News - September 15, 2001

Mitchell storms to Louisiana State
Championship victory

BATON ROUGE, La. (Oct. 20, 2001) - Jon Mitchell stormed to the front
at the start and then held his competitors at bay to claim the 2001
O'Reilly Auto Parts/Budweiser Louisiana State Championships at Baton
Rouge Raceway. Mitchell, from Texarkana, Texas started 3rd in his J&J
Motorsports/Afco Shocks/Kenneth's High Performance/Panell
Motorsports/W&W Timber Chevy Monte Carlo GRT and he was able to
grab the lead as the field raced in to turn 2. Mitchell was able to move
by pole sitter Davin Bates and Sam Patrick to grab the lead on the
start.

"I had a good setup on the car. I don't know, last night we couldn't
get in to the show and here we win it tonight. I knew the guy on the
pole (Davin Bates) went on a 28, a harder compound, and we tried top
pass him quick, I was afraid he was going to hold us up. I got him
coming off of turn 4 and beat him to the other end."

As for the late battle with Bevis and the earlier challenge by Patrick,
Mitchell stated, "He (Bevis) got there up on me but I really didn't feel
it. Somebody (Patrick) tried me up there on the outside and I kind of
moved up a groove and that helped me some."

Once out front, Mitchell was able to maintain the lead throughout the
feature despite the charge of Jerry Bevis. Bevis started 9th in his
Marlee's Embroidery/Amsoil Chevrolet Camaro GRT powered by Kuntz
and Company but was able to quickly move up to 3rd. He pursued Sam
Patrick for 27 laps before he was able to move under Patrick to take
2nd as they raced on to the backstretch. Bevis was then able to close
in on Mitchell but was unable to find a clear chance to grab the lead.

The solid finish by Bevis was a happy return to the front of the pack
at Baton Rouge Raceway for the multiple time track champion. "After
last night (where Bevis failed to qualify for the feature after contact
sent he to an early exit in his heat race and a late charge in the last
chance race feel once position shy of a transfer) this is real good. As
the year ending race this is good for us particularly in front of all the
home folks. I want to thank my mom and dad particularly, my family,
my wife Marty, all the kids and grand kids, all my friends that come
over and help at home and at the track, Kevin Phillips, Amsoil and
Marlee's Embroidery."

Patrick was able to hold off last night's winner, Kenny Merchant for
3rd. "The car was good I just couldn't get around the ruts. I had a run
on him until the first caution. I was going to pass him on the highside
and then they had the caution and he moved up."

Merchant, had set his car up for run on the highside but traffic was
not much of a factor and this kept Merchant's plan somewhat in
check. "It really was a pretty good racetrack it was just the bottom
was a little bit more dominant. It wasn't that it was the dominant
groove it was just the short way around the racetrack. I feel like if we
could have got up to some lapped cars and slowed the leaders down a
little bit, we could have made the outsdide work."

Curt Lipsey rounded out the top 5 ahead of David Ashley, Rob Litton,
Chris Wall, Odie Green and Larry Ritter. 40 O'Reilly SUPR Late Models
were on hand. Dave Burkhalter, David Ashley, Jerry Bevis, Ronny
Adams and Sam Patrick topped the heat races with Ryan Plaisance and
Chris Wall claiming the last chance races. Chris Wall then passed 10
cars in the feature to earn the Lloyd Wild Jr. Logging Hard Charger
award.

RESULTS

1. Jon Mitchell
2. Jerry Bevis
3. Sam Patrick
4. Kenny Merchant
5. Curt Lipsey
6. David Ashley
7. Rob Litton
8. Chris Wall
9. Odie Green
10. Larry Ritter
11. Ryan Plaisance
12. Chris Hoyt
13. Donald Watson
14. Dennis Duncan
15. Keith Craft
16. Tommy Surrett
17. Davin Bates
18. Ronny Adams
19. Dave Siegert
20. Rusty Cummings
21. Dave Burkhalter
22. Bill Avant

Designed and Developed by Internet Advantage

Maintained by Weakside Productions