Great American Dirt Track
Payne wins Sunflower State Showdown semifeature
By David Smith Jr.
O'Reilly NCRA
Jeremy Payne wins Friday's semifeature. (Ron Mitchell)
JETMORE, Kan. (June 4) — Jeremy Payne of Springfield, Mo., earned a solid starting spot for Saturday’s inaugural Sunflower State Showdown with a victory in Friday’s semifeature at Great American Dirt Track. Payne held off race-long challenges from fellow Springfield driver Eric Turner in the 20-lapper.
Payne and Turner will start among the first four rows of the $10,000-to-win main event on Saturday night, the richest Late Model race in Kansas that’s sanctioned by O’Reilly NCRA, MARS DirtCar Series and the Colorado Late Model Association DIRTcar Series.
"We have really struggled here lately with this new car,” Payne said. "Me and (teammate) Terry (Phillips) have really worked hard on figuring this car out and I think we got it going now as the car just ran great. I saw (Turner) once, but I felt comfortable enough where I was running on the track that I thought we would be OK.”
Kelly Boen of Henderson, Colo., Phillips and Kyle Berck of Marquette, Neb., rounded out the top five. Jack Sullivan, John Anderson and Eddie Kirchoff filled out the top eight finishers and those drivers will set the first four rows of Saturday’s main event.
Gary Christian started on the pole of Friday’s semifeature, but Payne jumped out to a 10-length advantage before Patrick Johnson’s lap-six spin and a botched restart.
With Payne still out front, Boen tried to take the second spot from Turner, but Turner eventually edged away from that battle and set his sights on Payne.
By lap 17, Turner closed within one length amid lapped traffic, but Payne withstood the charge for the victory.
Staring positions from ninth on back will be settled in consolation races on Saturday.
Sunflower State Showdown (semifeature): (1) Jeremy Payne, (2) Eric Turner, (3) Kelly Boen, (4) Terry Phillips, (5) Kyle Berck, (6) Jack Sullivan, (7) John Anderson, (8) Eddie Kirchoff, (9) Brad Looney, (10) Corey Zeitner, (11) Gary Christian, (12) Al Purkey, (13) Dean Moore, (14) David Brack, (15) Scott Lewis, (16) Bill Koons, (17) Leroy Johnson, (18) Steve Lewis, (19) Patrick Johnson, (20) Dustin Mooneyham. Heat race winners (among 27 cars): Payne, Zeitner, Turner, Anderson.
