan
Heat-
Wayne Hager, Rob Jones, Elton Martin, Avral Thompson
Feature-
Pat Hagan, Rick King, Roger Cecil, Barry Chesser, Rob Jones, Jimmy Bryan, Avral
Thompson, Paul Lewis, Jr., Joe Dunbar, Ronnie Rogers, Robbie Settles, Elton
Martin, Wayne Hager
Street
Stocks (12 entries)
1st
Heat- David Bayans, Bruce Burch, Willie Edelen, Shane Lafollette
2nd
Heat- Johnny Cecil, Joe Walker, Terry Bartley, Adam Burch
Feature-
Johnny Cecil, Shane Lafollette, Willie Edelen, Jason Bartley, David Bayans,
Bruce Burch, Adam Burch, Brad Leake, Joe Walker, Terry Bartley, Bryan Derringer,
Timmy Glazer