The 2006 National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame Inductee, Ken ‘The Flying Farmer’ Essary of Cape Fair, MO dominated night three of the O’Reilly MARS / NCRA co-sanctioned ‘Showdown in the Heartland’ at Monett Speedway Sunday night June 28, 2009. 

Earning the most passing points, Essary qualified on the pole for the 30 lap feature with four-time and defending MARS champion Terry Phillips of Springfield, MO to his outside. Essary would take the early lead, but soon after the nights first caution flag would wave on lap 4 as Larry Jones of El Dorado Springs, MO and Jason O’Brien of Atlantic, IA would get together in turn four, neither able to continue. 

Phillips would work underneath Essary on the double-file restart and take the lead on lap 6. Phillips continued to lead until lap 15, when a caution flag would come out for Jeremy Payne of Springfield, MO and Bill Koons of Omaha, NE who got together at the exit of turn four, ending their night.  While track workers were clearing the track, Phillips would turn into the infield with a flat right rear tire, giving the lead back to Essary and sending Phillips to the back of the pack.  

Flanked by MARS points leader, Eric Turner of Hermitage, MO and 2002 NCRA champion Kyle Berck of Marquette, NE on the double file restart, Essary had his work cut out for him.  The nights third caution would wave on the restart as third running Berck, cut a right rear tire and would have to restart tailback.  Essary’s worries were not over as the next restart would have Turner and now two-time NCRA champion Al Purkey of Coffeyville, KS right behind him.  

With a champion laden field behind him, Essary continued to work his car to perfection on the restart, as the next fourteen laps went caution free, giving Essary his first ever O’Reilly MARS DIRTcar Series victory. 

The O’Reilly MARS / NCRA, ‘Showdown in the Heartland’ three race challenge concludes with the MARS series claiming bragging rights as MARS cars get two wins, Essary (Monett Speedway) and Turner (81 Speedway) and NCRA cars pick up one win, Berck (Brill’s Motor Speedway).

Next up for the MARS Series will be July 10th at Midway Speedway in Lebanon, MO and July 11th at Springfield Raceway in Springfield, MO.

Information regarding the MARS series can be found at www.marsracingseries.com. Information on NCRA can be found at www.ncraracing.org. 

The O’Reilly MARS DIRTcar Series would like to thank their sponsors for the 2009 season. O’Reilly Auto Parts, Hoosier Racing Tire, Larry Shaw Race Cars, Powertrain Industries, Bilstein Shocks, VP Race Fuels, Wrisco Aluminum, GRT Race Cars, Hatfield Racing Engines, Supermoon Graphics, CJ Rayburn Race Cars, Ron’s Racing Collectibles, Allstate Insurance, Outlaw Racing Engines and Dixie Stampede.

Feature finish: 1) Ken Essary, 2) Eric Turner, 3) Al Purkey, 4) Brandon McCormick, 5) Cory Zeitner, 6) Gary Christian, 7) Terry Phillips, 8) Jason Frieson, 9) Tony Jackson Jr., 10) Kyle Berck, 11) Mike Collins, 12) Darrell Mooneyham, 13) Jason Bodenhammer, 14) Scott Koskovich, 15) Rylan Long, 16) Steve Johnson, 17) Steve Kempt, 18) Bill Koons, 19) Jeremy Payne, 20) Shane Essary, 21) Larry Jones, 22) Jason O’Brien

Heat race winners were: Ken Essary, Terry Phillips, Kyle Berck, Eric Turner

B main winner: Brandon McCormick

81 Speedway

Park City, KS

David Smith, Jr.

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Park City, Kansas - June 27, 2009 - After starting on the pole the previous night and fading to a sixth place finish, Eric Turner of Hermitage, Missouri vowed not to let that happen again as he led wire to wire the thirty lap O'Reilly/NCRA late model Cherokee Casino-Resort feature finale Saturday night at 81 Speedway in Park City, Kansas. It was the second night of "Showdown in the Heartland" with the Missouri based O/Reilly MARSDIRT car series.

 

Starting on the pole, Turner out gunned fellow front row starter Cory Zeitner into turn one to take the lead as the green flag fell. Seventh starting Kelly Boen quickly moved his way into the front, taking over the runner up position from Zeitner on lap two and looked to set his sights on the leader.

