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Guest · 2011-05-22T00:22:38Z

Beautiful night for racing made for a slick track throughout the heat races, as grip overall seemed hard to come by.. The irony of the night would see not one but two drivers complete hat tricks, as #02 Shawn Murray turned the trick in Pure Stocks with defending track champ #12 Jim "Polish Prince" Belesky equalling that feat in Thunders..First the 4 bangers, and to be honest this was a pretty messy race.. After a couple early cautions, pole sitter #14 Billy Melenhorst shot out to the lead by a couple car lengths, as Murray and last weeks winner #39 Travis Hallyburton would move around #23 Terry Tompkins for position as that trio raced into corner 3. Melenhorst continued to hold a narrow lead till the halfway point, when Murray would pass him to the low side just underneath the flagstand..By this point #13 Dave "Gipper" Glaze was beginning to make his mark, as he charged from 11th to now be challenging Hallyburton for third, a spot he would eventually take.. A couple laps later Glaze and Hallyburton would both work their way around a very game Melenhorst, when #99 Drew Stieler looped it on the frontstretch with 2 to go. On the ensuing restart 5 car pile up along the backstretch and the race is called official.. Murray wins, Glaze 2nd , Hallyburton 3rd, Melenhorst 4th, #400x Chris Cunnington 5th..Heats to Murray x2, and Hallyburton x2..Was nice to see a few more Thunders show as the numbers almost doubled from 2 weeks ago.. Pretty decent race all in all with the top 2 dogs Belesky and Walt starting 7th and 8th.. #21 Desi Walt continues to get better each week, notching the lead in this one for the first 4 laps, when she was passed to the outside by rookie contender #55 Shawn Goggins.. Fast on the move was the duo of Belesky and #14 Thayne Hallyburton, as the pair of division veterans would eventually pass Desi Walt for 2nd and 3rd respectively.. By lap 10, Belesky would run down Goggins, and pass him between 3&4 to the low side.. The rest of the caution free feature would see both Hallyburton and Walt have there trouble getting around the pesky Goggins, with the Prince opening up a near straightaway lead with laps in the 15.9 range.. Walt, would finally work his way past Goggins with two laps remaining for 3rd.. Give first to "The Prince", Hallyburton 2nd, Walt 3rd, Goggins 4th, and #80 Doug Shakell 5th..Belesky and Walt would both capture 2 heat wins in qualifying heat action..Unbelieveable night in the LLM as both 30 lap features went caution free... #8 Dave Lewis would take the first 30 from the outside pole position, with current point leader #57 Ron Quesnelle taking the 30 lap finale.. 3rd feature win on the young season already for the #57 team who is going to a new look Toyota Camry body for next week... As mentioned Lewis would take the first 30, after getting the jump on #54 Randy Bull from the drop of the green.. Bull would check into 2nd in the running order, but came under heavy fire from the trio of #2 Mike Brown, #10 Gord Shepherd, and #28 Robin Jongen.. On lap 13, Brown would make an inside move on Bull entering 3, with Shepherd and Jongen also sliping past the brilliantly prepared Bull #54 Camaro SS.. By this time Lewis was looking cool and collected at the front with laps in the 14.8 sec. range, holding a near half straightaway advantage over 2nd place Brown.. By lap 24, Brown was now under heavy pressure from Shepherd, with Gordie passing his fellow competitor to the outside between 1&2.. Lewis was too far out front by this point and he takes his 1st feature of 2011.. 2nd to Shepherd, with Brown, Jongen, and defending track champ #69 Al "Red Rocket" Inglis the top 5.. Cant ever think of a night both 30 lappers went caution free, might of happened once last year but not really sure?? Anyways in the 2nd feature it was #11 John Gaunt getting the early lead from the outside pole, after beating #55 Steve Quesnelle to the punch from the green flag.. Gaunt led until lap 3 , when Ron Quesnelle starting from 4th, would work his way inside the former NCATS driver between corner 1&2.. Gaunt's car suprisingly still doesnt seem to be working all that well, as two laps later he was passed at the exact same point of the speedway by the duo of Jongen and Shepherd..Quesnelle was running 14.9s up front, as Shepherd would really close in on Jongen for 2nd in behind.. All the while the best battle was occuring for 4th, as Gaunt and Inglis were locked in a dogfight for that position, with Inglis eventually executing a brilliant, clean inside pass of Gaunt entering 3.. As proven this year once out front Quesnelle is tough, if not impossible to catch and he paraded home to victory in relatively easy fashion..Great late race exchange with Jongen and Shepherd dueling door to door lap after lap for 2nd, with Robin just nipping the 10 at the line... Inglis would end up right on the heels of the afore mentioned duo at the checkered, taking home a 4th place finish...

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Hats Off To Murray and Belesky

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extrordinair

May 28, 2011 11:10 am

(@extrordinair)

Joined: 1 second ago

Have to agree Thayne it is like coming back to the track that i called home for so long!

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