Forum: Oklahomatidbits.com General Forum (go)
Moderators:  /  David Smith Jr

Still at the #Landof3-wide, Ark-La-Tex Speedway!  Still $10,000 to win and $500 to start!  Still NO entry fee but now...

Lets add $6000 worth of cash & award's to last years purse and send $4500 home with NON-qualifiers!!!


A-main purse is the same as last year as far as cash goes. Add...

to 1st place - $500 in product certificate from COMP Cams
$250 in product certificate from Quarter Master
$250 in product certificate from Driven Racing Oil

to 2nd place - $250 in product certificate from COMP Cams
$125 in product certificate from Quarter Master
$125 in product certificate from Driven Racing Oil

to 3rd place - $125 in product certificate from COMP Cams
$75 in product certificate from Quarter Master
$75 in product certificate from Driven Racing Oil

A-Main Hard-Charger Award - FULL Modified wrap from Superior Graphix
of Haughton, Louisiana


***Here's what is the big news in my mind this year...help spread the word please...

COMP Performance Group NON-QUALIFIER Award Drawings!

Right after the COMP Cam A-Qualifiers are run on Saturday night, drivers who didn't make the A can enter this drawing for the following prizes:

- ONE starting spot (24th) in the A-main worth a minimum of $500! If you had a car that was running well and just didn't have any luck...now you have some! Take your shot a $10,000 with the rest of the A-main starters! (same as last year)

- FIVE $400 CASH Awards! $2000 worth! **New**

- FIFTEEN $100 product certificates from COMP Cams! **New**

- FIVE $100 product certificates from Quarter Master! **New**

- FIVE $100 product certificates from Driven Racing Oil! **New**

That's 31 NON-qualifiers that will benefit from this drawing as a 'thank-you' for running the two nights with us at the #Landof3wide and having tried to make the DMM VIII A-main. All thanks to the folks at COMP! This is worth a minimum of $5000 right there and there are STILL NO entry fees for THIS RACE!!!

Of course there are also still the 23 A-main spots open to qualifying in one way or another and the first 23 positions of that A-main will pay nearly $30,000 as well!!! ($29,800 to be exact with another $1000 for 24th & 25th place)

And in continuing with the Doug Murphrey Memorial tradition... The 25th starting spot will be auctioned off to the highest bidder!

Might as well make the trip this year and get a feel for Ark-La-Tex Speedway because this event will get even bigger in 2015, 2016 & 2017!!!


Last chance to race a Modified at Ark-La-Tex Speedway before this $10,000-to-win, EIGHTH ANNUAL event will be May 24th, the Saturday before DMM VIII.

12 days from now... COMP Cams presents Doug Murphrey Memorial VIII at Ark-La-Tex Speedway!

Ark-La-Tex was off this past weekend but races Modifieds this Saturday, May 24th as the final tune-up race. Practice for the Doug Murphrey Memorial is one week from Thursday on May 29th from 6 to 9pm.

This past weekend, May 15-17, here's how it went...

USMTS had 3 shows in Oklahoma... 48, 40 & 47 on the Mod counts and Stormy Scott swept them all!

Stormy did not have the best of luck at the DMM in his first attempt at it last year though. He did make the A but while battling with his brother Johnny to get in the top 5, they made inadvertant contact and Stormy ended up the first DNF and 25th place as a result. Stormy does have a pair of 4ths at ALT USMTS shows behind those two Chris Henigan wins.

Brother Johnny Scott -- who has had some good results at ALT in the past -- had an interesting weekend. He was the 2nd car out of Thursday night's feature for a 25th. On Friday, he finished fifth while teammate Dereck Ramirez finished 2nd. On Saturday, Johnny got in Dereck's #4R and briefly took the lead away from his brother before ending up 2nd. At Ark-La-Tex, after winning the 2010 USMTS race, the 2011 Ark-La-Tex Spring Nationals and finishing 3rd behind two other Johnny's...sort of... Johnny Bone Jr. and John-O Whittington in the 2011 Doug Murphrey Memorial, Scott-Johnny has cooled off in Vivian a little. He missed making the DMM A-main in 2012, ran 11th in both the 2013 USMTS race and DMM VII and improved to 6th in this year's USMTS show.

