The driver closest in contention for Hobby Stock champion, Jerry Shoemaker of Kirksville, got taken out of it by a blown right rear tire on lap 5. All that pole sitter, Clinton Dale had to do was finish ahead of the red & yellow cars of Shoemaker's and Alan Hultz's to secure the '05 championship. The long delay of the evening came on lap 7 from Daryl Nickerson's #23D going backwards into the wall and fenced area in turn 1 and smacking the signal light, causing an electrical short. At least the lights came back to working with some maintenance, but Nickerson's car didn't do as well after the entire rear axle was torn out from under it. When racing resumed, Dale's white #7 proved too strong of a contender and went on to the win and to the championship by leading all laps and finishing ahead of the hard-charging #11 of Tom Elsen of Clarence. Elsen got his car up to 2nd after the delay and stayed there to finish ahead of fellow town resident, Dustin Boling. Hultz took 4th for the night.

  The Northeast Missouri Dwarf driver had the fastest car once again on the front row with the 64-car of Independence's Dave Rafferty's taking the pole. The other front row starter was Richie Berghager of New London in his #27s. These two began beating on one another on the 3rd lap, through turns 3 and 4, and by the time they got to the front stretch, Berghager was sent spinning into the outside wall. This ended his night and brought out a red flag. During the stop to haul off the 27s-car, the decision was made by the NEMO Dwarf Car president in charge of the Association to disqualify Rafferty due to some rough driving. With the points leader being removed from the track, the door opened for Vandalia's Benny Burnett to have his crack at the championship with the #40 car. Kelly Bergstrom took the lead on the restart in the #24 for 3 laps. Then Burnett and Glen Province of Irondale in the #14 moved up to do battle for their shots at the lead. And with a strong charge on the final lap, Burnett pulled out a win over Province on the last turn to earn a tie in season points with Rafferty. Both Rafferty and Burnett ended the season at 24 Raceway with 230 points.

  The 4 cylinder Hornet class had the closest race going for the '05 championship as any of the seven classes, with Moberly's David Lorton, Rob Chase of Clark, and Josh Langhammer and Kenny Edwards, both of Columbia, all having a shot at it. All four of these drivers have had multi-wins this season. But with the 24/7-car of Lorton's being unable to make the feature, it didn't look promising as he borrowed car #37 to compete and try to preserve his narrow lead in the points standings. All Lorton had to do was finish 13th or better to get that championship, but in a borrowed car, the rule is he had to start the race from the tail end of the 22 cars in the feature. The front row was Langhammer's #22 inside, and Edwards' #25 outside. It looked bad for Lorton, running at the back of the pack, as Langhammer and Edwards ran 1-2 for the first 7 of the 8 laps until a caution came out. Afterwards, Langhammer went on to lead all the laps to become the only 4-time winner in the class, and Edwards came in 2nd in the race. Lorton did his part to bring that 2005 Track Championship home by coming up to finish in 13th and thereby winning the championship with 766 points over Edwards' total of 764 and Langhammer's 762. What a close one the season was for these drivers!

  It looked like an all-Hibner front row on lap 1 of the A-modified race, after pole sitter Vance Wilson got shuffled back to 3rd at the start. Brothers Lee in the #99, and Lonnie in the #88 were two of the Hibner family from Chillicothe in the race. A son, Tyler in the #89, was in until pitting on lap 2 after a turn 2 incident with the #99m of Madison's Randy Mauzey. While Wilson was charging hard to get his #22c back to the front, Lonnie Hibner got into and climbed the turn 3 wall, and had to come out of the race. Lee Hibner led, with Frankford area resident Wilson constantly pushing for the front, and actually making a pass on lap 16 before another caution flag canceled out his only lead. The 55-car of Gary Wilson, also of Frankford, took over 3rd on lap 17 from season champion David Holder in the 7-car in a battle of their own behind the 2 front runners. Lee Hibner led all the laps for his first win of the season at 24 Raceway.

