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Ronnie Williams
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (November 28) - Before a Picture perfect day for Racing, The Springfield Raceway held its 3rd annual Turkey Classic with Late Models Headlining the Card this season along with A-Mods, Sport Mods and Legends. 169 race teams checked into the pits with side by side racing all day long in all 4 classes.
In the Late Model feature, dirt hall of fame member Ken "The Flying Farmer" Essary on the pole and second generation standout Johnny Fennewald to his outside. Fennewald took the early lead with Essary, Show-Me Series Justin Wells and MLRA Rookie of the Year Matt Johnson following closely. With 2 and 3 wide racing not only up front but through the entire pack. Wells took his TNT Chassis to the top spot as the pupil and student of Essary Racing began a quicker pace. Essary backed off just a lap and then began his charge back to the front and made a three-wide pass of Wells and Fennewald on lap 6 to take the lead. With solid Green flag racing, the leaders started to get into lapped traffic around lap 10 as Wells made a move to the top groove and took back the lead. Fennewald a Modified standout and Late Model Rookie held his own with the two Show-Me Racin Series drivers mixing it up for the lead. On lap 13, Essary schooled the youngsters again and took over the top spot with wells moving to the bottom groove and pulled even with Essary. On lap 15 the first yellow waved as Bobby Maggard Jr took a ride over the turn 3 banking bringing out the first yellow of the feature. With Essary up front, Wells picked the top groove on the double file restart. Essary brought the field to the Green with Wells staying close behind as Brad Looney began his charge to the front of the field. With Essary and Wells battling up front, the trio behind for third place was fast with Fennewald, Johnson, Looney and a fast moving Larry Campbell battling. After two short yellows the race went green back on lap 18 as the final 12 laps were solid racing. Essary started to pull away from Wells as Looney made a bold 3 wide pass for third place on lap 21 and set his sights on the leaders. In the closing laps lapped traffic was in front of the leaders as Wells and Looney both started to close-in. On lap 26, Essary found traffic getting smaller and opened the lead back up. As the checkered flew, The dirt hall of Famer put his name as another first time race winner in the Turkey Classic taking home the $2,000 to win event with Wells, Looney, Fennewald, Johnson, Justin Asplin, Joey Mack, Jim Fulp, Rylan Long, and Chris Morelock completing the top ten as Rex Merritt and John Beck also completed the lead lap cars.
The A-Mods came in numbers with 75 cars checking in the pits to make the star-studded 20 car field. After 8 action packed heats and 5 Last Chance races, the field was set for 20 laps of open-wheeled action.
Steve Martin earned the pole spot through the passing point system With Roger Sawyer to his outside. After 2 uneventful starts in which Scotty Drake and other spun around, the field went single file with Martin assuming the early lead with Sawyer close behind. With Martin setting a fast pace, Robert Powers of the Malden area asserted himself and became a factor along with Jim Body, Rusty Griffaw and others. THe Yellow waved on lap 9 for Scott Crigler and others in turn 3.This was when Scotty Drake had quietly began his forward charge after spinning and restarting on lap 1. On the restart, Marting found Powers,Body and Drake battling hard as Luke Feeback and Rex Merritt had moved into the top 5.Getting into lapped traffic,Drake pulled even with Marting during the green run only to have a late yellow give the leaders a clear track.O the final restart on lap 17,Marting pulled away from Drake's challanges and took home the $1,000 to win event with Drake,Merritt,Body,Paul Reeden,Josh Stevens,Jesse Stovall,Kelby TaylorJody Tillman and Steve Muilenburg completed the top 10 with Rob Muilenburg,Feeback and Powers completing lead lap cars.
The SportMod feature provided plenty of close action as high point driver Dallas Scott brought the field to the green with 2009 point champion Billy Street right along side of him.With 3 wide racing Scott took the oening lead as the veteran Street kept him close.The Race stayed green until lap 8 when Dean willie slowed along with Brian Webster.Street took over the lead on the restart with Scott and Dustin Thayer battling as B feature transfer driver Mike Watson was charging quietly from his 16th starting spot.Scott took back the lead on lap then Street took back the lead for good on lap 15 only to withstand a last 3 lap effort from both Scott and Thayer to grab the win.completing the top 10 included Watson,Larry Tindle,Micheal Stake,Eric Tinderholt,John Yeoman Jr,Jay Lemons and Brad Moad.also completing the lead lap was Billy Dalton,Cody Graham,early contender JC Morton,Jerry Brown,Chad Williams and Chris Tonoli.
The Legends saw Jay Reynolds take th early lead until lap 17 when Dave Bauer made a bold move on the low side in capturing the season finale with Reynolds,Dave Comer,Rob Watson and Tyler horton completing the top 5.Early contenders Park Jones,Justin Comer, and Iowa's Warren Rupp all were invloved in incidents eliminating them from action.Point champion Jason Rayle was also involved in a couple of altercations placing him 8th.