The other member of the 'Big 3' in the USMTS ... Southern Region anyway ... defending champ Rodney Sanders...had to run a B last night in Ardmore but he made the top 8 redraw in the earlier 2 shows but drew into the 4th row twice! He turned those starts into 7th to 2nd, 8th to 3rd and 13th to 3rd. That'll win you some championships right there. But 'The Rocket' has never entered a Doug Murphrey Memorial yet but he does have a 2nd and a 3rd at the last two USMTS races at ALT. Again... championship...

So... how many of these 'big 3' USMTS names do we get this year? 9-time Kelly Shryock says at least make it a 'big 4'. He's 4th in SR points with a win at Timberline after all...and he was runner-up in DMM VI when we had our most famous finish to the race. What about the other big names like that 2012 DMM champ Terry Phillips and last year's DMM champ Jeremy Payne???

Well... could see all of them, could see none of them... no kidding. And it's ok either way because what's good for one gate ain't necessarily good for the other although although with the incentives offered up in that non-qualifier's draw this year, why not make the pull to a NO entry fee race that pays $10,000 to win no matter who enters, right??? And you know that $10,000 plus another $1000 worth of COMP Cams, Quarter Master and Driven Oil product added to it is whispering into some big name ears...

Phillips and Payne are doing a lot of Late Model racing and there is hole in both their schedules on May 30th & 31st where they haven't posted an event. MARS is racing Late Models in Paducah & Peveley so...??? Sanders and car owner, former USMTS champ Jason Krohn have Late Models and USMTS is off on the 30th & 31st. Stormy has had some Late Model time but not this year and he has 100,000 reasons to focus on USMTS at the moment. Next week there are Northern Region races in Iowa and Minnsota and then 3 days after the DMM VIII Saturday starts another Iowa-Minnesota-South Dakota USMTS swing. 2-time USMTS champ Ryan Gustin hasn't been to a DMM yet but he's all-out Late Model at the moment as is his Mod builder, and a DMM contender last year, Jason Hughes -- a Lucas Oil RotY contender this year. LOLMDS is racing in TN/KY. Gustin has MARS on his schedule.


So... Changing of the guard coming for DMM VIII??? With no pre-entries, we have no idea who's coming unless they put it on their website or facebook or we see them in the pits on Thursday or Friday. Don't get me wrong...not expecting a shortage of cars...might not have as many big names is all.... and that's good news for YOU...if you happen to have a Modified!

But something else the Doug Murphrey Memorial has been known for besides the car counts and the GREAT racing is the surprises that come along each year... Those, "Where did he come from" types. Not all these guys are that 'obscure' but you may not have expected them to finish where they did in an event like this that draws so many cars. In 2010, Jason Teague ran 4th, Jerry Franks, Jr. in his first race of the year ran 7th and Darrel Dawson was 10th. In 2011, Lee Patton made the DMM his first start of the year and ran 7th. In 2012 -- the first year it paid $10,000 to win and drew even more big names -- Brad Buck brought home an 8th. And who can forget last year's runner-up...

First race out with a brand new Jason Ingalls-built IRP Modified and Minden, Louisiana racer Geoff Lary comes away with a $5000 second. I don't think he ran first or 2nd the rest of the year. In addition, Tennesee's Lucas Lee gets third in his first ALT race, Tanner Mullins makes his first visit to ALT from Kansas at DMM VII and comes away 7th and Arkansas's Jim Freeman starts in the 24th starting spot via the lucky dog drawing and finishes 10th.

Now all these guys are good drivers or they couldn't do what they did but if you don't think you can run like Jason Teague, Jerry Franks, Jr., Darrel Dawson, Lee Patton, Brad Buck, Geoff Lary, Tanner Mullins, Lucas Lee or Jim Freeman, why do you race in Modifieds? Come on down to this show! It's 2 or 3 days of your time well spent!!!

Some other Oklahoma USMTS results of interest from this past weekend... (remember, car counts of 48, 41 & 47)

97 Cade Dillard, Robeline, LA - Two 4ths and a 9th. Cade just keeps wracking up top ten finishes in that Southern Region and now he's getting into the top 5 with those guys. 5th in points. One point behind Shryock for 4th and 13 behind J. Scott for 3rd. Those top 3 -- Sanders and the Scott twins -- are just a little bit better than he is at the moment. He's 'out-teamed' some on that tour but you still have to admire his grit. He can outrun one and sometimes 2 of those top 4 in points but there always seems to be at least a couple of them finish in front of him. Had the pole in Ardmore.

