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By: Ron Lueck
It started as a muggy September evening in
mid-Missouri, but as the temps cooled, the racing heated up on the high-banked
dirt track of 24 Raceway with the return of the W.O.W. 360 sprint cars putting
on a great show. Along with these fast sprints, the fans enjoyed the five stock
car classes that have been here regularly since April. All the fans and drivers
that wanted to, got an opportunity to learn about the Abby Lou Foundation (www.abbylou.org),
their chance to view the custom chopper (a custom built 96" Evo Rob McCass
design) being raffled to aid in the Red Cross Huricane Relief effort, and
purchase their chance at winning the thing in a January drawing. All this is in
conjunction with W.O.W. with a $1 of the raffle ticket going to hurricance
relief.
The 104-car count for the night included 15 of the W.O.W. Sprints that
put on the 20-lap feature show of the night. The 21H of Boonville resident,
Terry Hinck, started inside row 1, while Higgensville's Brian Brown got the
outside spot with the fastest lap turned in for qualifying at 122 mph! He was
the man to beat in his #21 sprint car with consistent laps out front at 119 mph,
but the one high-groove run was a thriller, and this was only in qualifying.
Hinck led lap 1 with oil smoke coming out of the exhaust most of the way, but
after that it was all Brown. By lap 17, the five on the lead lap, Brown, Hinck,
Rusty Potter, Eric Jobe and Randy Martin, were running into lapped traffic. As
the 43-car of Frank Brown slowed on the back stretch the only caution of the
race came out to bunch up the field. But Brown moved out again for the lead and
the win in the green-white-checkers finish, with Potter, also of Boonville,
getting around Hinck to take 2nd.
The B-modifieds ran their feature race before the sprints with a starting
front row of Mexico's Robbie Reed in the black 28R, and Kevin Embree of Paris in
his fast 61-car. In qualifying, the radar gun had the three of Embree, Kenny
Mudd's new glo-orange 07x-car in only his 2nd appearance here, and season champ
Bob Woodrow's green #3, all hooked up on the track and tied with 101 mph lap
results! Reed led the race for lap 1, followed by Embree, but Woodrow came
through to take the lead on lap 2. Embree was looking to get past Woodrow, both
high and low, for a great battle up front that went on the entire race. By lap
7, Brad Pfeiffer had gotten his 32-car past the #11 of Gary Wilson to take over
3rd as Reed was falling back. And the 2B of previous winner, Chuck Melloway,
moved into the top five by lap 12. A back stretch spin set up a
green-white-checkers finish with eventual winner Woodrow holding off Embree,
followed by Pfeiffer, Melloway, and then Reed in 5th.
In the A-modified class, 16 cars tried their hand at winning, behind the
front row of recent winner Lee Hibner's #99, and Curt Potter's #44p. Hibner led
the first lap, but both Speed Bowl winner Hank Delonjay and Potter passed him in
turn 3 for the lead and 2nd. It was one fast group running up front with these
three being joined by the familiar cars of Kenny Mudd in the #66, Vance Wilson's
#22c, and season champ, David Holder in the #7. Quincy, Illinois resident
Delonjay, once again moved way out front, with Potter also quite a ways ahead of
Hibner until the first of 2 cautions bunched them back up. But Delonjay never
relented and came on to take this one, after Wilson and Potter got into a battle
for 2nd. Wilson held onto 2nd after a 2nd caution, followed by Potter, Holder
and Ron Gough in the 99m-car, rented from Randy Mauzey. In qualifying, the
fastest laps turned in by Hibner, Potter, Delonjay and Mudd all posted at around
106 mph.
Jeff Creed was outside in the #01, after the pole of the Sportsman event
went to Daryl Edwards in the #51. These two were both clocked at top speeds of
91 mph during qualifying. But Clinton Dale got to the lead on lap 1, after
Cairo's Creed went out a broken ball joint. Darin Boling's #8 Camaro ran in 2nd
in a close fight with Moberly's Dale for the entire race, followed by Fulton's
Edwards. Always a tight grouping of racers, this Sportsman race was no different
as the two of Alan Bergfield and Ricky Girard, both of Columbia battled early
for 4th. This race went to Dale as he led the rest of the race, with Boling,
Edwards and Girard finishing out the top 4, and with a bit of post-race action
between the Rindom brothers and Bergfield capping it off.
The Hobby Stocks had more than their share of both cautions and DQ's for
the evening. Tom Elsen's #11 and Tim Dawson's #28 shared row 1 for the start of
this race. But Alan Hultz led lap 1 with his strong #51, until the yellows
started coming. In between the caution laps, Elsen of Clarence, got his car back
up to the front and managed to finish ahead of Hultz for his first win ever.
Chad Walter, also of Clarence, kept his #23c car up towards 3rd from lap 8 on
and finished there. Then the lower order of finishers started moving up or being
DQ'd during the tech process, with two of them found not to be legal for the
class.
In the Hornets, the strong #22 of Columbia's Josh Langhammer got the
pole, while Adam Melloway put his #11 alongside. Langhammer led the first 8
laps, until the 36x of Dustin Boling took over. The 3-car of Rob Chase came on
to place 2nd for the race, behind Clarence's Boling, as Langhammer came in 3rd.
The 74-car of Jeff Hilderman came in 4th, but was disqualified for illegal
brakes, found in the tech area, giving way for Lowell Smith of New Cambria to
receive 4th.
A special thanks goes to Greg Stevenson of Huntsville for use of his
radar gun results posted above. He's the father of B-mod driver, Matt, and
Nathan in the #9 Hobby Stocks, along with Ms. Randolph County, Elaine. There
were two winners of bicycles given away this week through the 24 Raceway's
Jr.Fan Club, courtesy of Simpson Imports of Columbia and
ssautosport.com. An 11-year old from
named Lindsey Evans from Jacksonville won the SS Auto Sport bike, and the other
from Simpson was won by Alex Whisler of Centralia. Matthew Woods claimed the
bicycle saftey helmet and the 50/50 ticket winner in the grandstand area was Amy
Greene of Moberly. Congrats to all the winners of the prizes donated by track
sponsors and drivers alike, and once again, thanks for your support.
The third Saturday special in a row is coming up this Saturday night,
September 17, and has been a consistently good one for fans and B-modified
drivers alike. For the second year, MHC Kenworth of Columbia, will be presenting
the B-Modified Special in its custom format of two exciting segments of racing.
The first part is a 20-lap feature for all the qualified cars. After the 20th
lap, the top ten finishers get a 10 minute pit stop on the front stretch to do
whatever adjustments are deemed necessary. Only ten get to continue on. Then
there is to be a redrawing of these ten to set the starting field for the 10-lap
ending to the feature race. Joining the B-modifieds for the evenings racing
program are the A-modifieds, the Sportsman, Hornet and Hobby Stock classes.
MHC Kenworth will have some of its new line of truck/tractors on display
at the track at 4pm for your viewing pleasure. If you're in the market, come
take a look and ask questions of the sales people from the Kenworth dealership
of Columbia. All this, and the race action too, awaits you at 24 Raceway in
Moberly, for a $10 grandstand admission, $5 for kids 6 to 12 yrs. Pit passes are
still only $20. B-mod registration is $50 for members and includes the driver's
pit pass.
Dirt Track Racing at its Best begins at 7pm, with a driver's meeting,
followed by hot laps, starting at 6:15pm. Please see the website of
www.24racewayinmoberly.com for
additional info. Only two more weekends of racing to go for the 2005 season at
24 Raceway....
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