Bluegrass Speedway

2221 New Haven Road

Bardstown, Kentucky  40004

2008 Official Media Release #24 (For Immediate Distribution: June 14, 2008)

Eric Wells Victorious in 7^th Annual June Jam at Bluegrass Speedway

Bardstown, KY-June 14, 2008- The O’Reilly Battle of the Bluegrass DirtCar Series visited Bluegrass Speedway on Saturday evening and Eric Wells of Hazard, KY would etch his name on the winner’s list of the 7^th Annual June Jam event, earning $3,000 for his efforts.  Other feature event winners for the evening were Pat Hagan of New Haven, KY in the WBRT 1320-AM Sportsman and Benji Lee of Raywick, KY in the Kentucky Cooperage Modified division.

The 7^th Annual June Jam O’Reilly A-Main would see outside polesitter Brad Neat take the race lead, with Tim Tungate, Victor Lee, Johnny Wheeler, and Jason Keltner giving chase.  Lee would take second from Tungate on lap 2, with Keltner pressuring Wheeler for the fourth spot by lap 4.  Neat would stretch his advantage to a half-straightaway advantage by the time he started working slower traffic on lap 9.  Wells would begin to flex his muscle and would make his way into the top five on lap 14.  As the field saw the halfway lap 15 signal, Neat would encounter heavy traffic and Lee would begin the process of reeling in the race leader.  Wells would go to fourth on lap 16, past Keltner and set his sights on third place Tungate in heavy traffic.  Meanwhile, Neat and Lee would work in and out of traffic, with Lee closing up even more on Neat by lap 18.  As Neat and Lee began to get ready to duel for the lead, Wells would work pass Tungate for third on lap 20, with Kelter taking fourth from Tungate one trip later.  Lee would close on Neat in traffic and take the lead from on lap 23, with the pair racing side-by-side down the backchute, with the pair in a dead heat at the line on lap 24, but disaster would strike as the duo would make contact entering turn one, with both cars spinning and Neat suffering left rear wheel damage and pulling pitside, with Lee having to restart at the rear of the lead lap cars.  The restart would now have Wells out front, with Keltner and Tungate second and third, but Royce McGowan would spin in turn two to bring out the final caution flag of the race.  The final restart would see Webb take the fourth position away from Wheeler, while Keltner mounted a topside charge for the lead from Wells.  Keltner would take the lead from Wells on lap 26, but Wells would battle back and the pair would take the white flag, with Keltner holding a car length lead.  Wells would mount a charge off of turn two on the final lap and pull alongside Keltner in turn three and four and would make the winning pass just before the start/finish line, winning the race by about three feet in the David Wells owned Blackstar Resources/B&W Resources/ Wells Logging/Expressions Floral and Gifts/Convenient Lube/Virginia Drilling sponsored #18 Rocket Chassis, Custom Race Engines powered machine.  Webb would also make a last pass of Tungate to claim the third spot at the checkered flag, with Wheeler completing the top five.  The remainder of the top ten were Victor Lee, Mike Jewell, Rocky Hodges, Tyrel Todd, and Aaron Hatton.  In preliminary action, Johnny Wheeler would be the Racing Optics Top Qualifier among 34 entries with a lap of 15.783 seconds.  Heat race checkered flags went to Wheeler in Wayne Bowen Racing Supply heat one, Brad Neat in K&N Performance Engineering heat two, Tim Tungate in Graphic Impressions heat three, and Victor Lee Real Racing Wheels heat four.  The B-mains would be won by Jesse Lay and Larry Gray.  Arnie Fields and Royce McGowan would take series provisional starts, while track provisional starting spots were taken by Dustin Neat and Bryant Woodcock. 

The WBRT 1320-AM Sportsman feature event would see Pat Hagan and Roger Cecil duel for the race win the 15 lap caution free main event, with Hagan holding off the charges of Cecil to pick up the Sportsman division main event checkered flag in the Billy Holbert owned, Century 21/New Haven Car Wash/New Haven NAPA/New Haven Quik Stop/ Holbert Recordsetters sponsored #88 Chevy Monte Carlo mount.  Cecil would hold off Avral Thompson for the runner-up spot, with Thompson taking third.  Sam Huffer would win a race-long battle with Rob Jones to claim the fourth position at the finish.  The remainder of the top ten would be Daroyl Samples, Paul Lewis, Jr., Lois Campbell, Roger Dell, and Robert Brown.  Cecil would be top qualifier among 14 entries and also win the dash, while Samples would score the heat race win.

