THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 11, 1996 TAG: 9608110231
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BRIAN J. FRENCH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: 59 lines
One amazing racing streak ended Saturday. Another continued to thrive.
While superhorse Cigar was upset by Dare and Go, Greg Edwards extended his torrid stretch in Langley Speedway's Late Model Stock division to four wins and 449 laps led by posting another wire-to-wire win in the Denbigh Construction/ Julie Silver Mapes 100.
``Things have really fallen into place for us,'' said Edwards, who leads the series with six victories.
Jody McCormick passed Mike Buffkin on lap 90 to take second place, followed by Roger Sawyer, series points leader Buffkin and Craig Eastep.
Edwards salted the race away by the 65th lap, easily outdistancing the pack.
He also benefited from a lap 88 caution, for when the race was restarted, four lapped cars were between him and Buffkin.
McCormick, and the rest of the pack, were hurt by the caution, which gave Edwards the cushion he needed.
``It's good that we're picking up ground on Buffkin, but we're not picking up ground on Greg,'' McCormick said. ``If we we're second going into the caution and didn't have to fight Mike, we could have made a run at Greg.''
Defending champion Phil Warren was running second for the first half of the race, but tire troubles once again knocked him out. Warren pitted on the lap 88 caution, out of the running and very dejected.
``We just can't get this thing to work,'' he said. ``We won 20 races with this thing last year but . . . maybe the cars fell apart over the winter. I don't know.
``We didn't really race; we rode. The car was loose from lap 60 on. We thought we could hold on to a spot, but we couldn't.''
In Saturday's other races:
Rhett Bussler was awarded the pole in the 40-lap Grand Stock feature when original pole-siiter Kevin Goe was sent to the back of the field for failing post-qualifying inspection. And he used it to his advantage.
Bussler led the entire race for a series-leading sixth win, beating John Hicks by eight car lengths.
The race was marked by six cautions in the first twelve laps, including three on lap 9 alone. Six drivers - including Goe and Trevor Falls, who had won the previous two Grand Stock events - were sent to the back of the pack for failing inspections.
The Limited Stock tug-of-war between Paul Lubno and Jerry Scott continued with a 25-lap race in which Lubno passed Scott with two laps remaining to claim his sixth win of the season.
Lubno and Scott have combined for 15 victories in 17 races this season.
Glenn Smith II made a pass on turn 4 on the final lap and edged points leader Joe Lupton by a bumper to win the 25-lap Mini Stock race.
Lupton, the points leader and pole-sitter for the event, led the entire race until Smith's pass.
The top two finishers in the 25-lap Pure Stock race were disqualified, making third-place Kenny Phares a winner for the fifth time this season.
Dude Gibbs, who was riding a two-race winning streak and had pulled well ahead of the pack, and Gary Ferber, who passed Phares late for second, were called for using oversized cams in violation of Pure Stock rules.
In the 25-lap Legends race, Steve Mendanhall took the lead on lap 6 and pulled away for the victory. by CNB