Jeremy Payne grabs O'Reilly MLRA win at LA Raceway
by: Clint Brown


LaMONTE, MO. (Sept. 15, 2006) - The O'Reilly MLRA rolled into LA Raceway on Friday night for the second 2006 visit to the central Missouri facility and young Jeremy Payne battled his way through the field to take his second series win in a row.

Steve Kosiski lead the field to the green flag and moved to the front at the drop of the green with a hungry Scott Drake nipping at his heels. The front pair put on a spirited side by side battle that had the fans on their feet with Drake pulling off the move and taking over the top spot on the fourth lap.

The caution flag flew with seven laps in the books for the spun machine of Shane Essary in turn 1. On the restart Drake and Kosiski continued out front followed by sixth starting Payne, Ken Essary, and Al Purkey. Behind the front group Alan Vaughn and David Turner began to battle side by side, but the driver catching everybody's attention was John Hampel who had moved into tenth after coming through the nights B feature.

Lap 12 saw the field slowed by the yellow once again as Scott Daly slid his car over the turn three banking. On the restart Kosiski stepped up the pressure on Drake a notch and pulled alongside as he attempted to make the pass. The pair ran side by side for a couple of laps before Drake pulled back out in front and retained the spot.

Payne began his move forward as he took over the second spot from Kosiski on lap 17 and quickly pulled onto the rear bumper of Drake. On lap 23 the trio of Drake, Payne, and Kosiski ran nose to tail as they began to encounter lapped traffic only to have the yellow slow the racing action once again and regroup the field.

As the green replaced the yellow Drake and Payne opened a four car length advantage over Kosiski as the laps began to wind down. Payne pulled alongside Drake and completed the move to lead the 27th lap and quickly opened up a four car gap as the white flag waved and increased it even more as he raced under the checkered flag for the win. Drake held on for the runner up spot with Kosiski, Ken Essary, and Al Purkey completing the top 5.

Thirty-two cars signed in to compete on the night with Drake, Ken Essary, Payne, and Kosiski coming home with the heat race wins while John Hampel grabbed the top spot of the nights B feature.

Next up for the O'Reilly MLRA is to Winston Speedway in Winston, MO on Saturday, September 16 to close out the facilities 2006 racing action.

For O'Reilly MLRA information call 816-650-5063 or 816-305-6572 or visit them on the web at www.mlraracing.com .

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Full Results
LA Raceway
September 15, 2006


Heat 1
1) Scott Drake, 2) Chris Smyser, 3) Brett LaFollette, 4) PJ Haskins, 5) David Barker, 6) Jeremy Watts, 7) Tommy Cordray, 8) Jon Binning

Heat 2
1) Ken Essary, 2) Alan Vaughn, 3) Jason Bodenhamer, 4) Sonny Findling, 5) Jesse Stovall, 6) Victor Sims, 7) Bob Hiller, 8) Shorty Acker

Heat 3
1) Jeremy Payne, 2) David Turner, 3) Shad Badder, 4) Randy McGraw, 5) Corey Zeitner, 6) Scott Daly, 7) Dick Weber, 8) Larry Moon

Heat 4
1) Steve Kosiski, 2) Al Purkey, 3) Larry Clawson, 4) Shane Essary, 5) CJ Lyle, 6) John Hampel, 7) Donnie Gemes, 8) Greg Choate

B Feature #1
1) Hampel, 2) Zeitner, 3) Lyle, 4) Cordray, 5) Barker, 6) Stovall, 7) Acker,
8) Weber, 9) Daly, 10) Watts, 11) Choate, 12) Sims, 13) Moon, 14) Binning,
15) Gemes, 16) Hiller

A Feature
1) Payne, 2) Drake, 3) Kosiski, 4) K. Essary, 5) Purkey, 6) Vaughn, 7) Turner, 8) Smyser, 9) Bodenhamer, 10) Hampel, 11) LaFollette, 12) Clawson,
13) Badder, 14) Lyle, 15) Barker, 16) McGraw, 17) Zeitner, 18) Cordray, 19) Haskins, 20) S. Essary, 21) Daly, 22) Findling