Payne leads laps in A-Modified feature

Only five cautions for the entire six races allowed for the racing program to wrap up completely before the rains hit. The showers came through about 9:30pm just as the Sportsman’s mechanic’s race saw Jerry Warren cross the finish line just ahead of Ryan Petersheim in Creed’s 01 car. Petersheim, back in the town where he cut his teeth on the faster Sportsman cars, got a seat in Andrew Page’s 24A Sportsman. These two both know their way around the high-banks of 24 Raceway and it showed.

RACE REPORT: Steve Payne, also no stranger to Moberly, came in as driver for Alan McCormick’s 55x and put that new car & engine into the front for the heat and feature both. Payne simply took the lead when the green flag fell and didn’t let up. With lightning in the northern sky, Matt Dotson started the 20-lap race alongside Payne, but could only run in the second position until the 2nd caution of the race on lap 9 and the final one for the night’s events. After the restart, both Kenny Mudd and Kevin Blackburn got around Dotson for the final 12-lap push to the finish. And that was the finish: Payne, Mudd, Blackburn, & Dotson with Mark VanWinkle rounding out the top five. Van Winkle ran as high as 3rd, but had quite a battle going on with Wyatt Lantz and Steve Grotz to hold on to 5th.
In the B-modifieds, Tom Elsen in his glo lime-colored car, got the pole position and led lap 1. But from then on, it was Mark Botts coming on to dominate the 15-lap race. Botts never let up as he would stay in front of Elsen through the late race caution, setting up a green-white-checkers finish. Elsen fell off to finish 3rd on the final lap, when Gary Wilson made the necessary push past him to finish as runner-up. Wilson only ran as low as 4th early on in this one, as it was Botts, Wilson, Elsen, Jon Melloway driving in the Lebsock car, with Kiel Erwin completing the top five spots. After two of the last three races dating back to May 8th, Botts now has his first and second career wins in the B-mods.

Chad Walter and Derrick Agee each got a heat win to secure a front row start for the Sportsman race. Agee moved into the lead from the git-go, as Walter didn’t let up and mounted a strong challenge for the lead. These two moved on out from the rest of the pack, both before the late race yellow flag and afterwards. Each has two wins for the season, as Cody Agee finished a very young career-best 3rd, ahead of Butch Bailey and Andrew Page.

Clayton Crump ran out in front, but Jerry Warren was getting his Hobby Stock right alongside on the backstretch. Warren just couldn’t get around as the 3C of Crump’s as the latter always got over the white line first. But later in the tech area, an illegal harmonic balancer for the engine was found on Crump’s Hobby and that resulting DQ moved Warren up into the top slot. The next ones in line for their finish, Justin Bevill, Jamie Bevill, Blake Hultz and Justin Burton, each got a bump up in their final placing.

For the Hornet class, Robert Winfrey got his 5th front row start of the season, and with Devin Still ran 1 – 2 for this one up until the only caution flag flew late in the race. Then it was John Baker and Rob Chase getting by to finish 2nd & 3rd behind Winfrey. The Doctorian brothers finished out the top five with Richard getting the better of John by coming in just ahead of him.
UPCOMING EVENTS:

June 12 – rescheduled Southern MIdget Racing Series (a 20 Lap event) + weekly racing series
June 18&19 – Moberly’s Fan Fest with bands, contests & concessions, plenty of General Lee cars on display, a few of the Duke’s show characters on site, a Daisy Duke look-a-like contest, and even an actual General “Jump!” from ramp to ramp, set for Sat Nite (no racing set for this weekend)
June 24 – MLRA + Sportsman + Hobby Stock classes in an all-fendered racing in a Special Thursday show
June 26 – Hobby Stock Special + weekly racing series
July 3 – Whitehead Memorial Firecracker Forty for the A-modifieds, and w/ the return of the W.O.W. sprints, + B-mods & Hornets

Of 67 race team entries, the TOP 5 results are as follows:
(all hometowns are Missouri unless otherwise noted)
A-Modifieds (of 15 entries) 20 laps
1) 55x Steve Payne, Fulton (heat 1 winner)
2) 07 Kenny Mudd, Winfield
3) 26k Kevin Blackburn, Fulton
4) 88D Matt Dotson, Sturgeon (heat 2 winner)
5) 24v Mark VanWinkle, Hannibal
B-Modifieds (of 18 entries) 15 laps
1) 23B Mark Botts, Meadville
2) 11 Gary R. Wilson, Holliday
3) 0 Tom Elsen, Clarence (heat 1 winner)
4) 29L Jon Melloway, Hallsville
5) 34 Kiel Erwin, Paris (heat 2 winner)
Sportsman (of 12 entries) 12 laps
1) 14 Derrick Agee, Huntsville (heat 1 winner)
2) 23 Chad Walter, Clarence (heat 2 winner)
3) 25 Cody Agee, Huntsville
4) 111 Butch Bailey, Novelty
5) 24A Andrew Page, Columbia
Hobby Stocks (of 7 entries) 12 laps
1) 03 Jerry Warren, Moberly (heat 2 winner)
2) 11 Justin Bevill, Bethel
3) 56 Jamie Bevill, Bethel
4) 61 Blake Hultz, Madison
5) 65 Justin Burton, Centralia
4 cyl. Hornets (of 15 entries) 12 laps
1) 37 Robert Winfrey, Moberly (heat 2 winner)
2) 44 John Baker, Moberly
3) 3 Rob Chase, Clark
4) 36 Richard Doctorian, Kansas City
5) 2 John Doctorian, Wentzville