Murphrey Memorial: Not only has Cade been to the last 4 DMMs, Cade has made all 4 of the ALT DMM A-mains including 2010 when he was just 19 years old. Only 2 other racers -- Chris Henigan & Jason Ingalls -- came claim that feat. (If Peyton Taylor hadn't missed the A in 2012, he'd be the 4th one to have done it.) Chris has made all 7 Doug Murphrey Memorials as a matter of fact including the first 3 in Chatham. His 3 wins in the events is tops and he's the only driver with more than one DMM trophy. While Dillard has won an exciting feature or two at ALT, his DMM finishes are not Cade-like. He has two 12ths, 14th and 19th. I think the confidence may be higher than ever now though. At last year's Tootsie Smith Memorial for Limited Modifieds at ALT, Cade ran 2nd out of 69 cars and were it not for a caution at the wrong time for Cade that negated a pass for the lead, he may have won that one. Like a lot of teams, winning DMM VIII not only would be special but it would be a huge boost for team 97!


3 Kelly Shryock, Fertile, IA - 3rd on Thur, 14th on Fri and then capped it off with a 19th to 7th run on Sat. Kelly's only appearance at the DMM was that runner-up to Phillips in 2012. Don't know what his plans are but he does have some southern ties with Richie Thompson and Larry Clevenger so ???

22D Daniel Hilsabeck, Waukee, IA - 5th, 18th & 13th. 8th in SR points. Hilsabeck's first DMM race was last year and he finished 8th!

J17 Jake Gallardo, Las Cruces, NM - 7th, 10th & 20th. 7th in SR points. After a rough first visit to the DMM in 2012, Gallardo made the A last year and finished 9th!

88xxx Clyde Dunn, Jr., Sunnyvale, TX - Clyde had to use one provisional this past weekend but he raced in all 3 A-mains and had a 15th to 8th run at Lawton. Currently 10th in Southern Region points and 4th in TOMS.

20R Bryan Rowland, Woodward, OK - The boss at Rowland Racing which I believe includes the Jason Hughes Late Model team and the LG2 Modified teams that he, Stormy Scott and Zack VanderBeek compete with, had a pretty good weekend. A provisional start at Lawton turned into a 25th to 9th run, then 9th to 4th on Friday and 11th on Sat. Currently 6th in Southern Region points.

4M Bobby Malchus, Red Oak, TX - Solid, solid weekend with USMTS for the TOMS point leader. (tied with Wesley Veal) Malchus qualified for every A-main, advanced from where he started in each one and finished 10th (from 21st), 16th and 9th. 9th in SR points. Malchus returned to the DMM last year after not be able to enter in 2012. He made the A-main in 2011 and finished 17th.

1* Adam Penn, Shreveport, LA - A bit of a tough weekend in qualifying for the 1-star-car. Was a DNQ for 2 of the 3 shows and used a provisional to run one of the two but turned that into a 26th to 11th run at Longdale after a 13th in Lawton. Adam had a fast car at last year's DMM. Started 10th in his first DMM A-main but unfortunately, had the hardest crash of the race over top of turn one and ended up 23rd.

85 Thomas Tillison Jr., Wellston, OK - Pretty good showing in his home state this weekend! Passed Kelly for the lead at Lawton and led 3 or so laps. Ended up a DNF for 20th after 15 laps of that one but finished 12th in Longdale and got a top 10 in Ardmore. Tillison tried his first DMM last year and missed the A by ONE spot in his qualifier. I believe this underdog can drive!

9 Jimmy Ray, Las Cruces, NM - Qualified for all 3 USMTS A-mains this week. Had the pole in Lawton and finished 11th but started 22nd in Ardmore and finished 12th. Has run several USMTS shows at ALT and one unsanctioned race there but cannot find where he's tried a Doug Murphrey Memorial yet.

