Bristol Motor Speedway
Boen dominates NCRA action at 81 Speedway, Belleville
From track and series reports
Kelly Boen (07) put a lap on third-running Kyle Berck at Belleville (Justin Sly)
Kelly Boen of Henderson, Colo., extended his career victories lead on the O'Reilly National Championship Racing Association with a pair of Labor Day weekend victories. Boen won Saturday at 81 Speedway near Wichita, Kan., before adding a Sunday night triumph at the Belleville (Kan.) High Banks.
81 Speedway
WICHITA, Kan. (Sept. 1) — Kelly Boen took a step closer to his third consecutive series championship as he regained the lead from Kyle Berck with six laps remaining at 81 Speedway and manhandled his damaged car to a 30-lap victory.
Boen led the first 14 laps, but Berck slipped under him on the 15th lap and led through the 23rd lap.
"My crew didn't tell me to move to the bottom of the track, so when Kyle got under me, it took me by surprise," said Boen, who was icing his left hand after jamming his wrist when contact was made with the tractor tire on lap 18. "We just kept pace with him and when he made that little mistake we took advantage of it."
Berck settled for second while Steve Foster, Jimmy Seagraves and 13th-starting Bryant Goldsmith rounding out the top five.
Boen and Kyle Berck started on the front row and paced the field to green with Boen taking the lead entering turns one and two as the green flag fell. Berck, Foster, Chris Hawkins and Gary Gorby fell into position as Boen opened a half-straightaway lead by lap three. It stayed that way for two laps before the first of two caution flags fell on lap five when John Kuchar and Gorby, driving Earl Kinderknecht's car, got together in turns one and two.
On the restart, Boen throttled out to the front at the top of the 3/8-mile mile oval and began to pull away. Behind him, all eyes were on consolation race winner Jerry Warner as the LaVista, Neb., driver had advanced from 11th to fifth. But those eyes were soon on Berck, who dropped to the low groove and began to reel in Boen as the frontrunners approached lapped traffic,
Berck drove underneath Boen entering turn one on the 14th lap and stretched his advantage to eight lengths. Berck's chances looked good when Boen hit an infield tractor tire in turn three. Despite a broken tie rod on the left front, Boen continued to hang with Berck.
On the 23rd lap, Berck bobbled and got too high in turn three, allowed Boen to sneak past to grab the lead for good. A pair of lap-26 cautions allowed Berck to test Boen restarts, but the leader nursed his ill-handling car to victory.
The race was co-sanctioned by the O'Reilly Topless Outlaw Racing Association. — David Smith Jr.
81 Speedway: (1) Kelly Boen, (2) Kyle Berck, (3) Steve Foster, (4) Jimmy Seagraves, (5) Bryant Goldsmith, (6) Jerry Warner, (7) Ronnie Warman, (8) Chris Kratzer, (9) Cameron Winter, (10) Ryan Rairden, (11) David Brack, (12) Mike Wiarda, (13) Delbert Smith, (14) John Kuchar, (15) Justin Hoepker, (16) Gary Gorby, (17) Jim Beaman, (18) Kelly Dunn, (19) Justin Kinderknecht, (20) Andy Gersternkorn, (21) Chris Hawkins, (22) Jason Schobinger, (23) Brad Fortney, (24) Greg Larson.
Belleville High Banks
BELLEVILLE, Kan. (Sept. 2) — Kelly Boen's car wasn't as good as it's been before at Belleville, but it was plenty good enough for him to click of his series-leading 28th career NCRA victory.
“The engine in that car hardly ran in hot laps and it didn’t run that much better in the heat race,” Boen said, “These guys worked on it, worked on it, worked on it. They changed everything but the engine. And they got it pretty good.”
To say his crew “got it pretty good” was the understatement of the night. The Henderson, Colo., driver started the feature on the pole and when the green came out, shot off like a rocket.
At the end of the first lap, he was already a half-straightaway lead. Boen started lapping slower cars on the fourth lap. By lap 10, he was a half-lap in front of second place. After 20 caution-free laps, Boen had lapped everyone but John Anderson for his second NCRA victory of the weekend.
“When you start up front, you don’t want to see any yellows and we didn’t get any,” he said. “It did not hurt my feelings because we’ve lost a lot of races this year because of yellow flags towards the end of the race. It felt good just to run 20 laps and be done with it.”
Anderson had to start 20th after having suspension problems in his heat race and wouldn't have minded seeing a yellow flag or two.
“We started 20th with no cautions and only 20 laps,” he said. “That’s a lot of ground to make up.”
Anderson was up to sixth by lap four and moved into second just four laps later. But without a caution, he couldn’t get any closer to Boen.
“A caution would have been nice just to see if we had anything for him,” he said. “Not saying I would have won, but it would have been fun.”
Former series champion Kyle Berck also had problems in his heat race. He started 17th in the feature but worked his way up to finish third.
“When you come from the back to third up here, to me that’s like a win,” he said. “But when Kelly laps you, it takes the thunder back out of it.”
Mike Wiarda, John Kuchar and Jimmy Segraves rounded out the top five. It was the second straight top-five finish for Segraves, who leads in the rookie of the year standings and is sixth in points overall.
For Boen, it was his seventh win of the season, which ties a record he set in 2005.
“The car drove great," he said. "It just didn’t run quite as well as some of the other cars I’ve had here before. — Randy Fisher
Belleville High Banks: (1) Kelly Boen, (2) John Anderson, (3) Kyle Berck, (4) Mike Wiarda, (5) John Kuchar, (6) Jimmy Segraves, (7) Earl Kinderknecht, (8) Bryant Goldsmith, (9) Jim Beaman, (10) Ryan Rairden, (11) Ronnie Warman, (12) Ted Martin, (13) Brian Kenkel, (14) Bill Koons, (15) Bo Egge, (16) Wylan Petrie, (17) Jason Schobinger, (18) Mike Danburg, (19) Delbert Smith, (20) Steve Foster, (21) Justin Kinderknecht, (22) David Brack, (23) Bill Koons Jr., (24) Greg Larson.
