World of Outlaws Late Model Series 50 On Wednesday Night
(July 16) At Gillette
Thunder Speedway Provides Colorado’s Kelly Boen Another
Chance To Visit With
Relatives
GILLETTE, WY – July 15, 2008 – The first-ever World of
Outlaws Late Model Series
event at Gillette Thunder Speedway on Wednesday night
(July 16) presents an interesting
opportunity for Henderson, Colo.’s Kelly Boen.
Boen, 44, will have some extra incentive when he takes to
the one-third-mile track for the
50-lap A-Main that pays $10,000 to win. He’ll be
performing in front of relatives he
doesn’t get to see very often.
“I have an uncle and a great-uncle who live in Gillette,”
said Boen, a standout racer who
makes selected appearances on the WoO LMS each season.
“I’m excited to go run there
so they’ll have a chance to see me race.”
Boen, 44, last competed at his uncles’ hometown facility
last year in a Colorado Late
Model Association event. He finished second in the feature
to Eddie Kirchoff, a Gillette
resident whose father, Ed, operates the track.
That single visit gives Boen more experience at Gillette
Thunder Speedway than any of
the invading WoO LMS drivers, who will all lay eyes on the
track for the first time on
Wednesday night. He doesn’t expect his limited knowledge
of the track to give him any
special advantage, however.
“Not against these World of Outlaws guys,” said Boen.
“They’ve seen so many tracks, it
won’t take them long at all to figure out a new one.”
In fact, Boen suggested that Gillette is much like a track
that the WoO LMS travelers
already visited one week ago at the start of their ‘Wild
West Tour.’
“I think it’s a little similar to Deer Creek (Speedway in
Spring Valley, Minn., which
hosted the WoO LMS on July 9),” Boen said of Gillette
Thunder Speedway. “It’s a pretty
racy track.”
The event at Gillette Thunder, which is located about 335
miles due north of Boen’s
home outside Denver, will continue Boen’s busy stretch of
racing with the WoO LMS –
and with his relatives in attendance. He joined the ‘Wild
West Tour’ last Friday night
(July 11) at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, N.D.,
and entered the ensuing shows
on Saturday at Estevan (Sask.) Motor Speedway and Sunday
at Williston Basin
Speedway in Williston, N.D.
Boen had the ‘Wild West Tour’ red-circled on his calendar
as soon as the WoO LMS
scheduled was released. That’s because he not only has
family members in Gillette, but
also in North Dakota.
“My grandmother lives about 35 minutes from Estevan in
Columbus (N.D.),” said Boen,
who was born in Powers Lake, N.D., just south of the
Canadian border in the western
portion of the state. “I have second-cousins in the Fargo
area (near River Cities
Speedway) and I have cousins in Williston too, so running
this ‘Wild West Tour’ is like a
family reunion for me.”
Boen has had his own cheering section at each of his stops
on the WoO LMS swing. His
89-year-old even came out to attend Sunday night’s program
at Williston Basin
Speedway – just the second time she had ever seen her
grandson in action during his
racing career. The only other event she had attended to
watch Boen was nearly a decade
ago when he ran an open-wheel Modified at Williston Basin.
Boen entered the stretch of racing with one thought on his
mind: “I hope I’m competitive
and don’t disappoint all my relatives who come to see me.”
The veteran racer certainly produced for his kin at River
Cities, placing fourth in the 50-
lap A-Main to record a career-best finish on the WoO LMS.
An opening-lap accident
knocked him out of Estevan’s feature before he could even
warm his tires, but he repaired
his car and finished 11
on Sunday at Willison Basin.
Boen will arrive at Gillette after spending two days at
his grandmother’s home in North
Dakota. He had plans to do some work on the roof of her
house and enjoy a barbeque
with family.
Boen will place plenty of competition on Wednesday night
at Gillette Thunder
Speedway, which will host the most talented field of dirt
Late Model drivers in its
history.
Leading the WoO LMS charge will be points leader Darrell
Lanigan of Union, Ky., who
is riding an amazing streak of 14 consecutive top-five
finishes. He holds a 48-point edge
over 20-year-old Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., whose
four wins this season are tied
for the series lead.
Other WoO LMS regulars with Gillette Thunder in their
crosshairs for the first time
include 2007 Rookie of the Year Tim Fuller of Watertown,
N.Y., who is coming off his
first win of the season on Sunday night at Williston
Basin; defending champion Steve
Francis of Ashland, Ky.; Rick Eckert of York, Pa.; Chub
Frank of Bear Lake, Pa.; Shane
Clanton of Locust Grove, Ga.; Shannon Babb of Moweaqua,
Ill.; Clint Smith of Senoia,
Ga.; John Blankenship of Williamson, W.Va.; and 2008
Rookie of the Year contenders
Vic Coffey of Leicester, N.Y., and Joe Isabell of
Pennellville, N.Y.
Several drivers who have been following the ‘Wild West
Tour’ are also expected,
including Jimmy Mars of Menomonie, Wis., Gary Webb of
Bluegrass, Iowa, 19-year-old
Ricky Wright of Winnipeg, Manitoba, 25-year-old Dustin
Hapka of Grand Forks, N.D.,
and Al Purkey of Coffeyville, Kan., who has been running
WoO LMS regular Clint
Smith’s backup car.
Gillette Thunder Speedway’s gates are scheduled to open at
4 p.m. MT on Wednesday,
with on-track action set to begin at 7 p.m.
Pre-sale tickets are $30 and $15 for kids 10-and-under and
can be purchased at Pat’s
Hallmark in Gillette. At the gate on race day, both
spectator tickets and pit passes will be
$35.
For more information on Wednesday night’s WoO LMS show at
Gillette Thunder
Speedway, visit