Purkey Passes Payne; Boen and Phillips Tangle at I-80 Soup Race

By Joey Sparano

(GREENWOOD NEB., 05/27/07) On a perfect night for racing, 66 late models
packed the pits at I-80 Speedway for the 2007 edition of the Alphabet Soup
Race presented by Dodge. From spills to thrills and everything in between,
the 50 lap feature would become an instant classic.

The Alphabet Soup Race started with Missouri driver Terry Phillips on the
pole. Phillips would jump to an early lead, but as lap one concluded the
"big one" occurred. Gary Stoble and Craig Preble, who started in the front
of the field, would both spin down the front straightaway. When it all came
to a stop over a half dozen cars sat piled in turn one including Colorado
driver Kelly Boen who was on top of another car. However with little damage
Boen would be able to return to the race starting in the rear.

When the green waved again it was Phillips who again took the point. As the
halfway point was reached it was still Phillips, but the car that was on the
move was Kelly Boen. Boen would charge through the field and on lap 39 pass
Phillips coming out of turn two. Entering turn three Phillips would hit Boen
causing him to spin, the #90 of Steve Kempt then had no where to go and
drove into the side of Boen's #07. As the race was red flagged, Boen leaped
from his car and ran down the track after Phillips. Track Officials would
hold back Boen and Phillips would drive to the flag stand where he was
thrown out of the race. Boen would then make his way to front straightaway
where he received cheers from the entire grandstands. As the race got back
underway it was Jeremy Payne who was in the lead, followed by Al Purkey and
John Anderson. Payne kept the lead until the white flag lap.

Purkey was on Payne's bumper when entering turn three when he drove to the
bottom. Purkey's #33 would stick and he would drive pass Payne coming off of
turn four and win by a car length. Payne was followed by Larry Clawson, John
Anderson, and Kyle Berck.

Kyle Berck would win the 30 lap $1000 to win Modified "A" feature. Berck
would be followed by Johnny Saathoff who won the first "B" feature. Jeremy
Rasmussen would finish third, Matt Richards came home fourth, and Greg Netz
finished fifth. Chris Spieker and Jason Friesen would make contact on the
final lap causing Spieker to spin down the back straightaway. Spieker
finished 10th and Friesen was put back to 11th for the contact.

Al Humphrey continued his dominance winning his third straight race and
second race of the weekend at I-80 in the City Weekly Grand Nationals.
Humphrey would take the lead a few laps into the race after starting sixth,
but halfway in the #9 of Dave Cook would take the lead from Humphrey.
Humphrey then found his groove, made it pass Cook and to victory lane. Cook,
Jason Hobscheidt, Ron Tilley, and Gary Leapley rounded out the top five.

Results

Alphabet Soup Race presented by Dodge: 1) 33p Al Purkey, 2) 74 Jeremy Payne,
3) 21d Larry Clawson, 4) 2 John Anderson, 5) 14 Kyle Berck, 6) 53 Joe
Kosiski, 7) 15t David Turner, 8) 15w Mike Wiarda, 9) 22v Alan Vaughn, 10) 28
Bill Leighton Jr., 11) 26jr Corey Zeitner, 12) e5k Eddie Kirhoff, 13) 1x Bo
Egge, 14) 2s Johnny Saathoff, 15) 1h Chad Humston, 16) u2 Scott Daly, 17) 18
Jack Sullivan, 18) 7 Mike Stadel, 19) 24L Rick Lieser, 20) 1w Mike Wallace,
21) 07 Kelly Boen, 22) 90 Steve Kempt, 23) 24 Bryant Goldsmith, 24) 89 Jerry
Warner, 25) 33s Gary Stolba, 26) 92 Delbert Smith, 27) 8k Jason Bodenhammer,
28) 22 Craig Preble, 29) 5m Todd Shute, 30) 56 Chris Spieker, 31) 2h John
Hampel 32) 75 Terry Phillips.

Modified "A": 1) 33z Kyle Berck, 2) 96 Johnny Saathoff, 3) 31j Jeremy
Rasmussen, 4) 1r Matt Richards, 5) 29 Greg Netz, 6) 5 Chris Hogan, 7) 30
Jordan Grabouski, 8) 3L Bub Lerette, 9) 12h Mike Hansen, 10) 56 Chris
Spieker, 11) 1f Jason Friesen, 12) 95x Dylan Smith, 13) 74 Justin Clark, 14)
3x Mike Johnson, 15) 86jr Dirk Kirk, 16) 95 Buzz Wilson, 17) 29e Eric
Rempel, 18) 43 Brian Foote, 19) 30t David Trauernicht, 20) 53 Staci Stava,
21) 52s Jeremiah Sillman, 22) 1m Robert Brinkman.

City Weekly Grand Nationals "A" Feature: 1) 55 Al Humphey, 2) 9 Dave Cook,
3) 1 Jason Hobscheidt, 4) 56 Ron Tilley, 5) t3 Gary Leapley, 6) 97d Dave
Doll, 7) 12 Todd Hipnar, 8) 51x Les Siebert, 9) 17 Dave Livingston, 10) 2d
Todd Morgan, 11) 2x Andrew Kosiski, 12) 55d Curt Drake, 13) 29x Bill Koons,
14) 40 Shawn Harker, 15) 51 Matt Boler, 16) 15) Jase Kaser, 17) 50 Brad
Soll, 18) 96c Cory Hutchinson, 19) 91 Steve Farnsworth, 20) 29 Lennie
Pospisil, 21) 35 Kortney Kosiski, 22) 8x Ron Tex Jr.