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Turner and York Gain Valuable Experience at Ace

Altamahaw, NC (April 13, 2001) -- Current and former Late Model stand outs took to the track today to try and make the 32 car USAR Hooters ProCup field for the Jackaroo Sauces 250 at the Ace Speedway in Altamahaw, NC.

Thirty-nine cars were on hand for the event.

Turner and Official

Strapping into a Hooters ProCup car for the first time were Caraway Speedway's 2000 champ, Jason York, and 1998 Ace Speedway champ Robert Turner.

Jason is currently running for the track championship at both Ace and Caraway Speedways.

Robert Turner is planning on running a limited number of Hooters ProCup events this year and is also involved in maintaining several cars at Ace.

Experience with the track definitely won out over ProCup car inexperience for these two "rookies." Turner posted the 5th quickest practice speed at 16.032 seconds and York posted the 8th quickest speed of the 39 cars entered.

Both Turner and York learned similar things during their practice runs.

York and Ritch

"The wheel base is a little different from a Late Model, a little narrower on the tread width and you can't drive the car as deep as you can in Late Model." commented York after practice.

"The cars are a whole lot heavier that the Late Model." said Turner, "The biggest thing is the tread width. The cars are much narrower. They have got good horsepower. The chassis is more demanding on getting the car to work than the Late Model."

Jason York brought along Michael Ritch, former driver of the #55 Busch Grand National car, as his crew chief. Michael is also ranked third in all time wins in the Hooters ProCup series.

"Me and Jason are pretty good buddies." said Ritch, "He rented a motor from us and I was willing to help him out."

York Ride

Michael made it clear, however, that his main objective is to drive.

"I'd love to do anything at this moment." said Ritch, "The ProCup, Busch, Truck. I'd just love to get in something."

Qualifying went well for both York and Turner. Jason posted the 6th quickest qualifying speed and Robert posted the 15th.

"I drove in a little to deep in the first lap and it scooted up in the middle of the turn." said York, "but the second lap I put my head on and slowed down a little bit going into the turn and the car really turned for me."

Unfortunately the race did not pan out for either York or Turner. Jason had to go to the rear of the field after spinning on the first lap.

Turner Ride

With a damaged and very loose race car, Jason then entered the spin cycle all night.

After making his way back up to 14th he was punted in the rear on lap 112 by fellow Late Model competitor Keith Woody. Jason spun again a few laps later and evetually succumbed to a lost wheel on lap 167.

Robert Turner battled in the top 15 for half of the race until an engine problem forced his early retirement on lap 127.

"Something came lose in the engine. That's not what we needed." said Turner, adding, "We'll just get it fixed up and see if we can't go again another time."

Robert had recently purchased his ProCup ride from Taylor Motorsports. Taylor Motorsports fields the ProCup car of driver Hal Goodson.

Jay Fogelman

The race ended up a close battle between Goodson, Bobby Gill and two drivers who are by no means strangers to Ace Speedway: Pittsboro's Jay Fogleman and South Boston's Stacy Puryear.

Goodson eventually won the race with Fogelman finishing second and Puryear finishing third. Fogelman is fourth in all time wins at Ace Speedway.

Rounding out the top 5 were rookie sensation Daniel Johnson who started 27th and veteran driver Lee Tissot who started 29th.

Last year's champ Bobby Gill was taken out of contention after he was black flagged on lap 225 for spinning Puryear as Gill, Puryear, and Fogelman all battled in a close pack for the second position.