Griffin Snags the 3rd
Annual Stan Perry at Angola
In front of a standing room
only crowd at the Angola Motor Speedway in Angola,
IN it was 18 year old Derrick Griffin using a daring
move to capture the prestigious “Stan Perry
Memorial” Thursday night June 10 sanctioned by the
Great Lakes Outlaw Late Model Series.
The hot and humid day began
with 34 cars taking qualification attempts and Steve
Needles of Berrien Springs, MI set a new Angola late
model track record with a time of 13.381. Team mate
Terry Senneker was second quick and Dakota Carlson
third fastest.
The fastest sixteen drivers
were locked into the 110 lap feature and the final
four positions were decided by two last chance
races. The first race saw Jimmy Carter and Dan
McEndarfer take the transfer spots while in the
second race it was Nick Grodi and Josh Slade
transferring. A very classy move was made by
promoter Craig Everage who offered a promoters
option starting position to Stan Perry’s son Bud
Perry, which completed the 21 car starting field.
After a salute to the excited
crowd it was time to get the third Stan Perry race
started. A terrible piece of racers luck bit Harold
Fair, Jr and Mike Root at the start of the race when
a multi-car accident claimed several victims with
Root and Fair seeing the worst of the damage. The
race was restarted again with Needles having
problems, creating a third attempt at actually
starting this high paying Great Lakes Outlaw Late
Model Series event.
The action was heated
throughout the event as was expected with the
richest prize in the long history of Angola Motor
Speedway, a check for $10,110 was waiting for the
victor and it was evident that many of the best
drivers in the Midwest were eyeing the honors of
being the third ever driver to capture the race.
The 110 lap race will be
remembered by thousands of racing fans as the
driving exhibition put on by several drivers during
the last 30 laps. Dakota Carlson, winner of the 2010
Jim Blount Memorial battled with Scott Hantz, Mike
Luberda Jr, Jeff Parr, Brian Nester and Griffin.
Carlson dropped out with 28 laps to go and the
battle continued with Parr, leading Griffin, Nester,
Needles and Wisconsin legend Rich Bickle.
Parr, an Angola track champion
did everything he could to protect his lead and the
young racer from South Bend, IN tried every move he
could think of to come out with the lead. After Parr
took the white flag, Griffin applied the pressure
and made contact with the leader, both drivers did
an incredible job holding on to their cars and it
was the young driver Derrick Griffin in only his
fourth ever late model race taking the checkers.
An incredibly excited Griffin
thanked his family for the most memorable moment of
his young career. Parr held on to second with Brian
Nester taking third. The remainder of the top ten
was Needles, Bickle, Jimmy Carter, Brent Jack, Hantz,
Nick Grodi and Carlson. Parr received the Allstar
Performance move of the race with his incredible
save to take second and Dakota Carlson was awarded
the Engine Pro Hard Luck Driver of the race.