  Now came the Sportsman class, with a front row of Pete Agee in the #14, and Clinton Dale in the #12. Along with Rick Girard's #00, the three of these drivers were really mixing it up on the first 2 laps, until when coming out of turn 2, things started going sour. With Columbia's Girard in the middle and Huntsville's Agee on the outside, some of the roughness of the track came into play as the rubbing with the others caused Agee's orange Chevy to bounce off the backstretch wall, across the traffic and hit Dale. This sent Dale's baby blue car into the air, but low and into a barrel role, turning over at least three times going into turn 3 before stopping on it side with the roof exposed to the rest of the field. Dale eventually emerged from his car uninjured, as did Agee. Others got tangled into the wreckage, but an "atta boy" should go to Travis Woody for getting away from that imminent direct hit into the roof of the disabled #12 and glancing his #76t into Jeff Creed's #01 instead. The race was stopped for the necessary clean-up, and this is where it really gets interesting. While Girard is now in the lead, Dale gets the ok to go to his #7 Hobby car used in the first feature of the night to finish out this race. Then Agee gets into a Hobby car, the #41 from pit neighbor Renzelmann. Both were allowed at the time to continue in the feature, but resuming from the back of the pack. Girard went on to the win, his first of the season, with Creed coming in 2nd. After more consideration and careful thought was given to the situation, the ruling was made to hold the finish of Dale and Agee, and actually Woody too, at the point of where the cars were at the time of the caution flag.

  The Thunder Trucks finished out their season with Clark's Rick Thompson coming away with the pole, the win and the season championship in his #18 truck. He led over the #3 of Dave Kinder's from Moberly, for all of the laps.

  The B-modified pole position was held by the #82 of Kelly Smith, with Chris Leathers on the outside of the front row in his #17. But Kirksville's Smith retired early for the night, with Leathers of Macon getting into the lead on lap 1. The 32-car of Brad Pfiffer got to lead lap 5, but it was all Leathers for this one. That is until the most important lap. Bob Woodrow pulled this victory out with a run from the back of the pack, steadily moving his #3 up in the order. Woodrow got that #3 into contention by lap 6 and stayed with it, getting around Leathers on the final lap to add to his season winning points total for the '05 championship.

  This week, another two bicycles were given away through the 24 Raceway's Jr. Fan Club. The first one was sponsored sponsored by Hartgrove Bulldozing of Clarence, and went to a little gal, Rebecca Youse of Clarence. And the second bike, sponsored by the Joe Evans Race Team, in the 55J from the Hornet class, went to 9-year old Seth Bennett of Cairo. Congrats to all the winners of the prizes donated by track sponsors and drivers alike, and once again, thanks for your support. And thanks to all the fans and drivers from here at 24 Raceway for their contributions towards the Dream Factory night.

  Coming up next Friday night September 2, will be the annual Speed Bowl qualifying night for the A- and B-modifieds, the Sportsman and Hobby Stock classes. A Thunder Truck race will also be included for the Friday night festivities. Ticket prices for Friday are $10 for the grandstand and $20 for a pit pass. And kids 12 and under will be admitted free on Friday. Primitive camping on the raceway grounds is available, free of charge. Or the Best Western - Moberly Inn has ample truck & trailer parking just 3 miles west of 24 Raceway, as they are one of the sponsors for this two-night event. Plenty of variety in great dining is available just down Highway 24 to the west in the same area, as well as on the business loop of Moberly.

  Bentz GM Country and 24 Raceway are pleased to bring in the Joe Gibbs Racing stable of cars to mid-Missouri. Tony Stewart's orange #20 Home Depot car, and Bobby Labonte's green #18 Interstate Batteries car will both be on display at the racetrack on Saturday evening by the concession stand exit area. The cars will be there in the early evening hours for photo opportunities, along with various hand-outs and pictures.