Thursday Late Model Nationals claimed by Shirley
Friday, September 28, 2007
By Bob Wilson
Thursday Late Model Nationals claimed by Shirley
KNOXVILLE, Iowa (September 28) Brian Shirley of Springfield, Illinois captured the second night of preliminary action to the 4th annual Lucas Oil Late Model Knoxville Nationals at Knoxville Raceway Friday night. The win paid the defending event champion $6,000 for his 25-lap drive.
At the outset of the feature, pole sitter Billy Moyer got a great jump on Shirley who started right beside him. Moyer chose the bottom of the big half mile oval as Shirley went to the cushion and third running Brady Smith found a center line to his liking. With the track turning dry slick throughout, drivers could run most anywhere they chose.
Lap seven proved to be an exciting circuit. First, the yellow was thrown for Denny Eckrich and Darren Miller as those two drivers came together and spun to a stop between turns one and two. Both restarted on the tail. Prior to that, Shirley had slid Moyer in very close quarters in that same turn and had actually taken the lead running down the backstretch. However, Moyer, on the high side, regained it as the duo roared out of turn four to face the caution flag that was now being displayed. At this early juncture the top five runners were Moyer, Shirley, Brady Smith, Shannon Babb and Brian Birkhofer.
When the race resumed, Moyer again took control of the point. The Batesville, Arkansas driver had last won here seven years ago and his chances of a repeat were starting to look promising.
At the 10-lap mark it became obvious that Shirley was again closing on Moyer. With Moyer on the bottom and Shirley running the cushion the gap between the two could be spotted as the they flashed by the start/finish line on each go around. The Moyer run at the front faded finally on lap fifteen as Shirley grabbed the point when he roared out of turn two. He still had it as he flew through turns three and four, but when they came by the flagstand Moyer held it again. It was just that close.
Shirley took the lead for good on the next circuit but Moyer stayed extremely close. As the frontrunners entered lap traffic, the running order was Shirley, Moyer, Smith, Babb, Birkhofer and Steve Shaver.
As the laps began winding down, Moyer found his hands full with Smith and then Babb too entered the fray. On the final lap Bloomquist made a pass of Babb but that was the only position change among the top running cars.
In heavy lap traffic on the final lap Shirley was able to edge Moyer by little more than one car length. Smith, Bloomquist and Babb completed the top five finishers. Rounding out the top ten were Birkhofer, Shaver, Jimmy Mars, Rick Eckert and Darrell Lanigan.
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