Justin Wells picks up first O'Reilly MLRA victory at Lucas Oil Speedway
Clint Brown
June 11, 2006

Excitement surrounded the grand opening of the new Lucas Oil Speedway and when the final checkered flag fell Justin Wells found himself with another reason to be excited - his first ever O'Reilly MRLA win.

The initial green flag flew and Jeff Floyd jumped out to the lead from the pole position, but the yellow came out as the field raced down the back stretch. Alan Vaughn slowed coming off of turn 2 which created a bottleneck that found CJ Lyle and Billy Murphy caught up in a wreck that ended their evening. Steve Kosiski also had to make a quick trip to the pits for repairs after making it through the wreck with slight damage. On the complete restart Floyd once again jumped out to the lead with Scott Drake and Mike Brown falling in behind him. On lap 4 Floyd slipped up coming out of turn two and brushed the wall which allowed Drake to power past and into the lead. Floyd was able to continue on, but was under heavy pressure from Brown in the third spot. On lap 6 Brown made the move stick as he raced past Floyd and quickly moved up on Drake to take the lead. With 12 laps in the books Justin Wells put his name into the frontrunner at as he moved into fourth spot and then into the third spot before the caution came out for the spun machine of Charlie Randolph on lap 15.

John Hampel pulled his machine into the infield under the caution which moved Wells up to third on the restart. Wells made the move on Drake for second with a high line move coming off of turn 4 and was able to take the position. Lap 20 found Steve Kosiski on a march to the front as he moved into fifth after starting from the back of the back from the initial caution of the race. Wells began to work the high side to get around Brown on lap 24 and took the top spot a lap later as Kosiski also worked his way around Floyd for the fourth spot. Lap 28 saw Floyd slip another spot as Al Purkey moved into the top 5 after starting the night off in the 17th spot. Brown got a run on Wells coming off of turn four with the white flag waving and the pair ran side by side as they headed off into turn one. Going down the back stretch and into turn three neither driver had a clear advantage and the drag race was on coming off turn four. Brown held the slight advantage, but Wells was able to get the run off the high side and crossed the line mere inches ahead of Brown for the win. Scott Drake held on for third with Steve Kosiski and Al Purkey rounding out the top five at the finish.

A total of thirty-nine cars signed in with Jimmy Morris, Jeff Floyd, Scott Drake, and Mike Brown coming out on top of the four heat races. Al Purkey and CJ Lyle came home with the wins in the two B features to make their way into the A. The winner of the Performance Bodies Nose Piece was Brett LaFollette while Al Purkey came home with the Weld Wheels Hard Charger Award.

Next up for the O'Reilly MLRA is a trip to Midway Speedway in Lebanon, MO on Friday, June 16, and the first trip for the series to Lake Ozark Speedway in Eldon, MO on Saturday, June 17.

For O'Reilly MLRA information call 816-650-5063 or 816-305-6572 or visit them on the web at www.mlraracing.com.

Full Results

Lucas Oil Speedway

June 10, 2006

Completed	Heat 1          Pos. Car Name, Hometown 1 9M Jimmy Morris 2 23L Brett LaFollette 3 88B David Barker 4 8K TJ Kuykendall 5 07 Kelly Boen 6 1A Bryon Allison 7 9B Billy Murphy 8 Z2 Gary Webb 9 90K Steve Kempt 10 73B Shad Badder

2006 Thunder Tour Sponsors: O'Reilly Auto Parts, Hoosier Race Tire, Hatfield Racing Engines, Larry Shaw Race Cars, Afco, GRT Race Cars, The Driveline Shop, Sunoco Race Fuels, Weld Wheels, Chase Race Decals, Gameday Trophy, Bodee's Race Bodies, Smitty's Racing Engines, Duralite, Holley, Lunati, Rod End Supply, Schoenfeld Headers, Kluhsman Racing Components, Performance Race Bodies, ATL Fuel Cells, Sports Nutz