NCRA/BST @ Belleville 7-3-2011

After the drive back from Dodge I just had time to send off a few pics of the Outlaws and it was time to head to the High Banks. I'd been watching for news of Kelly Boen since he isn't racing as much this year and wasn't surprised to see he was not at the track. I asked Dean Moore about him and he said Kelly had really wanted to be here, but a health issue (not Kelly) had come up and kept him from making the trip. A Late Model show at Belleville without Kelly just doesn't seem right after the success he's had here, but these things happen.

Since there were two mod groups in addition to the LMs, AND mud holes from a 2 inch rain, the pit area was a confused mess as it often is and I wasn't able to get IDs on all of the mod drivers. If anyone sees a name I have wrong, e-mail me and I'll fix it. One name I almost got wrong was on the 97 car. I saw it and just wrote in Murray's name. It wasn't til later that I saw Brandon and asked where his car was. He told me about tearing his up and David letting him run the #97.

Congrats to Steve Burch, Marc Hurd, and Steve Kempt on their wins!!

Bill Siemers (11) & Jon Thompson.

Kirk Coleman & Tyler Davis (65).

Colorado boys Will Brack (15) and Jeff Hunter.

Brack & another Colorado driver Brad Boyer.

Steve Burch and Brandon Blochlinger in David Murray's #97.

Brendon Gemmill (G3), Brack, & Boyer.

Smokin' Joe is REALLY smokin' here!

Cleveland tried to move up out of the way, but Tim Watts had already dodged to the high side and got caught up.

Joe was done, but Watts restarted after this.

The start of heat three.....or NCRA heat #1.

Darrick Klima (2) gets by Marlin Farr.

Ross Shipman (91) and Tyler Davis.

Robbie Andersen (82) and Steve Kempt.

Ditto

Andersen & Joe Kosiski

Oops, Denton Duncan seems to have a "wardrobe malfunction".

Flyin' Ryan Gaylord (15), Cody Gearhart (1), & Troy Gemmill in the BST feature.

Gaylord and Brandon Blochlinger (97).

Will Brack and Brendon Gemmill.

Steve Burch seemed to have it sewn up til Matt Brack got on his bumper with a couple of laps to go. Brack couldn't get around him and Burch held on to win the BST feature.

A Gemmill and a Brack.........again.

The Gemmills

Gettin' ready for the NCRA mod feature.

The crowd cheers as the field passes in the 4-wide salute. C Ray's up there at the entrance.

These two, Marc Hurd (10) and Darrick Klima, really dominated their heats and a real showdown appeared to be coming.

Dan Hodge (8) & Jon Thompson.

One of the restarts. You can see the car of  Dan Powers getting punted. This started a chain reaction that resulted in a red flag and ended Powers' night.

Let's try that again. Josh Lanterman (4a) has moved up to fill the gap.

Ross Shipman (91), Mike Jarvis (77), & Brett Behrends.

Kirk Coleman & Darrick Klima.

Klima & Tyler Davis.

Marc Hurd was really strong on the restarts and built up a commanding lead on his way to winning the NCRA Modified feature.

Steve Kempt (90) got a jump on Billy Koons Jr on the start of the feature and never looked back.

Jimmy Segraves & Dean Moore.

William Keeney (20), David Conkwright (22), & Ronnie Warman.

Kempt cruising to the win.

Keeney & Segraves.

Robbie Andersen & Wylon Petrie (49).

Segraves & Moore.

Steve Kempt putting a lap on Denton Duncan.

Shawn Harker (40) and Keeney.

Joe Kosiski and Bill Koons (29).

Conkwright & Dean Duncan.

I've seen a lot of guys climb on top of their cars, but... Steve Kempt seems happy about his win.

Tonight I did use flash because the light here isn't as bright as at Dodge. I still have to downsize the pics a lot to get them to upload in my lifetime so the quality suffers quite a bit. This still gives fans who can't make it a good visual of the race.