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Poore Continues Winning Ways; Bice, Hoppes and Oakes Score Heat
Victories
(April 26, 2011) –
Anderson’s Josh Poore made it two wins in a row in the EDCO Welding
Street Stock division in 2011, taking the lead on lap 40 of the CRA feature
when Dave Bice lost the rear-end on his mount.
A strong field of 29 competitors made the trip to Anderson Speedway last
Saturday for the first appearance of the Champion Racing Association
division.
There was plenty of side by side action during the 50-lap feature which saw
the race slowed only four times for caution periods.
Danny Smith led the first 26 laps when Bice passed him with an outside move
entering turn three.
Poore, the fast qualifier, started tenth in the field as a result of the
inversion and moved into the top five after 17 circuits.
Following a restart on lap 17, Poore was the driver on the move. He passed
Shawn Cullen going down the back straight and slipped Smith on lap 28 with a
power move to the outside entering turn one.
For the next 12 laps Poore looked high and low for a way around Bice, who
wouldn’t surrender the low groove. The front-runners split lapped traffic at
least twice, but Bice continued to lead until his Chevrolet started spewing
smoke.
Poore held off Smith on a final restart with six laps remaining with Josh
Myers, Steve Christman and Jeff Lane rounding out the top five.
During qualifying, Poore set a new CRA Street Stock track record turning a
lap at 13.766-seconds to better the mark set by Scott Neal of 13.801-seconds
last June 29.
Bice led wire to wire to win the first of three heat races chased by Nick
Moore, Ronnie Rose, Jeff Lane and Cullen.
Although there was no change in position among the top five drivers, the
racing was tight with less than a second separating the podium finishes at
the checkers.
Markleville’s Randy Hoppes took advantage of the double file restart on lap
seven of the second feature to use the high line to pass Larry Lathan
entering turn one and went on to record the victory.
Smith also used the outside line down the back straight to pass Lathan. A
lap later Lathan got loose coming off turn two, after some help, and slowed
to regain control of his Chevrolet.
Lathan took the lead at the start chased by Hoppes and JJ Schafer, who
slowed suddenly on the fourth circuit.
Once Hoppes grabbed the lead he held off a closing Smith by .152-seconds
followed by Jacob McElfresh, Mark Mason and Jason Drummond.
The third heat produced plenty of close racing and lots of passing for
position with Frankie Oakes making the decisive move at the halfway point
with an outside pass of Bryan Gumbert entering turn three.
Missy Perry took the early lead, but surrendered it to Gumbert on the second
circuit.
The driver on the move in the second half of the race was Billy Van Meter,
who passed Pam Neal on the fourth lap to move into fourth and two laps later
slipped outside of Gumbert entering turn one.
Oakes held off Van Meter on a restart with three laps remaining and Neal,
Gumbert and Jonathan Zigler followed the duo to the finish.
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