Merrill takes 'em to School in Limited 100; Taylor Captures 64th OPS Pro Stock Win

    Merrill steered his car to the outside edge of the oval and slowed down just enough to salute his exultant crew on the other side of the backstretch fence. Then the Limited Sportsman ace pushed the accelerator to the floor one final time, easing across the finish line nearly seven seconds ahead of Kenny Harrison to win the Stanley Excavation 100 main event.

    David Tripp finished third, followed by Steve Bennett Sr. and Tommy Ricker. None of them were a match for Merrill, who stormed to the front of the Cole-Man’s Concrete Iron Man Triple Crown event on lap 8 and threatened to lap the field.

    At one point, the second-place battle between Harrison, Tripp and Bennett raged on less than a full straightaway in front of the leader.

    "I just had a great car. We weren’t very good on opening night. Then we were a little better last time out, and tonight we hit on something," Merrill said. "The car just kept getting better as it went."

    Merrill’s progress was slowed by only two caution flags for minor spins on laps 12 and 31. David Vaughn and Matt Williams each set the pace briefly in the early stages before Merrill established his dominance.

    Of the 17 cars that started the event, only seven finished on the lead lap.

    Competition was much closer in the accompanying features. Jeff Taylor took advantage of Gary Drew’s late mechanical maladies to win a lengthy battle for the top spot before driving away to a convincing 50-lap Oxford Networks Pro Stock victory.

    Taylor, who owns a record eight track championships, won a Pro Stock main event at OPS for the 64th time. He trails only Mike Rowe and Al Hammond among top-division drivers in that category.

    "Our car was pretty good. We got some breaks early to get up through traffic, and then Gary seemed to be having some problems," Taylor said. "Everybody is so close that you have to try new and different things every week. We made a couple of changes in practice to gain a tenth (of a second) here. Then we tried something else and gained another tenth, and that seemed to give us what we needed."

    Andy Shaw withstood the late charge of opening-night winner Ricky Rolfe to claim second. Tommy Tompkins ran in the top five throughout the race and went home fourth, followed by Pro All Stars Series Super Late Model regular Scott Chubbuck.

    Drew led the first 30 laps after starting from the pole in the 26-car grid. He retired to the garage area after 37 laps and was credited with 22nd.

    Dale Verrill won for the second time in three Agren Appliance Late Model Stock starts this spring. Kurt Hewins and Chris Coolidge captured the caution-free, 20-lap Strictly Stock twins, and past Mini Stock champion Butch Keene underscored his comeback with a hard-fought victory over Larry Melcher, Adam Polvinen and Jim Childs.

    Verrill made gains from his 12th starting position in both the inside and outside lanes throughout the LMS encounter, and the lone restart of the race gave him a clean shot at early leader Bill Childs Jr. with five laps remaining in the 40-lap sprint.

    Childs, who clearly was battling some handling difficulties, kept the advantage on lap 36 before Verrill powered to the front on the next pass and sped away to the win.

    It represented a sweep of the top two divisions for Taylor, who built Verrill ’s ride at Distance Racing Products.

    "He sure put together a good car," Verrill said. "We’re going to have a good year. I can tell."

    Jon Brill chased Childs under the wire for his second straight top-three finish, while Travis Adams, Dennis Spencer Jr. and Doug Coombs hit the line in that order within nine-thousandths of a second of each other in a thrilling drag race for the fourth spot.

    Hewins, who has won a feature race in every current Weekly Racing Series division except Pro Stock, returned to Strictly competition this season after finishing second in Agren Appliance LMS points last summer.

    It has taken the veteran driver two weeks to reacquaint himself with the hobby cars, but he needed only four laps to charge to the front of this week’s ‘B’ feature and set sail to the victory.

    In an interesting twist, the driver who gave Hewins his most anxious moments was teammate Jason Gaboury, who made a late charge at the wheel of a car Hewins built.

    "I guess I did too good a job," Hewins said.

    Gaboury ran out of time, however, and was content to hold off Sumner Sessions for the runner-up role. Wal-Mart Rookie of the Year point leader Justin Karkos made a late run on the outside to overtake Skip Turner for fourth.

    Coolidge led the entire ‘A’ feature from the pole but had a mirror full of Roy Weymouth, Kim Tripp and B.J. Chapman throughout. Weymouth crept to within a car length but couldn’t put the last-lap move on Coolidge, who claimed his 15th career win in the class.

    As it turned out, Coolidge’s status as the leader was safer than he thought. Weymouth’s car failed the post-race technical inspection, handing second to Tripp and third to Chapman.

    Ben Tinker was the first of the division point leaders to cut through traffic, and those maneuvers were good for fourth ahead of Danny Smart.

    Four drivers jockeyed for position at the head of the Mini Stock field. None of them could make a run around Keene, who bolstered his status as the second-winningest driver in the history of the current four-cylinder division with his first triumph after a one-year hiatus.

    "The competition is either getting tougher, or I’m getting older," Keene said.

    Melcher has finished first or second in each of the first three races, while Polvinen, last year’s Summer Racing Series Runnin’ Rebel champion, also collected the third straight trophy to open his rookie campaign. Childs was a car length back in fourth, followed by Dave Mooney and defending division champion Dan Morris.

    OPS celebrates the upcoming holiday weekend with an old-fashioned doubleheader. On Saturday night at 6:30 p.m., it’s the Weekly Racing Series with a 100-lap Strictly Stock main event. Then we’ll turn it over to the Summer Racing Series cars on Sunday at 1 p.m., as they kick off the Grand Slam Series at VIP Parts, Tires and Service Motor Mayhem. Spectator drags and a Smoky Donut Show are also on the agenda.