Benji Lee would open a sizable lead toward the end of the Kentucky Cooperage Modified main event and would survive a pair of restarts with two laps remaining to pick up the Open Wheel main event for the evening in the Thompson Heat and Air/Smart Shoppers/Springfield Auto and Farm Supply/B&B Motorsports/St. Joe Garage/Kirker Automotive Finishes/Brian Ballard Motorsports sponsored #03 Bandit Race Cars, Dale Meers Race Engines powered machine.  Jason Wheatley would take runner-up honors, with Dion Benningfield taking third.  Randy Turpin would recover from an early race spin to come home fourth, while Joe Mattingly would round out the top five.  Completing the top ten were Brad Schlosser, Jeff Stith, Whit Salyers, Todd Noel, and Freddy Garmon.  Heat race winners among fifteen entries would be Benji Lee and Jeff Stith.

SUMMARY-Bluegrass Speedway-Bardstown, KY-June 14, 2008

O’Reilly Battle of the Bluegrass DirtCar Series Super Late Models (34 entries)

Racing Optics Top Qualifier- Johnny Wheeler 15.783

Wayne Bowen Racing Supply Heat #1(Top 4 Advance)- Johnny Wheeler, Mike Jewell, Rob Starkey, Chris Combs, Jesse Lay, Whitney McQueary, Tim Prince, Joey Daniel, Jason Jamison

K&N Performance Engineering Heat #2 (Top 4 Advance)- Brad Neat, Jason Keltner, Aaron Hatton, Scotty Earl, Royce McGowan, Ed Behn, Jacob Webber, Scottie Jones (DNS-Joe Godsey)

Graphic Impressions Heat #3 (Top 4 Advance)- Tim Tungate, Tyrel Todd, Derek Fisher, David Webb, Bobby Wolter, Jr., Arnie Fields, Chad Stapleton, Dustin Neat

Real Racing Wheels Heat #4 (Top 4 Advance)- Victor Lee, Eric Wells, Rocky Hodges, Cody Mahoney, Larry Gray, Zach Carney, Bryant Woodcock (DNS-Brian Wilhite)

B-Main #1 (Top 2 Advance)- Jesse Lay, Whitney McQueary, Ed Behn, Jacob Webber, Jason Jamison, Scottie Jones

B-Main #2 (Top 2 Advance)- Larry Gray, Zach Carney, Bobby Wolter, Jr., Dustin Neat, Chad Stapleton, Arnie Fields, Bryant Woodcock 

Series Provisionals- Arnie Fields, Royce McGowan

Track Provisionals- Dustin Neat, Bryant Woodcock     

7^th Annual June Jam O’Reilly A-Main- Eric Wells, Jason Keltner, David Webb, Tim Tungate, Johnny Wheeler, Victor Lee, Mike Jewell, Rocky Hodges, Tyrel Todd, Aaron Hatton, Jesse Lay, Cody Mahoney, Scotty Earl, Zach Carney, Whitney McQueary, Arnie Fields, Larry Gray, Bryant Woodcock, Derek Fisher, Rob Starkey, Royce McGowan, Brad Neat, Dustin Neat, Chris Combs

WBRT 1320-AM Sportsman (14 entries)

Top Qualifier- Roger Cecil

Dash- Roger Cecil, Pat Hagan, Sam Huffer, Avral Thompson, Rob Jones, Grady Moore, Jr.

Heat- Daroyl Samples, Lois Campbell, Paul Lewis, Jr., Roger Dell

Feature- Pat Hagan, Roger Cecil, Avral Thompson, Sam Huffer, Rob Jones, Daroyl Samples, Paul Lewis, Jr., Lois Campbell, Roger Dell, Robert Brown, Grady Moore, Jr. (DNS-Matt Lewis, Elton Martin, Homer Barger)

Kentucky Cooperage Modifieds (15 entries)

1^st Heat- Benji Lee, Freddy Garmon, Joe Mattingly, Johnny Lee

2^nd Heat- Jeff Stith, Jason Wheatley, Randy Turpin, Brad Schlosser