Veteran Jeff Lane Scores Milestone Win At Winchester With Labor Day World Stock Car Festival Triumph
Stealth Trailers CRA Street Stock Series Powered by JEGS celebrate 40th all-time race at historic high-banks
Winchester, Indiana (September 1, 2014) – The Stealth Trailers CRA Street Stock Series
Powered by JEGS joined their CRA counterparts within the ARCA/CRA Super Series
Powered by JEGS, the JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour Presented by Chevrolet Performance
and Vore's Welding CRA Late Model Sportsman Series Powered by JEGS over the Labor
Day Holiday Weekend. The prestigious Labor Day World Stock Car Festival was at the
legendary 1/2 (0.500) mile high-banked paved oval of Winchester Speedway in
Winchester, Indiana on Sunday-Monday, August 31-September 1st.
The CRA Street Stocks portion of the weekend, the Stealth Trailers 40 would see a
strong field of competitors take on the famed high-banks on a beautiful afternoon in
Eastern Indiana. When all was said and done, Knightstown, Indiana veteran, Jeff Lane,
the 2011 CRA Street Stock Series Champion as well as the 2005 ARCA/CRA Super
Series Champion, celebrated his 50th career start in the CRA Street Stock Series by
going to victory lane for the 10th time in a Street Stock. His landmark win tops the all-
time wins column in series history and 24th time overall in his long CRA career. Lane
started on the pole and after taking the lead on the second lap, he was never seriously
challenged en route to the win.
"This one is pretty special, especially after the way this weekend started. We weren't very fast. Had carburetor problems, but was able to get them fixed and we were ok after that. Especially with starting on the pole." Smiled the 51-year-old driver of the #21 Hill Top Drive-In / Payne's Auto Parts / Chevrolet. "I've probably got the oldest Crew Chief in racing and he just put in a fresh motor a couple of weeks ago for this race and man it was fast. Once we got the carb problems fixed, it was a lot of fun to drive." He added.
After an inversion draw of an eight, it would be Lane and defending series champion, Dustin Burge starting on the front row of the 40-lap main which closed out the Labor Day Weekend World Stock Car Festival. After Burge edged out ahead of Lane to lead the first lap, it would be Lane's machine that came back strong on the inside to take back over on the second lap of the race, earning the AR Bodies Cool Move of the Race Award. After a couple of more laps of side by side dueling, Lane would finally dispose of the reigning series titlist and start to pull away from him and the rest of the field.
Just a single caution flag flew on lap 25 when John Weisenauer tagged the turn two wall. As he was coming down off the banking, he was hit by a sideways A.J. Ridner. Both drivers were ok but done for the afternoon. On the only restart of the race, Lane pulled away from the field as Calvin Parham and defending World Stock Car Festival winner, Jason Thompson, both got around Burge and began a battle of their own. As they continued to wage war, Lane calmly inched out ahead little by little for the remainder of the race and would see the checkered flag first for his first victory since October 13th, 2012 also at Winchester.
Parham hung on for second in his #33 NMC Companies / Chevrolet as the 39-year-old Knightstown, Indiana resident survived the lengthy battle with Thompson, after starting in sixth, to secure his second runner-up showing in the past three CRA Street Stock Series events. Thompson's #28 T.C.I. Automotive / Chevrolet hung on to pick up the final podium position in third. The Shirley, Indiana native was thwarted in his bid to repeat as World Stock Car Festival winner but the 31-year-old did pick up his second third place effort in three races ran in 2014.
Burge would fall back to fourth at the end, but the defending series champion in his #63 Stone Age / Chevrolet did pick up some valuable points in his bid to repeat as champion. The 27-year-old Anderson, Indiana native was able to take advantage of points leader, Jason Atkinson's early withdrawal from the race to gain a whopping 32 points to cut the deficit to 37 markers. Rookie Brandon Mefford completed the top five in his #83 Sunnyside Motors / Chevrolet as the 29-year-old Knightstown, Indiana freshman was the highest finishing registered rookie in the race.
14-year-old rookie, James Kirby III overcame hitting the wall early in the race and sliding into the lone caution flag on lap 25 and rallied back to a sixth place finish ahead of fellow 14-year-old teenager, Mason Keller who started 11th and finished just behind Kirby III in seventh. Derrick Layne started 13th and picked up five spot to finish eighth while 2013 Rookie of the Year, Josh Lank was ninth over J.J. Schafer, who scored the T.C.I. Automotive Hard-Charger Award with his 19th to 10th place run.
Earlier in the weekend in Allstar Performance Qualifying, Jason Atkinson won his second Fast Qualifier Award of the season with an 18.648 which averages out to 96.525mph. Jeff Lane's Track Record of an 18.101 which he set back on October 13th, 2012 remains safe and that record setting lap equals to 99.442mph. Burge and Jake McElfresh were the Heat Race Winners from the previous night.
The next race on the 2014 calendar for the CRA Street Stock Series is just five days away as the teams will head south and then west to make their fifth and final appearance of the year at the fast 1/4 (0.250) mile high-banked paved oval of Anderson Speedway (IN) in Anderson, Indiana. The Anderson 75 will take place on Saturday, September 6th as the event will be the 32nd all-time appearance in Central Indiana second only to Winchester Speedway. Josh Poore leads the way with six victories including one this season while Rich Boyer and Ronnie Rose both have three wins apiece.
Defending series champion, Dustin Burge as well as 2008 series champion, Bret Miles Jr., and current points leader, Jason Atkinson all have two triumphs with each of their second victories coming in this season. 2012 series champion, Jimmy Kirby and Jason Thompson also have two trips to victory lane apiece as nine other drivers, including 2011 series champion, Jeff Lane all have a single win apiece.
For more information about all four touring series’ within Champion Racing Association Powered by JEGS, please go to the series website at: www.cra-racing.comYou can also follow along with all of CRA's touring series' all season long on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/ChampionRacingAssociation and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/CRAracing Finally for more information about Anderson Speedway, the host facility for the 10th race of the 10th anniversary 2014 racing season for the Stealth Trailers CRA Street Stocks Series Powered by JEGS, go to the track website at: www.andersonspeedway.com
