Boothill Speedway
Chanler ends drought with Boothill victory
By Bryan Wimberley
DirtonDirt.com correspondent
Jeff Chanler broke a 21-month victory brought with Saturday's Boothill win. (Best Photography)
GREENWOOD, La. (April 13) — Breaking through amid a recent spate of rained-out races, Jeff Chanler of Minden, La., ended a personal victory drought Saturday with a $1,000 victory in the return of weekly Late Model racing at Boothill Speedway.
"This is the first time I have won in a long time anywhere,” said Chanler, whose last win came on the Southern United Professional Racing tour in 2010 at Baton Rouge Raceway, a 21-month stretch of frustration. “It has been bad for us for a little while, I just lost it and we haven't been able to find anything positive until tonight. | Louisiana weekly results
“It has probably been bad luck, I know luck has a lot to do with more than anytime else sometimes. We have been doing everything that we had been doing when we was winning, I guess it just all came together and worked tonight," Chanler said.
Chanler sat on the pole of a surprising field of entries and came under scrutiny several times for the lead, before taking a three-length victory over Jon Mitchell of Texarkana, Texas, in the 25-lap feature.
"There wasn't nothing left and hardly any cushion when I looked after the modified feature had ran. I really thought I was going to suffer with this big motor, we just had to go and do our best to hold on with harder tires and the distance we run,” Chanler said. “I seen Jon Mitchell a couple times, slipping down there on the bottom, but lucky he wasn't able to pull it off. I was already dedicated to my line and didn't block him (Mitchell), but I knew he was there.”
Ray Moore of Haughton, La., rocketed from the sixth-row to lock down third-place, while Troy Berdan of Minden and Brett Frazier, also of Haughton, rounded out the top five finishers.
The feature was briefly tampered with two early cautions in the opening lap, one taking out 15-year old newcomer, Brandon Hightower of Deville, La., with a broken driveshaft.
Once resumed, Chanler edged Mitchell for point, until Berdan moved in to challenge Mitchell for the runner-up spot. On lap seven, the top five took to the high side, settling in for 14 green-flag laps until the next yellow.
After back-to-back cautions on lap 15, Chanler strung together seven strong laps to build more than a two-second advantage. An intense battle emerged for second with Mitchell, Berdan and Moore taking it three-wide off turn two. Mitchell survived, giving him one last shot at Chanler, after the final caution appeared on lap 22, to set up a late-race showdown.
Mitchell's excellent restart put Chanler in the pressure cooker with three laps to go. Mitchell showed Chanler his nose on the low groove, but Chanler's No 11c powered past on the straightaway. Mitchell was able to try again in the next set of turns, but wasn't able to keep the car stuck inside to gain the position.
Chanler continued to run high and didn't falter in the race’s final moments.
“We slipped up and let (Chanler) get that top in the beginning, I went to the bottom and we stayed there a little too long,” Mitchell said. “We fell back to third and began to roll in to the top. We took back second place three or four times, but the cautions would kill us, putting us back on the bottom on the double-file restarts.
“Chanler had a good car; so did we. We tightened things up on him the last few laps. It looked like we could have made something happen, but we have been having so much bad luck here lately, that we didn't want to tear any cars up and everybody would be able to go home with clean metal. I am pleased with that second-place run.”
Notes: Chanler's Barry Wright Race Car is powered by a PTS Racing Engine and sponsored by David Peterson Contracting, All Star Performance, David's Transmission, OWC Welding, AD Signs, CV Products and Weld Racing. ... Chanler also has a Boothill Speedway Late Model win on the Louisiana-based SUPR tour on July 31, 1999. ... The racetrack was shortened to a quarter-mile configuration from 3/8-mile before it reopened in May 2010. ... The 20-minute Boothill feature ended at 10:55 pm and was slowed by five cautions. ... Ray Moore 12th-to-third run gave him hard charger honors. ... Jody Prince of Sibley, La., started 15th and finished sixth. He rebounded from a nose-first, concrete-wall crash in heat two, damaging the nose, but leaving the radiator intact. ... Michael Hudson of Shreveport, La., debuted a Humphrey Racing MasterSbilt Race Car and couldn't avoid the spinning No. 1 of Chris Patton of Ruston, La., in the consolation. The contact disabled both cars beyond repair, scratching them from the 25-lap main event. ...� Wide Open Motorsports and driver Chris Huckabay of West Monroe, La., introduced a new Warrior Race Car; he retired midway through the feature in 16th. ... Three other classes were apart of Boothill Speedway's weekly racing with Jody Davidson of West Monroe, La., grabbing the victory in the modified feature, last year's track champion in the limited modified class, Derick Grigsby of Marshall, Texas, scoring a win, and Billy Meazell of Frankston, Texas, winning the factory stocks. ... Boothill Speedway plans 12 weekly Late Model events, concluding with Oct. 26’s Spooky Hill Race. ... Boothill also has a SUPR event scheduled for May 25.
Boothill Speedway: (1) Jeff Chanler, (2) Jon Mitchell, (3) Ray Moore, (4) Troy Berdan, (5) Brett Frazier, (6) Jody Prince, (7) Jason Ingalls, (8) Shane Walker, (9) Lee Patton, (10) Jim Bryant, (11) Heath Culp, (12) Mikey Kile, (13) Lynn Beach, (14) Travis Mosley, (15) Ronny Adams, (16) Chris Huckabay, (17) Mike Harris, (18) Brandon Hightower. Scratched: Chris Patton, Michael Hudson, Mike Corney. Heat race winners (among 21 cars): Chanler, Mitchell, Ingalls. Consolation winner: Huckabay.
