I-44 Speedway
Frye wraps up MARS crown with I-44 victory
From track and series reports
I-44 Speedway
Bill Frye (66) earned $3,000 in the finale. (Chris Bork)
LEBANON, Mo. (Sept. 21-22) — Bill Frye of Greenbrier, Ark., wrapped up his unprecedented fifth Mid-America Racing Series championship in style. Frye reversed the finishing positions on the second night of the Fall Shootout at I-44 Speedway for a $3,000 victory.
Jeremy Payne of Springfield, Mo., who won the opener, settled for second in the Saturday night feature that capped a weekend sanctioned by MARS and the O'Reilly Midwest LateModel Racing Association. Will Vaught, Brandon McCormick and Terry Phillips rounded out the top five in the finale.
Frye's MARS championship goes along with titles he won in 2001-2003 and 2006.
In Friday's opener, Payne led all 30 laps of a crash-filled race for a $2,500 victory. "It's been a long time since I've had a Late Model win, and this was my first MARS win, so I'm just really excited," Payne said in victory lane. Frye of Greenbrier, Ark., finished second followed by Mark Voigt of Alhambra, Ill., Peyton Taylor of Batesville, Ark., and Al Purkey of South Coffeyville, Kan.
Voigt started on the pole, but Payne's No. 74 only needed three laps to take over the lead. He held the lead throughout the 30-lap feature by driving the low line around the high-banked oval.
"The bottom was definitely the fastest way around the track," Payne said. "I'm just glad I didn't have any flats."
There were several crashes that brought out caution flags. Perhaps the most spectacular was when Chris Smyser's No. 30 Late Model slid off turn two and momentarily became airborne before he slammed the car's right side into the concrete retaining wall. Smyser wasn't injured. There was also a multicar crash on lap nine involving Trace Westling, Gary Stolba, and Patrick Johnson among others.
The caution periods gave Frye repeated shots at Payne, but Payne was able to jump out ahead of the pack on every restart. "My guys were telling me that on the restarts that they were keeping up with me pretty good," Payne said. "I was just driving the wheels off of it."
Notebook
The weekend drew bout 40 Late Models. ... Hometown driver Brandon McCormick came from deep in the 24-car field on Friday to finish sixth. He was driving a car he wrecked several weeks ago. ... I-44's modified champion, Tony Jackson Jr., drove his No. 56 Late Model to an 11th-place finish in the opener.
Fall Shootout (Sept. 21): (1) Jeremy Payne, (2) Bill Frye, (3) Mark Voigt, (4) Peyton Taylor, (5) Al Purkey, (6) Brandon McCormick, (7) David Turner, (8) Terry Phillips, (9) Alan Vaughn, (10) Denny Woodworth, (11) Tony Jackson, (12) Jason Bodenhamer, (13) Christian Rayburn, (14) Will Vaught, (15) Ricky Frankel, (16) Gary Stolba, (17) Trace Westling, (18) Jack Sullivan, (19) Patrick Johnson, (20) Craig Smith, (21) Darrell Mooneyham, (22) Chris Smyser, (23) Larry Clawson, (24) Justin Wells.
Fall Shootout (Sept. 22): (1) Bill Frye, (2) Jeremy Payne, (3) Will Vaught, (4) Brandon McCormick, (5) Terry Phillips, (6) Jack Sullivan, (7) Peyton Taylor, (8) Al Purkey, (9) Justin Wells, (10) Mark Voigt, (11) Denny Woodworth, (12) Gary Stolba, (13) David Turner, (14) Burl Woods, (15) Alan Vaughn, (16) Craig Smith, (17) Tony Jackson, (18) Trace Westling, (19) Ricky Frankel, (20) Darrell Mooneyham, (21) Christian Rayburn, (22) Jason Bodenhamer, (23) Larry Clawson.
