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McCall Makes Tri-County "HIS"

By Corey Latham and Wink Bodenhamer

Hendersonville, North Carolina (August 30, 2008) -   As the UARA STARS touring series pulled into Tri-County Speedway Friday night, it was business as usual. Except everybody knew one thing in the back of their head, Matt McCall was gonna be there, and he was gonna be fast. Matt, along with another former series champion Lee Tissot and quite a few "outsiders" came to the track to try their best against the best Late-Model racers in the country. They did fine, but in the end, it was the 2005 UARA champion McCall taking the win after an action packed event.

Clay Greenfield had come to the season ending race for Tri-County's weekly racing a week before, to try and get a feel of the track. It worked wonders as Greenfield won the Sunoco Pole award with a fast time of 16.271. It was impressive for Greenfield not just that it was his first career pole, but being able to beat McCall who had set the track record a week earlier. McCall was able to secure the KLB Race Cars and Parts outside pole award. He was followed by Lee Tissot, Jamey Caudill and most recent race winner at Franklin County, Brandon McReynolds.

As the racing action got underway, it was just that.........action. McCall tries to pull the outside groove and take the lead, and does for a lap, until Greenfield dives underneath in turn 3. The two make contact, and Greenfield spins around bottlenecking the field off turn 4. Multiple 2008 Tri-County winner Jesse LeFevers and Chase Austin had their nights cut short from the lap 5 melee.  Alex Yontz, Kyle Grissom and Jordan McGregor will also be involved in this incident but will continue on for more action later in the night. Greenfield would never recover and fall out later with suspension damage and receive the ARP Hard Luck award.

As the race wore on, two things were certain. McCall was the guy to beat, and all the rest were doing some serious rubbing on each other. This is controlled beating and banging though, which equals great racing. R.A.Brown and Brandon Dean ran side by side much of the race, and after the lap 5 caution got Alex Yontz pinned at the back of the field, his run through the pack was impressive. Rookie Andrew Carlsen had a great night after qualifying in the back of the pack. By lap 50 Carlsen was solidly inside the top 15 after battling through the field and came home with a much needed top ten finish, earning him the Holley Performer of the race award. 

Another top story of the night was point leader Jake Crum. Jake had been in a slump of sorts the last few races, allowing Alex Yontz to close within 7 points in the championship battle. Crum was on the mark Friday night, fast in practice, qualified 6th, and ran the entire race in the top 5, battling hard with Jamie Yelton and Jamey Caudill to come home 4th. Racing works in cycles, if Jake's performance has turned   around to where it was the first half of the season, the rest of the field has their work cut out for them 

Lap 74 caution flew as Scott Turlington and David LaTour, Jr. wreck in turn four.  LaTour’s bad luck doesn’t end here as he finds himself spinning on the front stretch just a few laps later. 

Lap 90 finds the caution flying for the 03 car of Dillon Smith driven by Corey LaJoie at this event.

LaJoie hit hard into the backstretch wall saying he just lost it.  Smith was missing from the event as he attended a national dirt race in Texas.

Lap 123 the caution flies for the spinning car of R.A. Brown a former UARA regular who this year ran the entire Tri County schedule.  When the green falls on lap 128 the going gets tough.  The field is fierce and they come down into turn four – four deep and of course they run out of real estate and the next thing we see is the fender of the Yontz car being peeled off like a banana.

Getting down to the end, it looked as if McCall was going to sail off in the distance. Richard Boswell II had something to say about that, charging from 7th to second in the last half of the race, but ran out of time as McCall put his #23 machine in victory lane for the second time in a week.....at the same track. And it was the second race ever in this car, pretty good batting average if ya ask me.   Tom Vigue will bring home the Comp Cam Engine Builder Award for the powerhouse in the McCall machine.

Lonesome Pine Speedway is up next for the UARA STARS, on Saturday September 13th.   Will Crum be able to hold off Yontz for the point lead? Will the rivalries of 2008 be rekindled at Lonesome Pine? Will Boswell finally break through for that first win? There's only one way to find out, we'll se you in the beautiful Virginia mountains in 2 weeks.  For more info visit www.uara-stars.com or call 828-692-3833

Tune in to our website for more information www.tricountymotorspeedway.com or call us at (828)726-6600 with any questions or ideas.

Tri-County Motor Speedway Race Results

Friday, August 29, 2008

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