Hunter "Cool" On Way To 2nd Win
By Buddy Moffat

Six yellow flags and one red shows that the May 1 super modified "A" feature contained plenty of thrills and excitement.

Add an extremely fast race track and one can see that winning the action-packed 20-lapper would not be an easy task. John Tracy shot into the early lead as the green flag waved in his number 16-Tracy Investment/U-Save Machine special with Henry Lewis in hot pursuit aboard the number 01-Kent Family/AKT Trucking super. Bobby Coughran in the Petrolift number 4 and previous week's winner Kenneth Hunter in his number 34-Performance Parts & Fuel/Rainbow Concrete racer raced for third within sight of the leaders.

Lap three saw four yellows brought out by flagman Chuck Sterling for minor mishaps or mechanical woes for several racers. Another caution for "B" feature winner Alan Walker on lap five set the stage for a restart that now saw Oklahoma City's Joe Wood in fifth and Hunter up to third.

When action resumed, Tracy again set the pace until the event's only red quickly waved on lap twelve. Kenneth Walker's number 2-Steel Service Building/Ala Carte Courier special and Dean Bayouth's number 12-Green Country Security/Jiffy Lube super made contact out of turn four with Bayouth's mount moved forward sideways across the track near the start/ finish line. Mike Goodman, wheeling the number 6-Dave & Joe Thrill Show/Maxwell Oil super, had nowhere to go and t-boned hard into Bayouth. After contact, Goodman's red racer flipped on over a few feet landing on its top. Jack Layne, Jr., coming up on the crash scene, skillfully brought his number 10-Jack of Diamond's special to a halt. All drivers involved in the terrifying crash were okay.

Super #34-Kenneth Hunter makes his move on #16-John Tracy during last week's "A".

On the restart, Hunter shot low in turn four to grab the lead from Tracy and roared to his second straight "A" win. Tracy held on for second with Wood bringing the number 03-Blum's Greenhouse/A-OK Radiator special home third. Henry Lewis was fourth at the wire with Bobby Coughran fifth.

Two weeks ago when Hunter won his first "A" of the year, the water pump belt broke causing his Phil Qakes-built motor to get extremely hot and forced the popular driver to nurse a sputtering number 34 across the finish line. Last week, running the same engine that the team and everyone in the pits and grandstands assumed was shot, everything went right.

"On that last lap last week (during Sunday April 25 make-up action) I came into turn three and heard it pop," said Hunter. "We galled a couple of guides on the valves and, stuck those valves open. The piston came up and spanked them and bent them. We run it on those, last laps on six cylinders. We put two valves, two rocker arms, a belt and some coolant in it and were ready to go again. We could have put the same oil back in the motor, but we went ahead and changed it."

Crew members Rob Cummins, Jim Himebaugh and Chris Himebaugh enjoyed being sprayed once again by Kenneth with champagne in victory lane. Following the first win, they joked that the "bubbly" should have been used to cool down the racer. However, according to car owner Harvey Hunter, if the belt stays on the water pump they run the right coolant in the radiator to keep the engine cool.

"The secret is the coolant that we run," explained Harvey of Evans Coolant, which engine builder Phil Qakes sells at his business (Performance Parts & Fuel) in Broken Arrow. "They're are several teams that we've talked to out here that are going to change to it. We were keeping it a secret but we're not now. Phil builds our motors and he sells Evans Coolant. They can come over to our car and we'll show them how to change over to it. This coolant (Evans) will save them some motors. Anytime that you can run 14 laps without a water pump belt (like the team did the week before) you know that the coolant works. We've been running Evans Coolant the last four years and we know it works." Rookie Alan Walker captured the "B" feature after passing Chad McDaniel for the top spot on lap two. Walker, who purchased the super from Kenneth Walker (no relation), came back to finish 17th in the main event. Kenneth Walker was second followed by the number 78-U-Save Machine special of James Kuykendall, Len Larkin's number 13-Maggie's Grandpa Special, and Kirk Lord in the number 88-U.S. Cellular/Hair Suite-sponsored super.

A 12th place finish in the "A" feature allows Alan Burton to protect his current leadership of the O'Reilly Automotive Championship Point Series for the super modifieds. Shelly Ward (who was sixth in the "A") remains a close second in the chart.