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2004 Hickory Motor Speedway Champion Matt McCall dominates 2nd Annual Joe Walker Memorial 150
Hickory, NC (March 20) – Denver, NC driver Matt McCall backed up his 2004 Championship season with the biggest win of his career in the UARA STARS 2nd Annual Joe Walker Memorial 150. McCall’s experience at Hickory had to be an advantage over the other forty-six drivers that showed up for the first UARA event of the season.
Forty-two cars attempted to make the twenty-eight car field. UARA’s format would take the first twenty-two cars with the remaining twenty cars racing in two separate last chance races. The top thirty cars were separated by three tenths of a second and the whole field separated by only half a second. McCall set on the SUNOCO Pole with a 15.023 in his Denver Marine, Sonic Chevy Monte Carlo. Jamey Caudill would share the front row with McCall.
Royce Peters, Buster Bennet, Joey Miller, Scotty Hicks and Michael Giesson would race in the first heat. Bennet jumped into the lead at the drop of the green but Peters would make the pass on the last lap to win the first heat.
Nick Hutchins, Bob Saville, Nate Pieper, Daniel Pope, Brett Rhinehardt, Roush Racing’s development program driver Marc Davis, Neil Meredith, and Neil Jordon made up the starting field for the second heat. Hutchins would take the lead but would fall out of the race on the first lap in a crash in turn one. When the field returned to green Saville would take the lead and go on to win the second last chance race to transfer to the main event.
The best race of the night may have been for the last transfer position between Pieper and Meredith. The two raced hard over the last five laps with Pieper holding off a strong Meredith for the second. Pieper had mechanical failures and that allowed Meredith to transfer.
With the twenty-eight car field now set for some green flag action, the large crowd rose to their feet to salute their favorite driver. Caudill was able to catch McCall asleep at the wheel and take the lead on the start. Caudill led the first five laps over McCall. McCall made his move and went on to win his first ever UARA STARS event.
McCall earned the Sonic Performance Parts most laps led and Comp Cams feature winner. Royce Peters earned the Holley Performance Performer of the Race. Kyle Grissom was the RH2 way Racing Radios Rookie of the race. Willie Allen will receive the ARP Bodies Hard Luck.
“A large crowd was on hand to watch the first race of the season. We’re excited about our first race, some of our sponsors Comp Cams, Sonic Racing Products, RH2 Way, SRI Products, Tri Star Uniforms, Sunoco and Goodyear representatives was on hand to watch one of the best fields of cars we have ever had,” Stated Public Relations Director Harold Crook. Hickory Motor Speedway Promoter Sherry Clifton stated “We were thrilled to have UARA STARS kick off our 2005 season! I was glad to see a large car count and fan count for our opening night here at Hickory Motor Speedway. This should get our season started off in the right direction. We are looking forward to our opening race next week and UARA’s return in November.”
UARA’s next event will be Saturday April 16th at Florence Motor Speedway in Timmonsville, SC. For more information please contact UARA STARS at 828-692-3833. Visit UARA on the web at www.uara-stars.com and www.tracksidetalk.net
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