CAMARGO, IL (07-19-08) by Robert Cortum - Midwest All Star Series

The First Annual Tennessee Stampede featuring the superstars of the
O'Reilly Midwest All Star Series has drawn to a close. With 1 victory and and third place, come from behind run, Ryan Bunton has been crowned the First Annual Tennessee Stampede Champion presensented by RubbnRepair.

"The first night (at West Tennessee Motor Speedway) we didn't make any changes from the dash and were able to win," stated the Morton, Illinois native. "The track was fast and pretty smooth, I know they did a lot of work to get us in there."

Earlier in Friday's event, Bunton was being interviewed by the house
announcer and was asked if he had a nickname. Bunton's response was,
"No, but you can go ahead and make one up for me." The announcer
decided on"Boom Boom" and Bunton was known as Ryan "Boom Boom" Bunton
the rest of the evening. When asked about it, Ryan added, "I don't know where he came up with that one, but I guess we will hang onto it."

"The second night we felt fast all night as well. We had a problem with the bleeder in the feature and had to pull of and get it fixed. It was great to get back up there and race with AJ (Bruns) and Jerrod (Hull) as the laps came down," commented Bunton.

"I just want to thank all the fans first of all for showing up for these two events, they were great both places we went. The tracks and their promoters did a great job prepairing for us to come in. I'd also like to thank RubbnRepair for jumping on board and putting up extra cash for this event, it's always good to have people like them getting involved," Bunton said.

The First Annual Tennessee stampede also had an additional incentive to the best performing 360 driver. With two drivers choosing to go for the added $500 bonus, Greg Merritt edged out Tony Wilson for the extra cash, supplied by the track promoters.

"Wayne (Burns of Thunderhill Raceway) and I just wanted to do something a little different for the 360 guys to help them out. We knew that they were going to be underhorsed at our tracks and wanted to give them a little more incentive to run with us this weekend," stated Steve Ross, promoter of West Tennessee Motor Speedway.

Other festivities over the weekend include Chuck Amatti, "The One Armed Bandit," being recognized as the Grand Marshall of the event. Amatii raced for many years in the Tennessee area and was a hero to many of the kids in the area as they were growing up. Amatti had the opportunity to share how he got the nickname, "The One Armed Bandit," with the crowd Friday night, and also dropped the green flag on the feature event.

With the First Annual Tennessee Stampede in the books everyone is
looking at the event at the close of the O'Reilly Midwest All Star
Series schedule when they return to the same 2 facilities on October
17th and 18th. Many drivers enjoyed the hospitality and were impressed with how well the tracks were prepaired and how the events were ran.




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