Opening
night at CMS saw three familiar faces and one new
feature winner visit the winner’s circle for
KOKO Radio Race night. There were 83 cars on
hand in the four divisions. With all the
moisture in the area over the last week, track owner
Earl Walls and his crew did all they could to keep
the track race-ready for the drivers and fans in
attendance. The original forecast called for
even more precipitation but the skies actually
cleared and the track played host to a great night of
racing. The race surface was re-worked three
times due to pressure ridges forming in the turn
three and four; however, the 16-race program was
still completed before 11 p.m.
Four
‘mighty’ modified heat races were contested
for the 36 cars on hand. Heat race winners were
Terry Schultz of Sedalia, MO; Dustin Boney of
Tonganoxie, KS; Jake Richards of Kansas City, KS; and
Aaron Marrant of Orrick, MO. Ricky Lee Stangl,
Jr., of Raymore, MO grabbed the win in the b-main
event. The top five from each heat race
transferred on to the main event as well as the top
four from the b-main. During the b-main David
McVey took a tumble in turn two but walked away
uninjured from the impact. For the twenty-lap
main event, 24 starters took the green flag.
Terry Schultz and Dustin Boney got off to a quick
start at the drop of the green with Boney eventually
grabbing the lead. He led through heavy lapped
traffic but ultimately it was the same lapped traffic
that led to an exciting three-wide lead change.
Aaron Marrant made his way to the front along with
Tim Karrick and both drivers made their way past
Boney. While maneuvering past lapped traffic
Boney actually went over the turn one embankment
while running third and was ultimately done for the
night, leaving Marrant and Karrick to duke it out for
the win. With a thrilling green, white,
checkered flag finish, it was Karrick who took his
sixteenth-ever feature win at CMS. Doug Walrath
made a nice charge to the front and passed Marrant at
the line for second. Schultz finished fourth
with Jake Richards, Donald Dannar, Chad Lyle, Don
Crnkovich, Dean Wille and Tom Charles rounding out
the top ten.
Only
six ULMA late models were on hand for the
night. Warrensburg driver Jon Binning took the
lone heat race victory ahead of David Angell of
Holden. These same two drivers started on the
pole of the feature event. None of the drivers
in attendance had ever won a late model feature
victory at the track. Binning set out initially
in the lead but got sideways during the event, which
allowed Angell to grab the lead. With Binning
re-starting near the tail end of the field for a
re-start, he began his charge to the front.
Angell and Binning ran side-by-side and even made a
little contact before Binning ultimately re-took the
lead and his first-ever CMS feature victory.
Angell held on for second ahead of Randy Ainsworth,
Clint Nimmo in his first appearance in a late model,
Gary Billings, Jr. and Lewis Wietkamp.
For
the street stocks, Marc Carter of Warrensburg and
Herb Dannar of Holden picked up the two heat-race
victories. The fourteen drivers on hand
competed in the 15-lap feature event as Dale Atkinson
and Dannar set sail from the front row. Dannar
was able to lead several laps at the beginning of the
race with Atkinson and John Miller battling for
second. Ninth-starting Brian Johnson, who is
the defending track champion, began quickly threading
his way to the front and assumed the lead about
midway through the event. Once out front,
Johnson pulled away and grabbed the opening night
feature win with Dannar in second. Carter, who
elected to start in rear of the field, came up to
third spot with Nick Bennett, John Miller, Tammy
Korff, Roger Stone, Anthony Witham and Jerry Schmidt
rounding out the top nine. Several cars were
found to not be in compliance with the rules after
technical inspection and were DQ’d from the race
results.
Twenty-seven
B-modifieds filled the pits as it took three heat
races and one b-main to sort out the 20-car starting
lineup. Rusty Trimble of Kansas City, KS;
Scotty Martin of Independence, MO; and Bobby Raybourn
of Odessa picked up the heat race victories.
Young Lucas Isaacs of Bonner Springs, KS grabbed the
win in the b-main. Trimble and Martin brought
the field to the green flag as defending track
champion Martin quickly got out to an early lead
leaving Trimble to battle with Raybourn and Cliff
Owings for second. For several laps, this trio
battled for the second, third and fourth positions,
until Trimble finally secured second position midway
through the race. Twentieth starting Owen
Evinger used smart driving and moved all the way into
the top three by lap ten in an amazing run to the
front. In the end it was Martin who raced his
way to victory lane, a place he is very familiar with
at CMS. Last year Martin took home 13 feature
race victories on his way to the track
championship. Trimble had a fantastic drive to
second with Evinger holding on for third.
Owings, Raybourn, Michael King, Jeremy Lile and
Rookie Jacob Ebert, Gary Akers and Chris Brockway
rounded out the top ten.
Don’t
miss the CMS/Kenny’s Tile racing action next
Saturday night for the first special event of the
year. The MSCA wingless 305 Sprint Cars will be
on hand for the first of two 2008 season
appearances. All four regular divisions will
also be racing for the checkers. Pit gates will
open at 4:30 with admission gates opening at 5.
Hot laps begin at 7 and racing hits the track at
7:30. General admission prices for next week
increase to $15. For continuous race
information and up to the minute race status call the
track report line at (660) 747-2166. For
complete race results, point standings, admission
information, photos from John Lee’s High
Fly’N Photos and much more be sure to visit the
track’s Website at
www.centralmissourispeedway.net. We look
forward to seeing all the race fans and drivers next
Saturday night at the ‘Burg!
