THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 13, 1995 TAG: 9508130803
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KEVIN DOEPP, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
All eyes were on Phil Warren and Charlie Bryant, Jr. after last week's fiasco in the late model stock race at Langley Speedway.
But those eyes would be on a different driver as the checkered flag fell Saturday night.
Buddy Malish Jr. of Hampton, who was running second and third for most of the race, took Warren on the 99th lap, winning by about 4 inches in an exciting 100-lap race.
With Warren leading most of the second half of the race, Malish made his move after a caution flag on lap 93.
He closed the two-car gap between him and Warren. He and Warren were side by side for the last three laps.
He finally passed Warren's nose on the 99th lap and remained there until the checkered flag waved.
Malish, who won for the first time this season, talked about his victory after the race.
``I was drifting up from the groove to the inside, and once I got underneath Phil he let me in,'' Malish said. ``He was pretty fair about it.''
Warren, who led for the first ten laps only to relinquish that to Bugs Hairfield for about 40 laps, wasn't too upset about the loss.
``It was a close one, and a good race for us,'' Warren said.
Bryant, who was the topic of a lot of controversy last week, finished fourth and seemed happy to end up where he did. ``We expected a lot worse,'' Bryant said. ``Everyone was super clean. We are happy with our fourth place finish.''
In other races:
In the 25-lap pure stock race Kevin Wagnor took the checkered flag in a race slowed by three caution flags.
In an exciting 25-lap limited stock race, car 42 driver Paul Lubno won his first race of the season.
Lubno was the beneficiary of several caution flags that took pole-sitter Tod Carson and Jason Christenbury out of contention.
Christenbury, who led the race for about 15 laps, took the lead after Carson had some car trouble in the first few laps. However, Christenbury got tangled up with Carson later and spun out of contention.
In a caution-filled 25-lap mini stock race, Kevin Harrison took the checkered flag for his 12th win of the season.
In the 40-lap grand stock race Norfolk's Roger Bress took the checkered flag.
Last week Bress was disqualified for a lightened flywheel. For Bress, it was his 13th win of the season. by CNB