7D Austin Theiss, Hockley, TX - Qualified at Lawton, DNQ at the next 2 and used a provisional in Longdale. The rookie finished both As that he ran though, got maximum laps and advanced a lot of spots in them, 24th to 12th and 25th to 15th and went 16th to 9th (3 spots short) in his B on Saturday. At this time last year, I believe Austin was running a Limited and had not started his Modified career at DMM time. Austin also ran 6th in a 24-car field 'back home' on May 3rd at a Royal Purple Raceway Gulf Coast Series USRA Mod race finishing behind winner John-O Whittington, Tracy Denby Jr., Howard Willis, Garrett Gregory and Corey Babbitt. All 5 of them have been to the DMM before with Whittington's ALT finishes of 5th in 2010 and 2nd in 2011, the best of the group. Last year, Gregory was the only one to try it and he came up two spots short in his qualifier. Willis had a 6th in 2010 but hasn't been back since...


I'll tell you who else was looking sporty this past weekend:

7X Chris Dawson, Lubbock, TX! - Dawson raced a Sidebiter Chassis (same brand chassis as what Dillard is running -- they were the only 2 Sidebiters entered all weekend) into all 3 A-mains. Ended up a DNF the first night but the other 2 were a nicely done pair of 6th place finishes from 15th & 14th starting positions! Dawson had a good qualifying effort at the March USMTS race at ALT where he made top 8 redraw. Finished 15th. Don't believe he's tried a DMM yet.

Along with another Texan...

18S Cody Smith, Kaufman, TX - Cody had 3 outstanding qualifying efforts in his CAM Chassis this week. He started no worse than 12th and never had to run any of the Bs. He didn't get the finishes he was after in the first two but did get him a nice $800 fifth place in Ardmore. Cody is currently 7th in TOMS points.

30 Chase Allen, Midlothian, TX - The CAM Chassis builder missed the A by one spot in Lawton. Skipped Longdale and came back with a great qualifying effort in Ardmore to make top 8. Chase did not get to finish that A but has to be proud of his chassis making top-12 four times and the top 8 redraw 3 times in 5 tries over the weekend.

Chase Allen has been to the DMM 3 of the past 4 years and raced his way into the A last year driving Kelly Gorham's #7. Cody's been here for at least 2 of the DMMs and is still trying to make his first DMM A-main start. He missed the March ALT USMTS race because of a flip the night before at Timberline.

2 Grant Junghans, Manhattan, KS - It was good to see Grant running on the USMTS tour this week. Brother Chase is off racing a Late Model now. You know both them kids are 6'5"? Grant didn't have any luck on Thursday but had 2 excellent qualifying efforts on Friday & Saturday that by-passed the B-mains. His best run was at Longdale on Friday, 7th place in the A-main. Grant doesn't have any racing scheduled on May 30th & 31st. He is coming south in late June though to run the whole Southern Region Speedweek. He's doing 8 races in ten days as he'll start with the Central Region race at 81 Speedway on June 19th. Doug Murphrey trip out of the question???

Modifieds racing TOMORROW NIGHT 7:30 at Ark-La-Tex Speedway! $500 to win/$100 to start (no entry fee), $30 pit pass (extra $250 to highest finishing Barksdale FCU Member), last race before COMP Cams presents Doug Murphrey Memorial VIII -- a $10,000 to win/$500 to start, NO entry fee Modified Event!!!


Passing mid-May and Memorial Day weekend has officially begun in places like Wheatland, Missouri and the dirt tracks of Iowa. Business has picked up in all the classes including of course, Open Wheel Modifieds...

52 USMTS Modifieds did battle at Lucas Oil Speedway last night in support of the Show-Me 100 weekend with Sparta, Missouri veteran Stephen Muilenberg getting the win over former USMTS Champion Jason Krohn in 2nd. Trevor Hunt, defending USRA National Champion Terry Schultz (started 17th!) and Jason Pursley rounded out the top 5. Shawn Nations -- who has competed in a ProMod at Ark-La-Tex Speedway -- was 6th.

They had 27 USRA Modifieds at LOS back last Saturday, 5/17. Mentioned earlier than John Allen won that one after a top 5 with USMTS at Lawton one week ago. Allen finished 11th last night. Finishing 2nd on 5/17 and 9th last night was #52 Mitch Keeter who was a 2013 entry at the Doug Murphrey Memorial.

Finishing 3rd at LOS on 5/17 after starting 20th!... And then 6th last night out of those 52 cars was young West Plains, Missouri racer Logan Martin. Logan has 4 B-Mod wins this year and one A-Mod win so he's starting to pick this up!

