THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 15, 1995 TAG: 9504150419
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DENISE MICHAUX, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
The work never stops at Langley Speedway.
Just in time for the first extra-distance Late Model Stock feature of the season, the Winston Racing Series signs have been painted, and even more lights have been put up on the back straightaway.
Promoter Wayne Wyatt had put additional lights on the backstretch prior to last weekend's race, but the area was still too dark.
More than 30 Late Model Stocks should be on hand for tonight's Oyster Point Dodge 250. Series points leader Phil Warren will be going for his third consecutive victory, with Eddie Johnson, Charlie Ford and Bugs Hairfield, who won an extra-distance race at Langley last season, on hand to challenge.
Warren, seeking his second consecutive series championship, holds a 14-point lead over Ashton Lewis Jr. in the Late Model Stock title chase.
Roger Bress leads the Grand Stock division by four points over Jimmy Kenney. Tod Carson and Kevin Adams are tied for the lead in the Limited Stock series, while Corey Fogelman and Jimmy Adkins lead the Pure Stock and Mini-Stock divisions.
FIRST-TIMER: Chris Perry picked up his first win of the season last weekend at East Carolina Motor Speedway to end Tommy Cherry's early-season dominance of the Late Model Stock Car division.
Perry took the lead when Terry Dease spun out in turn 1 on lap 43. Jerry Burr gave Perry a challenge on the final lap but slipped high in turn 1 and spun, allowing Perry to cruise to his first win of the season in the 75-lap feature.
Bill Price led from flag to flag in the Pure Stock 25-lapper for his first win of '95. Virgil Toler was another first-time winner in the Four-Cylinder event. John Wiley took his third checkered flag of the season in the Super Stock division, and last season's Late Model Stock champion, Hank Jarman, won the 50-lap Sportsman race.
The speedway will have a six-race program tonight, with the Four-Cylinder division running twin 20-lap features.
STREAKS CONTINUE: Richard Holmes of Smithfield will seek to tie the track record for consecutive wins in the Limited Stock division at Southampton Speedway tonight as he looks for his sixth straight trip to Victory Lane. A sixth triumph would tie Tony Edwards' record, set in 1993.
Speck Edwards will be gunning for his fourth consecutive Sportsman win, and Chuck Perry will go for win No. 3 in the Hobby Stock class.
Wade Hollingsworth is Southampton's all-time winningest driver with a total of 33 victories - four in the Sportsman class and 29 in Mini-Stock. But Tony Edwards is closing in on that total with 26 wins to his credit. Speck Edwards is close behind with 25 and Holmes has 21.
GREEN ON GN POLE: David Green won his third Busch Grand National pole of the season, leading qualifying Friday at Hickory Motor Speedway for today's Sundrop 400 (TV: 4 p.m., TNN).
Green, the defending series champion, toured the 0.363-mile track at 89.068 mph in a Chevrolet. The pole is his third in a row at Hickory. He has never won in eight starts at the track.
Dennis Setzer, who lives only a few miles from the track and won last July's event here, was second-fastest at 88.042 mph in a Ford.
Hermie Sadler was third, with rookie Curtis Markham fourth and series points leader Johnny Benson fifth.
Danny Edwards Jr. of Poquoson missed the field by six-thousandths of a second, the 33rd-fastest of 40 cars that tried to qualify. Edwards, a regular at Hampton's Langley Speedway, said his next Grand National effort will be in June at Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Edwards' brother Greg, meanwhile, will try to qualify today for the Sundrp 100 Late Model Stock event, which will follow the Busch race.
KELLER TO TEST: Jason Keller, a Grand National driver from Greenville, S.C., will test Junior Johnson's No. 27 Hooters Ford on Monday at the Greenville-Pickens Speedway. The car has been without a full-time driver since Loy Allen Jr. resigned earlier this month. MEMO: Correspondent Stan Creekmore and The Associated Press contributed to
this report. by CNB