By: Ron Lueck

  With a crowd of more than 1000 watching, eight feature races with at least 126 cars competing normally would make for a long evening, but the crew kept these races moving along at a timely clip and finished by 11pm. The night's races included two make-up features of the A-modified and Sportsman classes rained out the previous weekend of May 21, along with the W.O.W. Sprints racing in their 6th annual Gary Scott Memorial Classic.

  For the first of two Sportsman feature races, this first one coming from the line-up from May 21, Jeff Creed led with his #01 from lap 1 from his front row outside position for the win. Darin Boling came in with a hard-fought 2nd finish. And then, the A-modified line-up from that same date was run immediately following this one.

  Columbia's Scotty Roberts led the A-modified make-up feature from the pole in for most of the laps ahead of Clarence's David Holder with that never-give-up attitude. Roberts led the laps at the end from the last caution flag of the race. But coming out of turn 4 with the lead and Roberts' #25 desperately wanting that victory, Holder and his #7 pulled off an amazing win at the line! In the win, Holder extended his winning streak to 6 and took home an increased purse by an extra $100 courtesy of Triple K Tractors and Equipment of Hallsville. These two races preceeded the qualifying for the evening's six features.

  Kenny Edwards, in his #25 started from the first row and took over 1st by lap 2, stretching out the lead throughout the race. This left Robert Winfrey of Moberly, Adam Melloway in the #11 from Hallsville, and Moberly's David Lorton beating on each other for 2nd place, until the front runners started coming into the rear of the field of cars. Columbia's Edwards made it to lap 10 before he tangled with a slower running car #4 and brought out the race's only yellow flag. Even though he got sideways, Edwards did not stop racing and got to restart still in the lead. In the green-white-checkers restart, Edwards led Lorton's 24/7 car and Josh Langhammer's #22 when the green came out. In the end, it was Kenny Edwards with his first win ever, and fellow Columbia driver Langhammer coming in 2nd after penalizing the #37 of Winfrey 2 places for a jump at the re-start when racing was resumed.

  Hobby Stocks had the largest class yet this season with 22 cars starting off behind a front row of Clinton Dale in the #7 and Mark Forrester in his #10. Dustin Boling of Clarence made the move into the Hobby Stock class from the Hornets but brought out the 2nd of many caution flags with a spin in turn 2 by his car #36 on the forth lap. Dale led this caution-filled race from start to finish for his 4th win this season in the Hobbies. In spite of getting spun around 360° on the front straight-away, the red & yellow 88s-car of Kirksville's Jerry Shoemaker managed a 2nd place finish after gaining that position on lap 3 and holding it for most of the race.

  It was that familiar black #40 on the pole, alongside Steve Robinson's #10 for the start of the Moberly Motors B-modified event. David Holder once again shot into the lead with that 40-car, and a large one for the first 10 laps. Perry resident, Bob Woodrow ran a distant 2nd place with no challengers for those 10 laps, until the only caution came from a turn 1 spin by the 32-car of Brad Pfeiffer. This bunched up the field once again, but the race was for 3rd place between Jimmy McKenney's #7 and the #002 of Steve Roberts. Huntsville's Roberts took 3rd with Linneus' McKenney having to settle for 4th.

  Next, the Sportsman class saw front row starters of Darin Boling in the red #8 Camero and Moberly's Larry Minor in his blue #57. Boling, from Clarence, led the first lap, but Minor took over to lead the rest and got into trouble only on lap 6 when he got too close to the turns 3 and 4 wall. The loose dirt up at the top of the track caused him to slow to regain control while holding onto 1st over Boling. Pete Agee tried to get his orange #14 around the car of Jeff Creed on lap 11, but finished in 4th behind Creed's #01. Larry Minor gained his first victory ever at his hometown 24 Raceway, becoming the second driver to accomplish that in this same evening. All this with no cautions in the race!

  In the second feature for the A-modifieds for the night, it looked like a repeat of the earlier race. Once again, Scotty Roberts had the inside front slot for the start, with Holder on the outside in his white 7-car. Roberts led lap 1, but, unlike the first feature, Holder took over from there. Both Dave Miller's #8 and Randy Mauzey's #99m left on lap 2 with a caution flag. On lap 6, the 85D-car of Mark Dotson took over 2nd from Roberts. Holder got into that loose dirt at the top of turn 3 but managed to hold onto 1st over Cameron's Dotson. By lap 11, Roberts moved back into 2nd and made it an extremely tight finish. Dotson was given a 2-spot penalty from a jump on a restart and finished in 5th. Clarence's Holder has now managed to win 7 straight A-modified races, and that would be the total number of races this season here at 24 Raceway. The extra $100 bounty is still in place, waiting for the next winner other-than-Holder in the the A-mods.

  Twenty-four 360 cubic inch sprint cars showed up to put on the big show at 24 Raceway for the sizable crowd of race fans, and they did not disappoint. With Randy Potter alongside Rex Combs of Tipton, this looked like a great opportunity for Boonville's Potter at getting his first feature win in the Winged Outlaw Warriors. A horrendous tumble over the wall and outside the track at the first turn by Josh Lett on the first lap brought out the red flag before things even got underway. Lett emerged from the car and climbed back up to the outside of the wall to wave an "ok" signal to the officials and the crowd. After going outside to tow the car back in to the trailer and the clean-up from the wreck, a complete re-start had Combs soundly into the lead. Potter's engine began smoking but kept going until lap 9 when a fire began at the same time the 21H-car of Terry Hinck moved ahead of Combs for 1st. With a yellow flag thrown, the pass by Hinck did not count and Combs was in front of Hinck on the restart. On lap 15 of 20, Jason Martin of Liberal, Kansas, moved into 1st and held on for his first ever win in the W.O.W. Sprints class. This was the third time in the evening for a "first ever win" in their respective class. A great night of racing took place in this 6th running of the Gary Scott Memorial, now being held at 24 Raceway.

  Three bicycles, courtesy of Simpson Imports of Columbia for the Jr. Race Fan Club were won by Camron Taylor, 4 years old from Mexico, and by Amber Tuggle of Higbee and Destinee Clary of Moberly, both 12 years old. A case of Valvoline racing oil, courtesy of Delano Oil Company of St. James, MO was won by each of Joyce Ackley from Springfield, IL, Jason Freeman of Madison and Rob Kisel of Moberly. A great prize was taken home by Charlie Walters in the 50/50 drawing. With the size of the crowd, the winnings got up to a whopping $345. Thanks to all of the sponsers in the many adult and kids give-aways from 24 Raceway. You always have a chance at winning, simply by entering your name in the drawings, but you do have to attend and be there to collect your winnings.