Finishing 13th last night was Louisiana's own Josh Beckham who obviously has more laps around ALT than any of the other 51 at Lucas Oil Speedway last night. He was a DMM entry last year and has had several good runs at ALT in Limited Modifieds & Modifieds.

NASCAR's Kenny Wallace was 20th last night and 2011 Doug Murphrey Memorial Champion Johnny Bone, Jr. was in the field on 5/17 at LOS but also had early problems in the A-main.

Meanwhile in Iowa last night... Gulf Coast Modified Series point leader (USRA sanctioned) Jeff Hoegh from New Caney, Texas (Houston!) and a fellow Texan from nearby Katy, Marcus Berndt (9th in Gulf Coast Modified points) have taken a little trip. They raced with the USMTS NORTHERN Region. That series is in Minnesota the next three nights. Perhaps a stop by Vivian, Louisiana Thursday thru next Saturday is part of their schedule on the way home??? Hmmmm...??? Currently, the Gulf Coast Modifieds' next scheduled event is on June 14th is Gator Motorplex in Willis, Texas!

Meanwhile again..., in other racing action last week back down south...

Adam Willis of Ten Mile, Louisiana (#10M with a Monster Energy logo on the side I believe) topped a 12-car field at Leesville 171 Speedway last Saturday, 5/17. You take the Lewis Logging #4 and Kyle Cummings's #31 and you get car #431 -- Cummings's (Sibley, Louisiana) ride for 2014. He ran 2nd to Willis with Tracy Denby, Jr. #51 of Vidor, Texas finishing 3rd. Willis was at the DMM last year and missed the A by 3 spots. Cummings missed it last year by 2 spots (not as bad as when he missed the 2013 Pelican 100 by a few feet though). Kyle had a top 10 finish in the 2012 Doug Murphrey Memorial so he can most definitely get around Ark-La-Tex Speedway and he's won here before. First SUPR Late Model win I believe came at ALT too! Denby had a good car at the 2012 DMM but missed the A-main. Don't think Tracy has been up here since the 2013 USMTS race.

Over at Jackson, Mississppi, Noah Daspit -- who's been doing a lot of Crate-Late racing -- scored the Modified win over another field of 12 cars at Jackson Motor Speedway. He's always been one of Mississippi's best in the Open Wheels. Not sure if Noah has ever raced his #34 at ALT before. Finishing 2nd was Greg Hollingsworth #008 of Lake, Mississippi. Greg was part of the DMM in 2010 and his brother Kent Hollingsworth who lives in West Monroe, Louisiana (Raptor Racecars) made the A that year. Kent's also had good runs in the Tootsie Smith Memorial Limited Mod shows at ALT. Finishing 3rd at JMS was Mike Ladner -- another strong Mississippi coast competitor. I don't believe Ladner has raced here before.

Caleb Dillard, Manuel Williams II and Alex Ashley all scored wins over small fields on 5/17.

Caleb, the younger Dillard from Robeline won another Modified feature at their home track, Sabine Motor Speedway with Stanly Kraly making the long tow from New Orleans and 2nd generation Shongaloo, Louisiana racer Conner Williams getting 2nd & 3rd. All 3 of these guys have laps at Ark-La-Tex -- Dillard the most including the last 2 Doug Murphrey Memorials.

Manuel Williams II of Genoa, Arkansas is on a bit of a roll right now and he has won in a Modified at ALT Speedway before too. Last Saturday, he outran dad Manuel Williams and Gladewater, Texas racer Billy Jack Brutchin for a feature win at Texarkana 67 Speedway. 'Little Man' as he's known had a 4th at Ark-La-Tex at our last race on May 10th behind Dustin 'Tater' Hyde, David Winslet & Chris Huckabay. 35 cars. Before that on May 3rd he had a fifth in a field of 25 at Diamond Park's Max Adams Memorial behind Hyde, Dallas Everett, Ronald Pilkington and BJ Moore with Chris Henigan running 6th that night. All these folks have plenty of laps at ALT!

Alex Ashley of Zachary, Louisiana scored the win at Thunder Valley Speedway. Not sure if Alex has run ALT before but his father David had a SUPR win here. This year's Doug Murphrey Memorial would be a great time to start because it's only going to get better the next 4 years!!!


