Stacy Boles Masters Wartburg Advance Auto Parts Thunder Series Field
By Chris Tilley
WARTBURG, TN (April 26, 20008)—Stacy Boles of Claxton, TN mastered a field of 22 in route to the $5,000 payday in the Advance Auto Parts Thunder Series-Sanctioned event at the Wartburg Speedway in Wartburg, TN on Saturday evening April 26, 2008 in front of a packed house. This was Boles’ second-career Advance Auto Parts Thunder Series victory. His first victory came in the spring of 2005 at the same venue.
Boles drove the Advanced Transmissions, West Haven Speed Equipment, Afco Racing Products sponsored David Hitch Racing Engines powered DWB Race Car GTO to the win.
Boles’ reflected on his night at Wartburg Speedway during the post-race interview. “I got to thank Anthony White and the Dirt White Boys for this great race-car, it’s been bad fast. When someone like: (referring to Leroy Vann, Robert Buffalo and Ron Boles) on your side, they have got more laps around this place packing the track than I have raced it, so you know we can’t do but good.”
Other Event winners during the evening included Mark Leach in the Sportsman Feature over Dale Nance, Gary Lively, Darrick York and Brian Hooks.
Darren Goins passed Rocky McNabb at the flagstand to take the win in the Pure Mini Feature event while Reagan Williams would claim the win in the Pure Street Feature and Spunky Brown would take the Front Wheel Drive feature event win.
Sunoco Dash winner Steve Smith and Tommy Kerr would parade the field of 22 to Lynn Palmer’s green flag for the start of the 50-Lap event with Kerr rolling to the low-line and the lead of the main with Kerr grabbing the lead into turn one while Smith would grab second. As the field would come off of turn four for the first lap, Anthony White would strike the front-straight wall hard bringing out the first yellow flag as a host of cars in the rear of the field would collect each-other in turn four.
In the second attempt, Kerr would parade the field around to lead the first lap with Steve Smith second, Rick Rogers, Stacy Boles and Anthony White in tow.
The next yellow flag would come out on the eighth lap as the two leaders Tommy Kerr and Steve Smith got caught up behind lapped cars and both stopping on the speedway. Due to Series procedures, Kerr and Steve Smith would tag the tail for the restart.
Rick Rogers would bring the field down to lead his first circuits of the race on the restart with Stacy Boles, Anthony White and Joe Armes the top-four. On the 11th lap, Steve Smith slowed in turn two and the caution would come out again. Rick Rogers, Boles, White, Armes and Dan Tipton would be the front five at the yellow.
The lapped car of Dewayne Pesterfield would get in front of leader Rick Rogers on the back-chute, and after evasive action by trotting through the infield, kept second spot while Stacy Boles became the new leader of the race on lap-16.
The yellow flag would come out on the 17th lap as Jeff Neubert spun in turn four.
Boles would keep out front and on the 18th lap, Richard Smith spun on his own in turn four bringing out yet another yellow flag.
The next yellow would come on lap 21 for Mike Hill, Tommy Kerr and Leroy Vann who collected each-other in turn two. The field reset would see Boles up front, Rogers second, White third, Armes fourth and Mike Weeks fifth.
At the half-way point Boles still showed a commanding lead with Rogers still five car lengths out of the top spot.
Boles would go around Richard Smith on the 30th lap to put him a lap down looking for his next victim which would be Jeff Franklin and then contact between the two on the 33rd circuit would still see Boles on top stretching his lead to ten car lengths. Boles would also go around Jeff Neubert on the 37th lap to put him a lap down.
As the field reached the 10 to go mark, lapped traffic would get in the leader’s way and cause the gap of Boles’ lead to diminish to just a bumper.
Caution on lap 41 for Mike Weeks stopping in turn two would bring out the final yellow with Boles holding off Rogers for the remaining laps to capture the win with White third, Armes fourth and Dan Tipton rounding out the top-five.
In preliminary action, the Powermaster Fast Qualifier of the night was Steve Smith locking in a 12:269 second lap. Steve Smith and Mike Weeks both took wins during the Sunoco Dash events.
Official Summary of Results
Advance Auto Parts Thunder Series
April 26, 2008
Wartburg Speedway-Wartburg, TN
Advance Auto Parts A-Main Finish: (showing pos./driver/hometown)
1. Stacy Boles-Claxton, TN
2. Rick Rogers-Knoxville, TN
3. Anthony White-Clinton, TN
4. Joe Armes-Petros, TN
5. Dan Tipton-Kingston, TN
6. April Farmer-Livingston, TN
7. Tim Damron-Oneida, TN
8. Billy Ogle Jr.-Knoxville, TN
9. John Gill-Mitchell, IN
10. Matthew Langley-Lancing, TN
11. Jeff Neubert-Knoxville, TN
12. Jeff Franklin-Ten Mile, TN
13. Richard Smith-Science Hill, KY
14. Mike Weeks-Friendsville, TN
15. Kayne Hickman-Soddy Daisy, TN
16. Dewayne Pesterfield-Lenoir City, TN
17. Leroy Vann-Clinton, TN
18. Tommy Kerr-Rockford, TN
19. Mike Hill-Rockwood, TN
20. Steve Smith-Powell, TN
21. Tim Huddleston-Clinton, TN
22. Jeremy Carr-Livingston, TN
Entries: 22 from three states (Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana)
Powermaster Overall Fast Time: Steve Smith-12:269 seconds
Time of Race: (start 10:14 p.m. EST and ended 10:56 p.m. EST)
Cautions: Seven (Laps 0, 8, 11, 17, 18, 21, 41)
Red Flags: None
Lap Leaders: Kerr (1-8), Rogers (9-16), Boles (17-50)
Sunoco Quick Six # 1: Steve Smith, Tommy Kerr, Anthony White, Stacy Boles, Rick Rogers, Joe Armes
Sunoco Quick Six # 2: Dan Tipton, Mike Weeks, April Farmer, Tim Damron, Kayne Hickman, Jeremy Carr
Phoenix Conversions Hard Charger Award: Jeff Neubert (started 19th and finished 11th)
Hans/FSR Safety Award: Stacy Boles
DWB Tiger Rear-ends Rookie of the Race: April Farmer
Racin’ with Rex Racer of the Race: April Farmer
Hoosier Tire South Move of the Race: Rick Rogers
