Brian Birkhofer claims Superchips Diamond Nationals Victory

BUCKNER, MO (May 12, 2007) - Brian Birkhofer rolled into Lucas Oil Speedway with one thing on his mind and that was to capture the top spot of the first annual SuperChips Diamond Nationals and the $25,000 payday that went along with it. When the two day event wrapped up Birkhofer and his team had accomplished their goal and found themselves claiming the winner's check along with a beautiful diamond ring commemorating the victory.

On the initial start Don O'Neal jumped from outside of the front row to grab the top spot and quickly opened a six car length advantage over second place John Anderson. The field was slowed on the 13th circuit for the spun machine of Michael England in turn four. On the restart Birkhofer moved into the runner-up spot and began to pressure O'Neal for the top spot running low on the track. With seventeen laps in the books the top three of O'Neal, Birkhofer, and Anderson ran nose to tail. Anderson made a daring move on lap 19 to move from third to first coming off the fourth turn and quickly created a five car length gap back to second running O'Neal.

The laps clicked off and Anderson found himself hitting lapped traffic just right and opened his lead up to seven car lengths while behind him the battle raged for fourth with Billy Moyer and Wendell Wallace running side by side for the fourth spot. The yellow flew again on lap 29 for the machine of Chris Simpson as suspension problems sent him to the pits. On the restart Anderson opened up his margin again, but behind him Donnie Moran was the man on the move as he moved into the top ten after starting in the 24 position.

Lap 35 saw the field slow again as the 74 machine of Jeremy Payne slowed in turn two with smoke coming from the rear of his machine. On the restart Steve Shave began to make his presence known as he pulled alongside Moyer for the fourth position. Anderson continued to set the pace up front with Birkhofer moving past O'Neal for second on lap 41 and to set sail for the top spot. Birkhofer made the move to the low side of turn two on the 45th lap to take the top spot from Anderson while Shaver also moved past O'Neal for the third spot.

Once out front Birkhofer stretched out his lead at the halfway mark with the yellow flying on lap 58 for Freddie Smith's stopped machine in turn two. When the green flag waved Birkhofer held onto the top spot, but once in lapped traffic he began to have problems maneuvering around them and Anderson was able to pull right on his bumper. Anderson would try the high side of the track again with less than ten to go in an attempt to get past Birkhofer, but couldn't quite pull it off.

The yellow waved for the machine of Justin Rattliff on lap 97 and that would give Anderson one more chance at Birkhofer, but he just couldn't make the move stick and Birkhofer held on for the win. Shaver, O'Neal, and Wendell Wallace followed Birkhofer and Anderson across the line to complete the top five.

Sixty cars signed in for the first annual event with Billy Moyer, Don O'Neal, Dan Schlieper, John Anderson, Steve Shaver, and Brian Birkhofer claimed the heat wins. Terry English and Brandon McCormick gabbed spots in the feature event by virtue of taking the wins in the two B Feature events.

Next up for the O'Reilly MLRA is the first visit of 2007 to Adrian Speedway on Saturday, May 19.

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Full Results
SuperChips Diamond Nationals presented by O'Reilly Auto Parts Lucas Oil Speedway May 12, 2007

Heat 1
1) Billy Moyer, 2) Damon Eller, 3) Freddy Smith, 4) Gary Stolba, 5) Terry Phillips, 6) Eric Jacobsen, 7) JD Hubert, 8) Scott Bloomquist, 9) Garrett Durrett, 10) Tim Manville

Heat 2
1) Don O'Neal, 2) Justin Rattliff, 3) Earl Pearson Jr., 4) Terry English, 5) Jason Bodenhamer, 6) Matt Miller, 7) Jeremy Payne, 8) Rickey Frankel, 9) Brantlee Gotschall, 10) Shad Badder

Heat 3
1) Dan Schlieper, 2) Wendell Wallace, 3) Billy Drake, 4) Scott Drake, 5) Alan Vaughn, 6) Denny Eckrich, 7) Todd Morrow, 8) Christian Rayburn, 9) Steve Rushin, 10) Brad Neat

Heat 4
1) John Anderson, 2) Darren Miller, 3) Michael England, 4) Al Purkey, 5) Brad Looney, 6) Daniel Anders, 7) John Mason, 8) Jeremy Watts, 9) Johnny Fennewald, 10) Chris Smyser

Heat 5
1) Steve Shaver, 2) Steve Casebolt, 3) Scott James, 4) Brandon McCormick, 5) David Turner, 6) David Barker, 7) PJ Haskins, 8) Larry Clawson, 9) Donnie Moran, 10) Randy Zimmerman

Heat 6
1) Brian Birkhofer, 2) Chris Simpson, 3) Brian Harris, 4) Todd Schute, 5) Andrew McKay, 6) Mike Collins, 7) Rylan Long, 8) Richard Foster, 9) Jacob Murray

B Feature #1
1) Terry English, 2) Scott Drake, 3) Terry Phillips, 4) Jason Bodenhamer, 5) Eric Jacobsen, 6) Scott Bloomquist, 7) Denny Eckrich, 8) Todd Morrow, 9) Brad Neat, 10) Shad Badder, 11) Garrett Durrett, 12) Brantlee Gotschall, 13) Gary Stolba, 14) Alan Vaughn, 15) Jeremy Payne, 16) Christian Rayburn, 17) JD Hubert, 18) Rickey Frankel, 19) Steve Rushin, 20) Matt Miller

B Feature #2
1) Brandon McCormick, 2) Al Purkey, 3) Todd Shute, 4) Brad Looney, 5) Andrew McKay, 6) David Turner, 7) John Mason, 8) Jacob Murray, 9) Donnie Moran, 10) David Barker, 11) Mike Collins, 12) Rylan Long, 13) Jeremy Watts, 14) Daniel Anders, 15) Richard Foster, 16) PJ Haskins

A Feature
1) Brian Birkhofer, 2) John Anderson, 3) Steve Shaver, 4) Don O'Neal, 5) Wendell Wallace, 6) Steve Casebolt, 7) Dan Schlieper, 8) Billy Moyer, 9) Darren Miller, 10) Donnie Moran, 11) Scott James, 12) Earl Pearson Jr., 13) Damon Eller, 14) Terry English, 15) Matt Miller, 16) Michael England, 17) Al Purkey, 18) Justin Rattliff, 19) Brian Harris, 20) Freddy Smith, 21) Brandon McCormick, 22) Billy Drake, 23) Jeremy Payne, 24) Terry Phillips, 25) Scott Drake, 26) Chris Simpson