July 17, 2006 for Immediate Release

Yontz wins the UARA-STARS Melling Select 150 at Florence, SC 

Alex Yontz was the man of the night celebrating his 20^th birthday in victory lane gathering up his third win of the season with the UARA-STARS and adding to his championship point lead as well. 

The day was extremely hot and the storms came but the show did go on and oh what a show it was.

I tend to think there had to be a full moon behind all those clouds.  The day went very smooth with plenty of water consumption to keep cool in the Florence heat and then about 5PM when the cars are lined up for qualifying the rains came with a vengeance bringing the lightning along with it.  Qualifying finally began around 7:15. 

The evening started with the local Stock Four class running a clean race.   Brent Blalock, Scott Amaker, Richard Barnhill, Kevin Jackson and Anthony Adams were the top five finishers followed by Adam Dowling, Tom Barbian, Glen Schoen Jr., Chuck McDonald and Buddy Harris.

The radar showed some more fierce storms in the area causing officials to call off our usual pre race pit party where the fans can come down on the front stretch and get autographs and meet the drivers one on one.   

The 32-car Late Model race took the green at 9:05 with BJ Mackey on the Sunoco pole and Alex Yontz starting outside of the front row.  Yontz jumps to the lead on lap one and never looked back the whole night but boy was there ever things going on behind him. Lap two finds Josh Hale spinning in turn four but he continues on with some front end damage.

We were back to green on lap five.  The Brandon Ward car is on the move passing the car of Brian Connor.  R.A. Brown and Kyle Grissom race hard with some contact in turn two but no caution is needed and they continue on.    More racing donuts will be had on this fast track with the Barry Andrews and Justin Hill cars making contact on the front stretch also with no caution necessary. 

Lap thirteen finds our last race winner Chad Mullis spinning off the track in turn three and losing a lap in the process but Mullis finds his way back onto the track and will continue on to finish 16^th overall.  The caution flies again on lap 14 with the Kyle Grissom and Zeke Shell machines having front-end damage.   Kevin Prince who had battled engine problems all day ends up out for the night on lap 15 along with Zeke Shell on lap 20. We return to green on lap nineteen and will do so until lap 32 when the Scott Rigney car spins in turn three.  

Young Jake Crum was a car on the move but had contact with the Mike Giessen car coming down the front stretch on lap 40. Crum and Roger Lee Newton leave the track in turn one causing a chain reaction that involves a total of twelve cars at the end of the front stretch.  Those collected in this are Tony Grady, Robert Elliott, Matt Lassiter, local favorite Dange Hanniford, Gary Weeks, Brandon Dean, Kyle Grissom, Carl Horton and RA Brown.  The red flag falls to allow the track crew time to clear the debris.  Roger Lee Newton is the lucky man of this accident being able to continue on and earn the Holley Performer of the Race.             

 Racing resumes with many battles going on throughout the field.  Mark King and Brian Connor strive for 7^th while at the same time Barry Andrews and Clay Jones the eventual Melling Select Rookie of the race battle for 10^th.  Connor continues to work his way up taking 6^th from Brandon Ward on lap 57.  In the meantime the race leader has his hands full with BJ Mackey who is not content to run second but Yontz prevails.

Clay Jones Melling Select Rookie of the race

Mark King is our next driver to try the agricultural racing thing in turn four losing a lap but returning with no damage done on lap 83.  John Staton, Brian Connor, Justin Hill and Scooter Hillis do some great racing.

Staton comes out front of this group eventually coming home to a season best 3^rd place finish.  Scooter is definitely the hard charger of the night gaining 17 positions throughout the evening.

Carl Horton is the next car to disappear from the track on lap 97 bringing out the red flag again so the track crew can get his car from “The alligator pit” as Harold Crook called it.  Luckily Carl was unharmed but his car will be through for the night.

The fans get their fill of action this night with the Lucas Ransone and Ross Furr machines making contact in turn four leaving the Furr machine spinning along with the car of Joey Miller.  This will not be the final action for the Furr car as he and KC Cunningham make contact on the backstretch and Ross Furr has some heavy contact with the wall ending his night.  Cunningham will return several laps down to pull out a 19^th place finish for the night.  Some tempers flare but are quickly brought under control and the racing will go 

The final laps find BJ Mackey looking at the rear end of the Yontz machine getting farther away and John Staton took the 3^rd position from Brandon Ward followed by Roger Lee Newton concluding the top five of this exciting race. 

BJ Mackey wins his first Sunoco Pole

The Road Warriors finish out the evening’s events with Brad Easterling taking the checkered.

Ralph Simmons, James Tadlock, Clay O’Neal, Trey Malphus, Michael Gainey, William Stuckey, Crunch  Simmons, Brandon Brown, Wade Baker, William Gainey and John Pritchard rounding out the 12 car field. 

For more info visit www.uara-stars.com

Press release by Wink Bodenhamer 

UARA-STARS Finish (starting position in parenthesis) 

 1.  Alex Yontz (2)                                                2.  B.J. Mackey (1)

 3.  John Staton (8)                                              4.  Brandon Ward (10)

 5.  Roger Lee Newton (16)                                    6.  Clay Jones (12)

 7.  Jamie Yelton (9)                                             8.  Joey Miller (3)

 9.  Justin Hill (21)                                                10. Mark King (11)

11. Scooter Hillis (28)                                           12. Kyle Grissom (17)

13. Josh Hale (24)                                                14.  Lucas Ransone (6)

15. Scott Rigney (23)                                           16. Chad Mullis (30)

17. Brandon Dean (13)                                          18. R.A. Brown (15)

19. K.C. Cunningham(19)                                       20. Ross Furr (4)

21. Brian Connor (7)                                             22. Carl Horton (32)

23. Barry Andrews (18)                                         24. Mike Giessen (5) 

25. Jake Crum (14)                                              26. Robert Elliott (20)

27. Matt Lassiter 22)                                           28. Dange Hanniford (25)

29. Gary Weeks (29)                                           30. Tony Grady (26)