Information can be gathered by logging to WWW.SpringfieldRaceway.com this off-season
Results-Turkey classic-Springfield Raceway
Late Models
A-Main- 1) Ken Essary 2) Justin Wells 3) Brad Looney 4) Johnny Fennewald 5) Matt Johnson 6) Justin Asplin 7) Joey Mack 8) Jim Fulp 9) Rylan Long 10) Chris Morelock 11) Rex Merritt 12) John Beck 13) Larry Campbell 14) Chuck Comer 15) Tony Jackson Jr 16) Kevin Brown 17) Darrell Mooneyham 18) Matt Menxie 19) Ed Dixon 20) Bobby Maggard Jr
1st B-Main Top 2 Transfer 1) Menzie 2)Beck 3) Erik Maggard 4) Brandon McCormick 5) Dwight Neihoff 6) Larry Jones 7) Jeff McGhee 8) Leroy Johnson 9) Jake Williams 10) Chris Hawkins
2nd B-Main Top 2 Transfer 1) Mack 2) Mooneyham 3) Micheal Wilson 4) Steve Unterbrink 5) Steve Johnson 6) Donnie Timmerman 7) Jacob Black 8) Dustin Walker 9) Greg Choate
1st Ht-1) Essary 2) Looney 3) Jackson Jr 4) Comer 5) Mack 6) Mooneyham 7) L. Johnson 8) Williams 9) Hawkins
2nd Ht-1) Asplin 2) Wells 3) Fulp 4) Dixon 5) Beck 6) Menzie 7) Jones 8) Black 9) Unterbrink
3rd Ht-1) Fennewald 2) Maggard Jr 3) Campbell 4) Morelock 5) Neihoff 6) S Johnson 7) Choate 8) E.Maggard 9) McCormick
4th Ht-1) M.Johnson 2)Long 3)Brown 4)Merritt 5)Wilson 6)McGhee 7)Timmerman 8)Walker
A Mods
A Ft-1)Steve Martin 2)Scotty Drake 3)Rex Merritt 4)Jim Body 5)Paul Reeden 6)Josh Stevens 7)Jesse Stovall 8)Kelby Taylor 9)Jody Tillman 10)Steve Muilenburg 11)Rob Muilenburg 12)Luke Feeback 13)Robert Powers 14)Roger Sawyer 15)Brandon Maggard 16)Jason Pursley 17)Dean Willie 18)Scott Crigler 19)Rusty Griffaw 20)Casey McCluskey
1st B Ft(Top 2 Advance) 1)MerrittMcCluskey 3)Lucas Conley 4)Darian Hendrix 5)Dale Proctor 6)Brian Green 7)John Sheets 8)Jason Hillard 9)Steve Glenn 10)Darrell Jackson 11)Marvin Forrest 12)Perry Melbourn DNS-Darryl Turner
2nd B Ft-1)Drake 2)Taylor 3)Danny DeMasters II 4)Johnny Fennewald 5)Cris Cole 6)Larry Tounzen 7)Sundance Keepper 8)Dalton Greven 9)Ron McClellan 10)leo Keifer 11)Chase Jones 12)Darren Danner DNS-John Steele
3rd B Ft-1)Tillman 2)Reeden 3)Corey Lowrance 4)Partick Naeger 5)Jason Wooland 6)Dean Hensler 7)Roger Moser 8)Jerimah Asher 9)Casey Buechler 10)Danny DeMasters 11)Chris Spalding DNS-Jeff Doughty
4th B Ft-1)Willie 2)B.Maggard 3)Terry Kirk 4)Wayne Brooks 5)John Yeoman 6)Josh Poe 7)Justin Russell 8)Tom Campbell 9)Gordon Goyer 10)Chase Meade 11)Jackie Dalton DNS-Darrell McWhirter,Gary Langworthy
5th B Ft-1)Pursley 2)Crigler 3)Craig Wood 4)Bob Test 5)Jim Johnston 6)Canyan Methrin 7)Scotty Baugh 8)Tim Simon 9)Rick Bebee 10)Jason Estes 11)Chance Bishop DNS-Wayne Graybeal
Sport Mods
A Ft-1)Billy Street 2)Dallas Scott 3)Dustin Thayer 4)Mike Watson 5)Larry Tindle 6)Micheal Stake 7)Eric Tinderholt 8)Jon Yeoman Jr 9)Jay Lemons 10)Brad Moad 11)Billy Dalton 12)Cody Graham 13)JC Morton 14)Jerry Brown 15)Chad Williams 16)Chris Tonoli 17)Mike Tanner 18)Willie Wilson 19)Brian Webster 20)Dean Willie
1st B Ft(Top 2 Advance) 1)Graham 2)Webster 3)Shane Wilson 4)Mike Dupuy 5)Curt Paste 6)Cookie Blevins 7)Jeremy Phillips 8)Darrin Crisler 9)Levi Phillips
2nd B Ft-1)Watson 2)Tonoli 3)Heath Loney 4)Jimmy VanZandt 5)Roy Maynard 6)Randy Grimmett 7)Jake Sully 8)Phil Brookinshane DNS-Steve Muilenburg,Corey Pope
3rd B Ft-1)Tindle 2)Moad 3)Davis Kirkland 4)Jerry Lankton 5)Jerry Slaughter 6)Jerry Schmidt 7)Ernie Walker 8)Anthony Asher 9)Rich Hert
Legends
A Ft-1)David Bauer 2)Jay Reynolds 3)Dave comer 4)Rob Watson 5)Tyler Horton 6)Paul Horton 7)Bill Cottrill 8)Jason Rayle 9)Tony Hatfield 10)Caleb Smith 11)Matt Gruenburg 12)Phil Harris 13)Gary Hockman 14)Justin Comer 15)Warren Rupp 16)Park Jones 17)Rodney Baird
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