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By: Ron Lueck
A drying out from the Saturday
wind and sun, mixed with a good crowd of race fans in spite of some cold
temperatures, all made the Fan Appreciation Night come off successfully this
last Saturday night of April. Twenty-four Raceway had one of only about two
racing events that were able to take place within 200 miles of Moberly this
Friday or Saturday, and for a $5 admission, fans got to see some great racing,
especially in the A-modified class.
Once again the Hobby Stocks were the first race of the night with
Madison's Alan Hultz grabbing his 2nd pole position in as many weeks, and
Clinton Dale along side to complete the front row. A first lap accident caused a
restart and after a 2nd yellow on lap 3,
Larry Krog of Clarence took the lead.
A 3rd caution flag had Dale, from Cairo, take the lead when racing resumed. Two
more yellows, the 5th from a spin by Krog, and then the battle was on between
Dale in car #7, and Hultz in car #51, followed by a hard-charging #88s of
Kirksville's
Jerry Shoemaker. After all those
cautions, all of which occurred in turn 4, the race had a time limit called. In
the end, it was Dale with the win and Shoemaker taking 2nd from a backstretch
pass around Hultz on the final lap.
In their 2nd race of the month, the Thunder Trucks started the #46 Chevy
of Larry Perkins and the #40, a twin truck to Perkins', on the front row,
followed by a limping #18 Chevy belonging to
Rick Thompson. Thompson, from Clark,
was not going to be competitive with only a low gear, and had to leave the track
after 2 laps. Perkins, also of Clark, led the two-truck race and won in a
shortened event.
The 4 cylinder Hornets started a front row of John Brown in his 01-car,
and the 3-car of
Rob Chase, last year's class winner.
It was an even race for one lap, with Chase taking the lead on the 2nd lap, when
the 69-car of Blake Fishbeck, losing a right front wheel for the 2nd time in 2
weeks, saw the 1st caution. Another lap, another lost front wheel, this time on
Jake Evans #6. Jacksonville's Evans then hit the back wall, bringing out the 3rd
yellow. With racing resumed, on lap 4,
Kenny Edwards' car #25 rubbed the back
stretch wall while running in 5th and bounced back across the traffic, taking
out the 7-car of Fulton's Eric Burks and the 22-car of Columbia's Josh
Langhammer. This caused a race-stopping red flag. With nobody injured, the race
resumed, and Chase, from Clark, won his 1st race of the season. He was followed
by Javan Payne, last week's winner from Russellville in the 05-car.
David Lorton of Moberly stayed right
around 3rd for much of the race and finished there in his #24-7. With the
cautions and mostly from the red flag, this race was also called because of a
time limit.
In an alternate scheduling format, the A-modified class brought in 20
starters and started the previous two week's winners Mark Dotson of Cameron and
David Holder on the front row. This
was a great race to watch, with plenty of see-saw action between the two
leaders: Dotson's #85D and Holder's 7-car, then followed by the 99-car of
Chillicothe's Lee Hibner and the #35 of
Hank Delonjay from Quincy, Illinois.
Along with Kenny Mudd in the #66 and Scotty Roberts in the #25, these six put on
a show, running out front of the pack, until they started to lap the field by
the 4th lap. When they got into the slower traffic, Dotson and
Maurice Crowe, in his #10M got
together in turn 1, but both continued on. Coming out of turn 2, Crowe and
Delonjay mixed it up in a back stretch spin, causing a yellow and bunching up
the field with these two going to the rear. Back to racing, Dotson and Holder
ran off again, and some laps later, the faster cars came into the back of the
traffic, with Crowe getting into Kirksville's
Kelly Smith in turn 4. Smith's #82
flipped over and the second red flag of the night was thrown, as both cars had
to be towed from the track. Smith and Crowe were uninjured and the race resumed
after the tow-offs and clean-up. Dotson and Holder put on a show from here on.
On the white flag lap, the 89-car of Tyler Hibner made a spin in turn 2, with a
caution once again bunching up the field. In the end, Holder held on to his 2nd
win in as many weeks and on his birthday, too. Dotson took 2nd with Cecil Graves
of Fulton coming in 3rd with his #14 over Hibner's #99. A very enjoyable feature
race for any race fan.
Jeff Creed got his 01-car on the pole
for the Sportsman class feature for the 1st time this season, with the previous
week's winner Clinton Dale along side. Dale moved to the lead on lap 2, when the
7B-car of Centralia's Stuart Burton hit the turn 3 wall and brought out a
caution flag. Dale, then led for about 8 laps until the #8 of Clarence's
Darin Boling came thru to take over
for 2 laps. Then, Creed came up to the lead again, until a caution on the last
lap came from
Tim Eravi hitting the turn 3 wall in
his #3 car. On the restart, it was a great race to watch Cairo's Creed hold off
both Boling and Dale for his 1st win of this season. Dale made a last lap pass
to take 2nd over Boling.
Finally, the B-Modifieds wrapped up the night's racing with birthday boy
Holder on the front row, next to Jim McKenney from Linneus in the 7-car. On lap
2, previous week's winner
Bob Woodrow, moved his #3 into 2nd
over McKenney. And this is the way they ran for 10 laps, with Holder out front
followed by Perry's Woodrow and then McKenney. With 2 laps to go, Woodrow and
Holder got together in turn 2, causing a 2nd caution after Holder's car did a
spin. After the restart, Woodrow held on to the win, followed by McKenney, then
Macon's
Chris Leathers in his #17 and
Holliday's
Gary Wilson in his #11 with the new
paint scheme.
This coming weekend of May 7 will feature a Sportsman Special consisting
of a 25 lap event and paying $400 to win. A registration fee of $40 for members,
and $50 for non-members will include the driver's pit pass. Grandstand admission
is $10 for adults and $3 for kids, 6 to 12 years old. Hot laps are at 6pm and
racing at 7pm.
Thanks once again to all the sponsors for their many prizes donated and
won by both adults and kids alike. Amanda Schlater from Centralia and 9 years
old, won the kid's bicycle, while Alice Burton, also of Centralia, won the 50/50
ticket from the grandstand, worth $103. A
full list of results list can be viewed here..
Please see the website for a flyer on the Sportsman Special for May 7.
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