Al Purkey notches O'Reilly MLRA win at Winston Speedway
by: Clint Brown

Winston, Mo. (April 8, 2006) - Al Purkey stepped into the winner's circle for the first time in 2006 as the O'Reilly MLRA visited Winston Speedway. The win also vaulted the four time and defending champion into the point lead for the 2006 Thunder Tour championship.

Purkey rolled off from outside row one and began a battle with pole sitter Johnny Bone Jr. that would last almost 3/4 of the 30 lap event. Working through lapped traffic on lap 17 Purkey found the line that allowed him to take over the top spot and then used traffic and cautions to his advantage to hold on for the win. Behind him Joe Kosiski came from inside of row three to take away the runner up spot from Bone late in the going with Chris Smyser and 19th starting Charlie Randolph rounding out the top five.

A total of 40 cars signed into the pits for the nights activities with Mike Brown, Chad Frewaldt, Joe Kosiski, CJ Lyle, and Larry Clawson topping heat race action. Eric Anderson and Chris Smyser raced their way into the feature event by taking the two B feature wins.

The O'Reilly MLRA will take a small break and be back in action on Saturday, May 6 at Glenn and Colleen Portzen's Adrian Speedway in Adrian, MO.

For all the latest news and information on the O'Reilly MLRA visit us on the web at www.mlraracing.com or by calling (816) 650-5063 or (816) 305-6572.

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Full Results
Winston Speedway
April 8, 2006

Heat 1
1) Mike Brown, 2) Jeff French, 3) Alan Vaughn, 4) Chris Smyser, 5) Tommy Cordray, 6) Aaron Seabaugh, 7) Charlie Randolph, 8) Shane Essary

Heat 2
1) Chad Frewaldt, 2) David Turner, 3) Jim Morris, 4) Jason Bodenhamer, 5) Corey Zeitner, 6) Troy McKee, 7) PJ Haskins, 8) Daniel Detweiler

Heat 3
1) Joe Kosiski, 2) Al Purkey, 3) Scott Drake, 4) Ryan Vicker, 5) Craig Preble, 6) TJ Kuykendall, 7) Gary Billings, 8) Jeff Schlup

Heat 4
1) CJ Lyle, 2) Greg Larsen, 3) Jason Estes, 4) Dale Eaton, 5) Brett LaFollette, 6) David Barker, 7) Mark Evinger, 8) Bryon Allison

Heat 5
1) Larry Clawson, 2) Johnny Bone Jr., 3) Mark Wyman, 4) Eric Anderson, 5) Vic Austin, 6) Paul Glendenning, 7) Shad Badder, 8) Keith Lewandowski

B Feature 1
1) Eric Anderson, 2) Charlie Randolph, 3) Aaron Seabaugh, 4) Brett LaFollette, 5) PJ Haskins, 6) Ryan Vicker, 7) Vic Austin, 8) TJ Kuykendall,
9) Corey Zeitner, 10) Shad Badder, 11) Byron Allison

B Feature 2
1) Chris Smyser, 2) David Barker, 3) Tommy Cordray, 4) Craig Preble, 5) Dale Eaton, 6) Gary Billings, 7) Shane Essary, 8) Paul Glendenning, 9) Jeff Schlup, 10) Mark Evinger, 11) Keith Lewandowski, 12) Troy McKee

A Feature
1) Al Purkey, 2) Joe Kosiski, 3) Johnny Bone Jr., 4) Chris Smyser, 5) Charlie Randolph, 6) Alan Vaughn, 7) CJ Lyle, 8) Mike Brown, 9) Chad Frewaldt, 10) Scott Drake, 11) Jason Estes, 12) Mark Wyman, 13) Jason Bodenhamer, 14) Eric Anderson, 15) Greg Larsen, 16) David Turner, 17) David Barker, 18) Craig Preble, 19) Brett LaFollette, 20) Jeff French, 21) Jim Morris, 22) Larry Clawson

Performance Bodies Nose Piece: Alan Vaughn
Weld Wheels Hard Charger: Charlie Randolph