 

But Turner, aboard the Russian Towing sponsored Team GRT stuck to the top side of the track where he was never seriously challenged during the caution free Cherokee Casino-Resort finale. The only close call was an encounter with lapped traffic near the races halfway point but Turner had his Hatfield Racing Engine powered to the top groove and would go on to take the ten car length victory.

 

"It felt good up on the top and I wasn't about to move," said Turner in victory lane. "This was a momentum deal and I knew with the experience with the people behind me that I better not screw it up.

 

Defending series champion Boen settled for second while former two-time series champion worked his way into a third place finish after starting sixth. After fading back to eleventh after getting bottled up at the start, defending MARS DIRTCar champion Terry Phillips worked his way back up in the late stages of the race to finish fourth. Jason O'Brien rounded out the top five.

 

Eight lap heat races for the thirty-nine car field were won by O'Brien, Zeitner, Jeremy Payne, Turner and Purkey while Kyle Berck and Ronnie Wallace took home the two, twelve lap "B" features.

 

The O'Reilly/NCRA and O'Reilly/MARS DIRTcar series will conclude the three race "Showdown in the Heartland" Sunday night at Monett Speedway in Monett, Missouri.

 

39 Cars

1st Heat: 1) 15 Jason O'Brien 2) 22C Dave Conkwright 3) 18 Rylan Long 4) 3J Jimmy Segraves 5) 2b Jason Bodenhamer 6) 25T Tyler Gottschalk 7) 28 LeRoy Johnson 8) 56 Tony Jackson Jr.

2nd Heat: 1) 26JR Corey Zeitner 2) 75 Terry Phillips 3) 42 Brandon McCormick 4) 14 Kyle Berck 5) 52 Ryan McAninch 6) 16 Richard Leatherman 7) 29 Bill Koons 8) 49 Wylan Petrie

3rd Heat: 1) 74 Jeremy Payne 2) 20 Darrell Mooneyham 3) 1F Jason Friesen 4) 80 Scott Koskovich 5) 90 Steve Kempt 6) 701 David Brack 7) 99 Cliff Murrow 8) 64 Greg Larson

4th Heat: 1) 14 JR Eric Turner 2) 58X Gary Christian 3) 07 Kelly Boen 4) 3RW Ronnie Wallace 5) 3 Mike Collins 6) 7C Ted Martin 7) 24B David Blocher 8) 66 Todd Doty

5th Heat: 1) 33 Al Purkey 2) 92 Delbert Smith 3) 21W Ronnie Warman 4) 40 Shawn Harker 5) 59 Brad Fortney 6) 22 Craig Preble 7) Mike Furthmyer

1sat B Feature: 1) 14 Kyle Berck 2) 42 Brandon McCormick 3) 2B Jason Bodenhamer 4) 3J Jimmy Segraves 5) 80 Scott Koskovich 6) 59 Brad Fortney 7) 90 Steve Kempt 8) 16 Richard Leatherman 9) 29 Bill Koons 10) 22 Craig Preble 11) 49 Wylan Petrie 12) 99 Cliff Murrow 13) 3F Mike Furthmyer 14) 66 Todd Doty

2nd B Feature: 1) 3RW Ronnie Wallace 2) 52 Ryan McAninch 3) 3 Mike Collins 4) 7C Ted Martin 5) 701 David Brack 6) 25T Tyler Gottschalk 7) 24B David Blocher 8) 64 Greg Larson 9) 18 Rylan Long 10) 21W Ronnie Warman 11) 40 Shawn Harker 12) 28 LeRoy Johnson 13) 56 Tony Jackson Jr.