_________________

It has NOT rained enough in Vivian to cancel or postpone anything just yet.

Like y'all, believe me, we are watching those forecasts too. At around noon tomorrow, we will make a decision about Thursday night's practice. Then at around noon on Thursday, will we try and make a decision about having DMM VIII this weekend. Sunday is in play if we need it. We ended up using Sunday last year to finish the show.

We do not like to keep folks hanging any longer than necessary and tie up their alternate weekend plans. We really, REALLY want to race THIS WEEKEND. Reschedules of a show like this are tough to pull off. You know how far folks will travel to watch or race at the Doug Murphrey Memorial. We've already had them from as far away as New Mexico, Iowa and Georgia and this year we got a call from North Carolina (Not a NASCAR guy but a good one none-the-less!). Just heard from another driver that a lot of you know who has never ran a DMM at ALT before too. Sure don't want to postpone or cancel... but, like you, we can't do anything about the weather but give it our best effort one way or another.

Check back tomorrow!!!


Support classes include Limited Modifieds (Southern Sport Mods), STEMS ProMods & Factory Stocks. Each one will pay $500 to win and $100 to start with no entry fee IF this stays a 2-day show.

Pit Pass:

Thursday practice (not mandatory): $20
Friday: $30
Saturday: $35

Grandstand:

Friday $10, kids 10 & under free with adult in grandstand.
Saturday JUST $15! Kids 10 & under still free with adult in grandstand.
Thursday closed.


For updates, 'Like' & follow our facebook page at: www.facebook.com/pages/Ark-La-Tex-Speedway/211681355569776

We canceled tonight's practice yesterday just in case in got bad enough or looked bad enough to cancel the whole weekend. Didn't want to get everybody here for a practice and then cancel. That turned out not to be the case. The track is in great shape and we could have practiced tonight. The rest of the weekend is still a GO so....

GREEN GREEN GREEN! Come to Vivian folks, WE'RE RACING!

Mother nature and the weather forecasters both are trying to dampen Doug Murphrey Memorial VIII. We think that's rather rude of them to treat our new sponsor COMP Cams that way. We 'may' have a little rain dodging to do today, Friday and even Saturday afternoon possibly, but the forecast is improving for Saturday night (20%) and Sunday is looking dry with a high near 90. HEADS UP... 'IF' we have to race Sunday it will NOT be a day race. Once we start tomorrow night...we are finishing the Doug Murphrey Memorial and some Modified team IS leaving with $10,000 even if they don't get it until late Sunday night! Hopefully we catch a break and that trophy is being presented Saturday night ON SCHEDULE!!! Only .6 - six tenths of an inch of rain - has fallen all week at the track. Forecast said 2-3 inches back on Tue-Wed and they missed it by a lot in our favor! We're thinking that trend will continue.

You know, the weather keeps trying to slow us down at ALT. Last year at DMM VII, there was that 70% chance of rain predicted for Saturday night. We decided to race then too and y'all didn't let us down and we had a nice crowd and a lot of race cars and we almost beat that rain last year on the Saturday. Started. Had a delay. Ran the track in but didn't have a chance to finish Saturday thanks to the second batch of rain that hit...BUT...back we came on Sunday and Jeremy Payne left with $10,000 and Geoff Lary left with that $5000 for running 2nd.

Then our Pelican 100 faced a horrible forecast this year for the Saturday. Again, you did not disappoint us and had plenty of cars and fans even though the best move then was a 'Pelican 50' on a Friday night. This time with the weather getting better later in the weekend... we plan on getting it ALL IN and paying out that FULL PURSE!

The very next week USMTS raced at ALT with a 60% chance of rain and not a drop! And yet again at our Lucas Oil Late Model show in April... Jackson was forced to rain out Lucas on Friday, Muskogee had a horrible forecast for Sunday and they ended up raining out early too. Our Saturday forecast at ALT was bad again. 70% or so? It didn't rain a drop until the last 5 laps of our last feature. We took a chance and again, you the fans and racers did not disappoint us!

Well if you believe that much in us, we believe in you! Let's get COMP Cams presents Doug Murphrey Memorial VIII in the books THIS WEEKEND!!! READY???!!!