Junior Hanley Gets
First Sunoco Super Series Win of 2003 At Winchester
Winchester, IN (June 22,
2003) – Canadian Late Model racing legend Junior Hanley ended his
early season drought with a Sunoco Super Series win Saturday night in the
Winchester 100 at Winchester Speedway. Hanley has had early season slumps
in each of the last two seasons, and so far this year with the Sunoco
Super Series, but the Hanley found the winning combination with an
exciting victory over another series veteran Bull Baker.
“We have been working hard all
season but we just couldn’t get things going,” remarked Hanley in victory
lane. “We were just good enough to win tonight. Bull is always good at
Winchester, I knew he was the one we would have to beat!”
Loveland, Ohio veteran racer
Dave Jackson took the early lead from his outside pole starting spot, but
for only four laps as Bull Baker powered by to take the lead on a restart
on lap five after the nights first red flag. The red came out after Steve
Keller’s car made hard contact with the turn one outside retaining wall
after contact with another car. After the car came to rest at the bottom
of the track, leaking fuel was ignited creating a huge fire that was
quickly extinguished by the Winchester Speedway Safety Crew. Keller
managed to climb from the car with no apparent injuries.
The red flag flew again on lap 9
when John Belott’s blown engine started a huge pile up in turns one and
two involving five cars. Billy Barton, Evan Jackson, Robert Amos, Kenny
Tweedy, and Rick Turner all received race ending damage in the wreck.
Baker continued to lead, when
just past halfway Hanley suddenly started making his way to the front.
After catching Baker, it took several laps for Hanley to finally make the
pass on lap seventy-seven, just before the final caution of the evening
flew when Terry Fisher Jr. made hard contact with the turn four wall.
Hanley lead the rest of the way to get his 17th win with the
Sunoco Super Series. With the win, Hanley also took the series points
lead, after previous points leader Scott Hantz had his race end on lap
twelve with a broken rear end.
Bull Baker fought off Bobby
Parsley to finish in second. Parsley was third, with Brian Rievley in
fourth, and JR. Roahrig in fifth. Finishing sixth was Jeff Lane, earlier
in the day Lane set a new track record in claiming the Yockey Motorsports
Marketing Fast Qualifier Award. Lane’s new record time was 15.370, which
was average speed of 117.111 MPH around the high-banked ˝ mile oval.
Chuck Barnes Jr. was the Hubler
Automotive Group/Blake Carburetion Rookie of the Race with his thirteenth
place finish. Bobby Murany was the Lane Automotive / ISKY Racing Cams
Hardcharger Award winner. Murany finished twelfth after starting twenty
third. Goodyear Performance Awards went to JR Roahrig, and Todd Oliver.
Jeff Lane received the Sweet Move Of the Race Award sponsored by Sweet
Manufacturing. Junior Hanley was the Gladiator GarageWorks Crew Chief Of
The Race. Bull Baker claimed the Kingen Interstate Express Halfway Leader
bonus.
The next Sunoco Super Series
event will be the Mansfield 100 at Mansfield Motorsports Speedway on
Saturday, June 28th.
Official Results Winchester 100
The previously posted
Unofficial results erroneously showed Robert Amos in 20th place, he
actually finished 22nd. Amos was credited with some laps he
did not run, the fireman had his transponder on their safety truck
Qualification
Results Winchester 100
New Track Record!
Jeff Lane, fastest in practice,
proved it was not a fluke when he set a new track record of 15.370 seconds an
average speed of 117.111 on the high banks of the world's fastest half mile
besting the old track record by .008 of a second.
Lineup
Winchester 100
Winchester 1st
Practice Session Results
A hard crash by 33 - Robert
Ohlmann that gathered in 34 - Tim Phillips and 71 - Ray Skillman ended what had
been a trouble free first practice session. For speeds please
click
here.
Winchester Qualifying
Order Set
The qualifying order for the
Winchester 100 has been set. With 30 cars at the track of 32 who entered,
the draw has been completed and the order is available
here.
