***KARNAC EXCLUSIVE STORY***

By John Berti, Karnac Staff

Samsula, FL -February 18, 2011- A good race has you on the edge of your seat and that was just the case for the 26th Annual Richie Evans Memorial race at New Smyrna Speedway on Friday night.

While the pre-race buzz among the large crowd was how good of a race can you have with just a 19 car field of NASCAR Tour Type Modifieds with a smattering of SK Modifieds?  The quality of the racing action proved doubters to be totally wrong.

There were no less than a dozen lead changes and plenty of dicing for positions back through the field which provided virtual non-stop excitement throughout the race.

Patrick Emerling and Ted Christopher led the field to the initial green to start the 100 lapper with Emerling bolting into the early lead followed by Ron Silk, Christopher, Burt Myers and Earl Paules.

Christopher showed that the Joe Brady owned #00 was going to be tough to beat passing both Silk and Emerling to take the lead with a nifty move under Emerling on lap 6 coming out of turn four.

Silk slipped into the lead on lap 11, but Christopher stormed back on top just one lap later and this time poured it on building up an impressive cushion for himself as the leader of the parade.

Fifteen laps into the race the running order for the top 10 was Christopher, Silk, Emerling, Burt Myers, Earl Paules, James Civali, Chuck Hossfeld, Justin Bonsignore, Ryan Preece and Jason Myers.

Paules got under Burt Myers for fourth on lap 17 with Burt Myers getting hung out to dry on the outside resulting in the loss of four positions back to 8th place. Lap 20 saw a swap in positions with Civali taking fourth spot away from Paules and Preece passing Burt Myers for eighth.

With a quarter of the race down the running order was Christopher, Silk, Emerling, Civali, Paules, Hossfeld, Bonsignore, Preece, Burt Myers and Jason Myers in the top 10.

Emerling snatched second from Silk on lap 31 with Silk losing out on another position as he was overtaken by Civali one lap later.

Christopher had opened up a straightaway lead by lap 35. The remainder of the top five, pretty much bunched together, were Emerling, Civali, Silk and Paules.

Another position change occurred on lap 38 when Paules got by Silk for fourth. At the halfway point it was still Christopher dominating the field with Emerling a distant second, followed more closely by Civali, Paules, Silk, Preece, George Brunnhoelz III, Bonsignore, Hossfeld and Burt Myers comprising the top 10.

Christopher lost his big lead on a lap 60 caution as Bonsignore spun coming off of turn two. Just about the whole field pitted for tires and appropriate adjustments to make cars faster for the run to the finish.

When pit stops were sorted out the new race leader became Preece, with Christopher second, Silk third, Brunnhoelz fourth and Emerling fifth. Hossfeld, Civali Paules, Burt Myers and Jason Myers rounded out the top ten.

Christopher wasted little time taking the lead back from Preece with Silk following suit. A great battle developed between Christopher and Silk for the lead with Silk passing Christopher on lap 65, Christopher taking it back on lap 66 and Silk regaining the lead on lap 67.

The running order with 75 laps down was Silk, Christopher, Emerling, Preece, Hossfeld, Civali, Paules, and Brunnhoelz all on the lead lap.

By this time Silk and Christopher had pulled away by a half straightaway from the third place running Emerling.

Civali was the man to watch as he was picking off cars at a brisk pace and worked him way into the top five.

Bonsignore brought out the caution as he had a tire go down on lap 80.

When racing resumed Civali continued his charge into the top 3 by lap 85. Two laps later he took second from Christopher and began putting pressure on Silk for the lead. Civali made a bonsai move under Silk between turns one and two on lap 90 with the two cars coming together and crashing into the concrete barrier. Both were done for the night.

Christopher had now inherited the lead to the checkers with the only position change being Paules overtaking Emerling for second on lap 95.

Richie Evans Memorial – 100 laps

1. Ted Christopher

2. Earl Paules

3. Patrick Emerling

4. Justin Bonsignore

5. George Brunnhoelzl III

6.  Ryan Preece

7. Chuck Hossfeld

8. Burt Myers

9. Jason Myers

10. Ron Silk

11. James Civali

12. John Sarppraicone, Jr.

13. Jimmy Zacharias

14. Kevin Flockhart

15. Dave Roys

16. J.R. Swansbrough

17. Matt Clemmons

18. Jessica Murphy

19. Gary Fountain

Results from other racing action:

Super Late Models Feature  30 laps

1. Ryan Moore

2. Daniel Hemrick

3. Tim Russell

4. Aaron Pierce

5. Cale Gale

6. Wayne Anderson

7. Jared Allison

8. Jared Marks

9. Robbie Pyle

10. Sean Bass

11. Justin Larson

12. Daniel Webster

13. Derrick Wood

14. John Coffing

15  Becca Kasten

16. Russ Shaw

17. George Gorham

18. Chazz Anderson

19. Steve Weaver

20. Anthony Sergi

21. Alan Bruns

22. David Rogers

23. Eric Centers

24. Matt Tifft

25.  Dennis Reno

SK Modified Feature 25 laps

1. Earl Paules

2. Jessica Murphy

3. Gary Fountain

4. Ron Silk

5. T.J. Zacharias

6. Jimmy Zacharias,  DQ

Pro Trucks Feature 25 laps (Just Top 5)

1. Richie Moxley

2. Joe Fitos

3. Scott Reeves

4. Keith Lilley

5. Tim Sozio

Crate Late Models Feature 50 laps (Just Top 5)

1. Austin Kirkpatrick

2. Cole Powell

3. Kenzie Ruston

4. Brandon Watson

5. Shawn McWhirter

Limited Late Models Feature 25 laps (Just Top 5)

1. Jason Boyd

2. J.R. McMickle

3. Ross Chastain

4. Alan Bruns

5. Anthony Sergi