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| Last Race of the Season at Five Flags Speedway | by Regina Sanders
The last regular season race was run tonight at Five Flags Speedway. It was a long caution filled night for all divisions. The 150 lap Late Model race consisted of 6 cautions. Eddie Mercer was taken out on lap 87 when several cars got together on the frontstretch. After the restart, there was a long green flag run. Then, just as Scott Carlson lapped the fourth place car, there was a spin in turn 4 and Carlson got a little sandwiched between two other cars. He went on and almost held off Donald Long for the win, but Long had just pitted for fresh tires on the caution and overtook Carlson with 2 laps to go. The 3rd place finisher, the only other car to finish on the lead lap, was Stanley Smith.
The modifieds had a caution right off the bat on lap 1. Somehow a section of the guardrail was taken out on the backstretch during this wreck. The race was red flagged for about 45 minutes so the guardrail could be repaired. When they finally got back underway, the fans were told that if there were any more cautions there would be a 15 minute time limit put on the race. If they completed 25 laps before the 15 minutes, then they would get to run the length of the race. If fifteen minutes passed before they ran twenty laps, then the white flag would come out. By the time the fourth caution came out on lap 8, the fifteen minutes were up. The caution flew this time because of a spin on the frontstretch. Sammy McMullen got turned sideways and Barry Nickolson had no where to go. He slammed into McMullen on the drivers side close to the rear of the car and spun McMullen around. Luckily neither driver was injured. When the race resumed, the green and white flag came out together. When the checkered flag fell, it was David Smith 1st, David Hutton 2nd, Jim Parker 3rd, Richard Hursham 4th, and Wesley Stephen 5th.
The superstocks had a hard time getting started tonight. They had two cautions before they ever completed a lap. The third time's a charm though. After that, the race was pretty clean. Paul Dickerson held off Kenny Williams for the win. Joe Mahuron finished 3rd, Terry Britt was 4th, and John Adamson 5th.
The spectators had their share of cautions tonight too. After running several straight races with no cautions, the spectator division had 2 tonight. The first caution came out when the second place runner, David Ulbelsteadt, spun in turn 4 on lap 7. The second caution was for the blown motor of Sonny Holland. Billy Hoover led from lap 1 till the end. Clay Jordan was running second on the last lap, but lost some ground when he tried to pass Hoover and wound up third. Derick Johnson made the pass for 2nd on the last lap. Wayne Burkett finished 4th and Ted Martin was 5th.
The last race of the season, the 34th Annual Snowball Derby will be run November 29 - December 2. This race always draws a big crowd and tickets are still available.
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