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By: Ron Lueck
Moberly, Mo. (June 11, 2005) - Morning wind and
sun on Saturday in Moberly aided the drying out of 24 Raceway from the Friday
rains. Crews continued to prep the track and infield, in spite of the mid-day
burst of rainfall, and the dirt track racing went on as scheduled this June
11th. Six classes with 116 race teams raced in competed in seven feature events,
the first of which was the Thunder Truck feature rained out on May 21.
In the first Truck feature race, Moberly's Jimmy Poole held on from his
pole position through the first half of the race, with a Rick Thompson pass for
the lead in the second half. It was a two truck dual between these two, with
Thompson holding off Poole for the win.
Next came the 4 cylinder Hornet class with 21 cars starting the feature.
Before one lap could be registered, the 9H car of Chad Hickam got a little help
from the 9M car, getting into the wet and muddy area against the turn 4 inside
wall and resulting in the 1st red flag stop of the night. On the restart, David
Lorton charged into the lead from row 2. The race was for 2nd place between
Mexico's Jeff Hilderman and Columbia's Josh Langhammer, until lap 8.
Hallsville's Hickam got into trouble on the backstretch getting sideways and
then flipping the car, bringing out red flag #2 for the race. Hickam was ok at
the time, but left to get things checked out just 2 races later. After the
clean-up, Lorton's 24-7 car once again left the pack behind, led all the laps,
while Hilderman's red #74 outdualed Langhammer to take second.
For the 10 Dwarf Cars in the feature, the #64 of David Rafferty was the
pole winner and jumped out to a big lead until the yellow came out on lap 6.
With Rafferty running away with it, Richie Berghager's #27s and Bennie Burnett's
#40 continued to do battle for 2nd, until Berghager took over around lap 9. A
spin on the white flag lap caused a green-white-checkers finish with
Independence's Rafferty leading all the laps, followed by Berghager, Burnett and
then another Rafferty, Jeff this time in his #5 from Lee's Summit.
The next feature saw 19 Hobby Stocks with Isiah Curtis of Clarence and
Steve Hisle of Liberty starting on the front row. This first lap saw some
four-wide racing through both turns 1 and 4 on the first lap. On the sixth lap,
Alan Hultz got his #51 into the muddy part coming out of turn 2 and brought out
the caution. Once the race restarted, the #41 car, driven by Clabe Dougherty
from the Higbee area, ran off and left the pack, until a second spin by Hultz in
turn 2 saw a race-stopping red flag. Both the red 6-car of Larry Krog and the
orange #28 of Callao's Tim Dawson got pinched into the outside wall, with
Clarence's Krog getting the worst of the wreck. Krog's car lost the hood, and
entire rear axle, rolling across traffic into the inside wall. After some
clean-up, it was another green-white-checkers set-up between Dougherty, Clinton
Dale in the #7, and Dawson. Dale gave Dougherty a good challenge, but fell short
at the finish. However, when the cars went through the post-race inspection, the
#41 was disqualified for using a fuel mix "other than straight gasoline". So
Cairo's Dale got his 2nd straight Hobby Stock win, followed by Dawson, with
Dustin Boling of Clarence finishing 3rd.
Nineteen of the 20 A-modifieds started their race with Richard Foster and
Roger Moser, both Callaway County residents, on row 1. But points leader David
Holder from Clarence charged into the lead from the 2nd row for lap 1 and
beyond, leaving Moser and Foster battling for 2nd. Holder was unchallenged in
his white #7-car. Scotty Roberts of Columbia, and Kenny Mudd from Winfield were
doing battle for 4th place at the same time. The only caution of the race came
late in the race and tightened up the pack, but the race was for 2nd thru 5th as
Holder simply had too much car and ran off with win no. 7 in a row in the
A-modified class.
After Sportsman drivers Jeff Creed and Alan Bergfield got together in the
heat race, crashing into the grandstand wall, it didn't look like either would
be back to race the feature, but Creed did get his #01 into race worthy shape.
Larry Minor, coming off his 1st win with the blue #57, and Charlie Rindom's #42,
both of Moberly, made up row 1. It was an exciting start, with five cars all
going for the lead through turn 2 on the 1st lap. On most tracks, that doesn't
work out too good, and 24 Raceway isn't any different in this respect. Pete
Agee's #14 and Clinton Dale's #12 were the two of those 5 cars spinning out on
the backstretch in front of the pack. Dale lost a right front fender in the
wreck and after pitting for maintenance, returned to the back of the field for
the restart. On lap 2, the right door skin blew off his baby blue 12-car and
over the wall, but Dale kept charging up through the field. Another racing
incident saw the left front fender peeled back on lap 6. Still going strong,
Dale moved up to 3rd by lap 9. On lap 10, he passed both Minor and the 12x-car
of Eric Flander's for the lead. Dale went onto an exciting win, followed by
Flander in 2nd, and Minor finishing 3rd. This was the race to watch for the
night!
The second Thunder Truck feature race of the evening followed, marking
Dave Kinder's return for only the 2nd time in his yellow #3, and in the pole
position. Kinder's Dodge led all the laps over some hard charging from both Rick
Thompson's #18 and Jimmy Poole's #88 trucks. Thompson, of Clark, finished 2nd to
Kinder.
The final race of the night brought out 21 B-modifieds with the #61 of
Kevin Embree getting to start on the pole after a long racing absence by the
Perry native. Once again, coming out of turn 2 with five cars across for the
lead is certainly exciting, but will not usually work out too well. Embree's car
spun and the wreck collected the cars of Gary Wilson's #11, Bob Woodrow's #3,
Tony Garner's #20, the 00k-car of Steve Klinger and Chris Leather's #17. After
the race was restarted, David Holder had the front row in his #40, with the #82
of Kelly Smith. Kirksville native Smith led lap 1, with Holder on his tail.
These two ran off from the field until a late race spin by Wilson in turn 2, and
then the unavoidable crash into him by first time visitor to the track, J.D.
Mast in his red #90. After the long red flag stop, the 3rd green-white-checkers
finish of the night saw Smith win a close one over the tough contender Holder.
Next Saturday, June 18 will be a regular racing series night, featuring
the five classes of both A- and B-Modifieds, Sportsman, Hobby Stock and 4
cylinder Hornets. The second Powder Puff race of the season will follow the
feature races and will be open to gals in both Hobby Stocks and Hornet class
cars. Grandstand admission is $9 for adults and $3 for kids, 6 to 12 years old.
Hot laps are at 6pm and racing begins at 7pm.
The Jr. Race Fan Club winner this week was eight year-old Tia Taylor of
Centralia, winning the kid's bicycle. It was sponsored this week by the Aaron
Prather Race Team of Cairo, racing the #19 Dodge in the Hobby Stock class. And
finally, Don Boynowski of Lexington, KY won the 50/50 drawing for the evening.
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