Cherkee Casino-Resort A Feature: 1) 14JR Eric Turner 2) 07 Kelly Boen 3) 33 Al Purkey 4) 75 Terry Phillips 5) 15 Jason O'Brien 6) 26JR Corey Zeitner 7) 14 Kyle Berck 8) 42 Brandon McCormick 9) 2B Jason Bodenhamer 10) 92 Delbert Smith 11) 3RW Ronniw Wallace 12) Ryan McAninch 13) 58X Gary Christian 14) 22C Dave Conkwright 15) 56 Tony Jackson Jr. 16) 20 Darrell Mooneyham 17) 1F Jason Friesen 18) 22 Craig Preble 19) 3 Mike Collins 20) 90 Steve Kempt 21) 18 Rylan Long 22) 74 Jeremy Payne

Lap Leaders: Turner 1-30

Brill Motor Speedway

Meeker, Oklaoma

June 26, 2009

From: David Smith Jr. NCRA PR

33 Cars from six states

HEAT 1 - 1, Eric Turner. 2, Scott Koskovich. 3, Cory Zeitner. 4, Jeremy Payne. 5, Tony Jackson, Jr. 6, Bill Koons. 7, Steve Kempt. 8, Eddie Martin. 9, Brian Wolfe.

HEAT 2 - 1, Ronnie Wallace. 2, Mike Collins. 3, Ronnie Warman. 4, Greg Larsen. 5, Craig Preble. 6, Wylan Petrie. 7, Leroy Johnson. 8, Shawn Harker.

HEAT 3 - 1, Terry Phillips. 2, Kyle Berck. 3, Jason Obrien. 4, Brandon McCormick. 5, Jason Frieson. 6, Steve Johnson. 7, Randy Mitchell. 8, Ronnie Spurgeon.

HEAT 4 - 1, Kelly Boen. 2, Jason Bodenhamer. 3, Gary Christian. 4, Al Purkey. 5, Darrell Mooneyham. 6, Rylan Long. 7, Jimmy Segraves. 8, Cliff Morrow.

B FEATURE - 1, Brandon McCormick. 2, Darrell Mooneyham. 3, Jason Obrien. 4, Jimmy Segraves. 5, Craig Preble. 6, Steve Johnson. 7, Leroy Johnson. 8, Wylan Petrie. 9, Shawn Harker. 10, Brian Wolfe. DNS: Cliff Morrow.

B FEATURE - 1, Cory Zeitner. 2, Al Purkey. 3, Jason Frieson. 4, Tony Jackson, Jr. 5, Steve Kempt. 6, Bill Koons. 7, Rylan Long. 8, Eddie Martin. 9, Randy Mitchell. 10, Ronnie Spurgeon.

CHEROKEE CASINO-RESORT A FEATURE 1, Kyle Berck. 2, Jason Bodenhamer. 3, Kelly Boen. 4, Brandon McCormick. 5, Jeremy Payne. 6, Eric Turner. 7, Al Purkey. 8, Ronnie Wallace. 9, Jason Frieson. 10, Gary Christian. 11, Mike Collins. 12, Cory Zeitner. 13, Tony Jackson, Jr. 14, Ronnie Warman. 15, Shawn Harker. 16, Steve Kempt. 17, Darrell Mooneyham. 18, Rylan Long. 19, Terry Phillips. 20, Greg Larsen. 21, Scott Koskovich. 22, Jason Obrien.

Lap leaders: Eric Turner 1-10; Berck 11-30

Turner started on the pole and took off to a strong eight car lead at the start. Ronnie Wallace, fifth starting Berck, Phillips and Bodenhamer your top five after lap one.....Phillips would start making his move to the front by lap three as he took over the runner up position.....Yellow flags on lap eight, fifteen and twenty-five.....Berck would get a run around Turner down the backstretch and took the lead for good by using the high side of the track in turns three and four on lap eleven.....Past the caution at the races midway point, Phillips was commited to the low side of the track while Berck was not leaving the top that had done him so well......Side by side in turns three and four from around laps 19-25 before the leaders began entering lapped traffic.....Down the front stretch for lap twenty-five, both drivers dove low to go underneath the lapped car when Berck and Phillips made contact, sending Phillips for a spin.....Phillips goes to work area but damage too much for him to continue......Bodenhamer challenged Berck on the restart but Berck just to strong and held on for the eight car length lead.....Boen struggled to finish third from his fourth starting position......McCormick won the first "B" feature, started eleventh and came through the field to finish a strong fourth in a wire finish with Payne (up from tenth) and Eric Turner within two car lengths of each other.