Posted by Langley Austin on April 13, 2008, 11:23 pm
Message modified by board administrator April 14, 2008, 1:26 am

Radford, VA ~ Jake Crum and Jamie Yelton each took turns at the top of the leaderboard during the 150-lap UARA-STARS race at Motor Mile Speedway, but on lap 108 veteran driver, BJ Mackey made his move on Crum and carried the frieght all the way to victory lane. Mackey of Rock Hill, SC is a veteran of the UARA-STARS series, one of the few drivers competing today that also competed in the series very first race back at Hickory Motor Speedway in 2002 and today Mackey is at the top of his game as he searches for his first UARA-STARS series championship. His first championship eluded him last season when he competed for two different car owners in three different chassis' and lost the championship by a mere 20 points, but this year with a new, but familiar team owner in his longtime engine builder and friend, Darrell Poe of DP Performance Engines and behind the wheel of a brand new Dunlap Chassis, built by Roush-Fenway chassis shop foreman, Dave Dunlap. People will have to wonder whether or not he had car enough to beat Yelton, who took the lead early from Crum, but had mechanical issues sideline him while he was driving away from the rest of the field. Mackey's win was his fourth career UARA-STARS win and all four of his wins have came since April of 2007 and three of the four have been with different race teams and in chassis' manufactured by different chassis builders including Townsend, Marlowe and now Dunlap. Yelton, the only driver to have won a UARA-STARS Late Model Stock Car series race previous to Saturday evening's affair looked to be dominant and was obviously hooked up as he distanced himself from the field, but when he pulled off the track as he lost power coming off of turn two and onto the back straightaway handing the lead back to Crum. Crum qualified on the outside pole and got a great start getting by pole sitter, Jamey Caudill, who qualified in with a lap of 15.985 seconds around the 4/10 mile. Caudill leads the series with 12 Sunoco Pole Awards in his career. Caudill, like Clint Mills at Concord two weeks just didn't get off to a good start, but ran very strong, but as for Mills this week his day come to an early end when he and Roger Lee Newton got together in turn four ending his day and badly damaging his Dodge Charger. Mills day came to end with the crash on lap 10, but he wasn't the first to fall out of the race as it appears that Sparks, MD driver Justin Boston fell out of the race on lap two with mechanical issues. Another driver who had a day he would like to soon forget is Kyle Moon, who struggled all day trying to get speed out of his car never getting above 27th fastest in practice and then after pitting several times settled in to finish in 27th only completing 23 laps in 150-lap feature. 2007 Dirt IMCA Modified Rookie of the Year, Dillon Smith of Waco, TX was able to make his asphalt racing debut after failing to make the feature at Concord Motorsport Park two weeks previous, but his debut was short lived as his engine expired on lap 29. Smith will return at Orange County Speedway on April 26th with a brand new powerplant. 2007 UARA-STARS series champion and winner of the last race at Concord Motorsport Park two weeks ago, Ross Furr had a strong run going until late in the race when the field got stacked up on a restart and he got pushed into the back of the car ahead of him by Paddy Rodenbeck, another driver having a superb run only to be cut short by this restart incident. Furr's day was done as he punctured the radiator and Rodenbeck's day also came to an end. For Rodenbeck this race was the best he's run and would likely have been the Melling Select Rookie of the Race for the first time in his short Late Model Stock Car career. Shaun Mangum, who finished in the top five at the last series race struggled throughout the day at Motor Mile, first only being about the 16th fastest car of the 29, who entered the event in practice, then changing an engine after qualifying just 25th and then struggling with what the team thinks may have been a fuel issue. Mangum will be back at Orange County in two weeks as he continues to chase the series points championship for the first time in his career. If you were only watching the battle for the lead late in the race you wouldn't have noticed the raging battle for second between Crum and Richard Boswell, who qualified 14th and raced his way up through the field. Crum and Boswell raced each other hard even banging into one another as they crossed the finish line in nearly a dead heat with a difference of 0.018 seconds between the two at the finish, which was equal to about a nose. The battle apparently went further as the two had some heated exchanges during the post race before being seperated, so it looks like Crum finds himself in a rivalry again this season with another veteran driver in Boswell. Be sure to check out the audio from Doc Love's interviews with both drivers to hear more on this rivalry in the making. Plus be sure to check out the video clip from Star City Video Productions later this week to see what transpired in the final laps to have both drivers upset. Boswell was credited with third followed to the line by Alex Yontz, who had a very fast car, but used his car up trying to get around pole sitter, Caudill, who finished fifth. Rounding out the top ten finishers was Newton, Curtis Truex, Jr., Melling Select Rookie of the Race Andrew Carlsen, rookie, Garrett Campbell and rookie, Brandon McReynolds, who earned the Holley Performer of the Race award for starting 27th and finishing 10th. Clay Greenfield started 12th and ended up finishing there after getting turned around on the front straightaway by Scott Turlington while running in the top ten. Casey Holt had another stellar qualifying performance qualifying his Pistone LTO chassis in 10th place, but had a dissapointing finish of 17th after getting hit by Lucas Ransone after the caution waved for the Mills, Newton altercation early in the race. Note: Yontz fourth place finish was impressive considering he damaged the car he had intended to use this weekend while testing earlier in the week at Orange County Speedway in Rougemont, NC, the site of the next UARA-STARS Series race. Complete Finishing Order: 1 - BJ Mackey #2 2 - Jake Crum #1 3 - Richard Boswell #72 4 - Alex Yontz #55 5 - Jamey Caudill #50 6 - Roger Lee Newton #33 7 - Curtis Truex, Jr. #73 8 - Andrew Carlsen #98 9 - Garrett Campbell #12 10 - Brandon McReynolds #28 11 - Anthony Anders #86 12 - Clay Greenfield #84 13 - Darrell Wallace, Jr. #76 14 - Scott Turlington #48 15 - Thomas Hartsenveld #36 16 - Bryan Dauzat #97 17 - Casey Holt #22 18 - Scott Andrews, Jr. #18 19 - Nick Losito #64 20 - Shaun Mangum #85 21 - Joey Bryant #11 22 - Paddy Rodenbeck #81 23 - Ross Furr #25 24 - Jamie Yelton #8 25 - Lucas Ransone #00 26 - Dillon Smith #03 27 - Kyle Moon #19 28 - Clint Mills #77 29 - Justin Boston #08 Pole - Jamey Caudill #50 15.985seconds