Pike County Speedway
Wall rules Pike County, completes Easter sweep
By Bryan Wimberley
DirtonDirt.com correspondentMAGNOLIA, Miss. (April 3) — Chris Wall of Holden, La., completed an Easter weekend sweep on the O'Reilly Southern United Professional Racing tour Saturday with a $2,500 victory at Pike County Speedway. The dominating Wall finished almost a half-track ahead runner-up Ray Moore of Haughton, La., who was second in both weekend events after rebounding from a first-lap tussle. | Wall wins at Baton Rouge
Wall, who started outside the front row at the 3/8-mile Pike County oval, led flag-to-flag and was virtually unchallenged throughout the entire race. He won the previous night at Baton Rouge (La.) Raceway.
"Being these last two tracks we have raced at, we really have a lot of laps, we really cut our teeth here more than at Baton Rouge," Wall said. "I can remember coming here years ago for the first time and saying, man this is a big track and thinking this place was huge!
"So we have had a lot of laps around here. But to be honest, we went straight back to our notes we had in the Jambalaya 100 last year, because we were really dominant at that race. We went right back to where we was at, it was almost magical and the car was really flawless tonight."
Rob Litton of Alexandria, La., was third for the second straight night with Robbie Stuart of DeRidder, La. fourth. Tenth-starting Bubba Mullins of West Monroe, La., moved up five spots to round out the top five positions.
At the outset of the feature, a quick yellow flew when Moore, Stuart and Kyle Cummings were involved in a chain-reaction incident in turn three, but Wall quickly got the race rolling and caught slower cars after just four laps.
Cautions on laps 10 and 12 bunched the field with Wall in control over David Ashley and Litton while Moore worked his way back into the top five after 17 laps.
Alex Ashley's spin drew a lap-19 caution and his father David challenged for the lead when Wall bobbled on the restart. But Wall reasserted his control while the elder Ashley fell out with engine problems on lap 23.
With Wall in control, Moore took second from Litton on lap 27, but he was no threat as Wall increased his dominating lead over the race's late stages.
"By the time we finally got to second, it felt like that was as far as I was going to go, because we had used up all of our equipment," Moore said.
Wall had plenty left at the finish, clearing the scales and pulling off a few infield donuts for the appreciative crowd. In victory lane, Wall stood atop his car's roof and, after someone tossed him a broom, swept it clean to signify his successful weekend.
Notes: Wall's MasterSbilt by Stuckey is powered by a Wall 2 Wall Performance Engine and sponsored by X-Treme Graphics, C&M Gator Farm, O.H. Hendricks, Gator Trax Boats, ASI, Hoosier Tires and GVS Racing. ... Wall's victory was the 11th of his SUPR career and ranks him 11th on the all-time series win list. ... The checkered flag fell on the 42-minute race at 10:38 p.m.; six cautions slowed the action. ... Six cars finished on the lead lap with just eight of 19 starters running at the finish. ... Edmond Jenkins of Utica, Miss., scratched from the feature after breaking a motor in prelims. ... SUPR Rookie Of The Year contenders Alex Ashley of Zachary, La., and Skip O'Neal of Midlothian, Texas, finished 10th and 11th. O'Neal was forced out of the feature after a coil wire came off. ... SUPR competitors head to Champion Park Speedway in Minden, La., on April 10, a makeup of a March 20 rainout.
SUPR @ Pike County: (1) Chris Wall, (2) Ray Moore, (3) Rob Litton, (4) Robbie Stuart, (5) Bubba Mullins, (6) Jeff Chanler, (7) Josh Danzy, (8) Corie Herberger, (9) Dwight Falcon, (10) Alex Ashley, (11) Skip O'Neal, (12) Mark McWilliams, (13) David Ashley, (14) Chris Holley, (15) Paul Joyner, (16) Jason Polite, (17) Shawn O'Toole, (18) Kyle Cummings, (19) Donald Watson. Scratched: Kevin Watts, Edmond Jenkins. Heat race winners (among 21 cars): Litton, Stuart, Wall.
