By J M Hallas

Waco, Tx., (Sept 25th, 2009) After a two week delay after Mother Nature spread her wrath, the 5th Annual IMCA Southern SportMod Nationals kicked off Friday night with qualifying heats, B-mains and A-main qualifier for Saturday night’s $2,000 to win finale. Cars from all over the region, state and surrounding states signed in with nearly 60 entries vying to for the 24-car starting field.

Also racing were the IMCA Modifieds, IMCA Hobby Stock, Street Stocks, Pure Stocks, Cruisers, Twisters and Jr. Mini Stocks all finishing out their season points races. All classes would run features only starting straight up by points.

On display in the pit area was a roll-over simulator brought from New Mexico by Paul Lapaire, from the Ryan Bard Safety Foundation. Lapaire has been an innovator in safety devices since the loss of his son-in-law to be, Ryan Bard. Along with “Flipr” the simulator, Lapaire has also developed a simple, inexpensive spring devise to help hold fuel cell flapper valves flat to eliminate spills in case of a rollover.

Home Track Edge Works for White
Local ace Keith White used home track advantage to his benefit taking the first step towards a second IMCA Southern SportsMod title. White, who started eighth, patiently worked his way forward and was in the right spot at the right time when Leader, Eric Tomlinson suffered problems. White eased away the final laps to grab the win.

As green waved on the 24-car field Steven Abbey beat Scotty Wallace into turn 1 for the lead. Wallace suffered a flat right rear and coming down the front stretch got run over triggering a chain reaction accident that collected seven other cars. S. Abbey again got the lead on the next start with Tomlinson, Kenneth Graves and Jacob Pirkle in pursuit. Pirkle got around Graves for third as the top three sorted out, while the rest of the field was still side by side.

JP Dowell looked outside Graves for fourth on lap 4 and nearly got squeezed into the back stretch wall. Dowell finally completed the pass on lap 5. White then moved in on Graves and almost found the same spot on the back stretch wall when Graves again drifted up coming out of turn 2. S. Abbey had his night go bad on lap 7 after a trip through the infield and then to the pits. This handed the lead to Tomlinson on lap 8.

White eventually got past Graves and closed on Dowell, while Tomlinson pulled away from Pirkle. Yellow waved on lap 11 when Ronnie Welborn and Chris Cogburn made contact sending Cogburn around and into the mud. On the restart, Tomlinson got away clean, with Pirkle trying to hold off White for second. Dean Abbey lost the door panel to quickly bring the caution back out.

The next try was single file with White looking high on Pirkle for the spot. White again tried the high side on lap 12 before ducking under Pirkle on lap 13 to get the position. White quickly closed on Tomlinson who was beginning to slow with handling issues. White snagged the lead on lap 14 while Tomlinson slowed dramatically. Don Painter then ran up the back of the slowed Tomlinson ending both their nights.

White then began stretching out his advantage over Pirkle and Dowell who held a good margin back to Chase Jupe, Graves, Welborn, Brandon Stewart and Cary Stephens, who held down the final transfer. With two to go, White had built a half straightaway lead, while Mark McDaniel and Jeff Turner joined the fight for eighth. At the checkers it was the track champion, White in the Traceys Auto Sales, Braka Operating, TCI, Amsoil, Tubbs Paint & Body, D&S Painting, Cen-Tex Motorsports, Stephenville Starter, Belton Metals, Carroll’s powered Big Chief Chassis.

“I think we had something for Eric(Tomlinson),” replied White. “He was kind of running the middle to the bottom, and I was running ther top. I think if I had snuck up on him and got him cleared I would have been OK. I got hung up behind the 4g(Kenneth Graves) and the 210(Jacob Pirkle) they were hitting the ruts and bouncing over in front of me.

“We redrew a six and there’s a lot of racing tomorrow. We don’t know how the track’s going to be tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a track we can pass on. As much rain as we’ve had they did an excellent job with the track and the pits. It was racey even as rough as it was.”

“I need to concentrate on the SportMod. I need this win and need the points. I’ll be all over the car tomorrow to make sure nothing is going to fall off of it.”

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Tags: cruisers, fuel, hallas, heart-o-texas, Heart-O-Texas Speedway, IMCA, Modified, modifieds, nationals, robinson, ryan bard, speedway, sportmod, stocks, sustaire, Wallace