(WINSTON, Mo.) – The Show-Me Vintage Racers opened the special Racin’ for Rian night with a duel between Ray Hughes and Damon Clevenger. Clevenger ran the top side of the speedway while Hughes put his car around the hub and each lap at the line the two remained door to door. On the last lap, Hughes hooked the bottom and edged ahead to pick up the victory. Steve Tanner finished third, Jeremy Turner fourth and Mickey Fleetheart fifth.
Houston Johnson and Chad Fuller continued their season long battle as the two started on the front row. Chad Fuller jumped to the early lead, but while running the cushion slipped over it and handed the lead and eventual win to Johnson. Fuller finished second, John Hanson third, Bobby Lopez fourth and Billie Hoover fifth.
The Midwest Lightning Sprints saw another close fought battle for supremacy as Bobby Layne fought all race to hold off a fast Mark Billings. About a car length separated the two all race and nothing changed at the checkered as Layne beat Billings at the line. Ken Billings finished third, Kyle Lewis fourth and Mike Moore fifth.
After starting the first six weeks of racing the Sport Compacts crowned six different winners. That trend has quickly changed as John Willard scored his third win tonight, joining Alvin Cooney as a three time winner. Chris Lewis put together his best run of the season finishing second. Dave Petty Jr. finished third, Steven Bunton fourth and Isaiah Penton fifth.
The Pure Stocks saw Ron Hill pick up the feature win with CJ Turner second, Cody King third, Brad Sheetz fourth and Shawn Huston fifth.
The biggest show of the season for the E-Modifieds saw 18 cars take the green flag. In a caution filled race, attrition took its tole as half the field failed to finish. That did not matter to Chris Mercer as he found McCarthy Auto Group Winner’s Circle for the sixth time this season. This one did not come easy as on the third green-white-checkered attempt Ben Stockton made a big slider into turn one stick and took the lead, only to have it erased by another yellow. On the restart Chris Mercer took the inside line away and finished the race strong. Stockton finished second, while Gary Ainsworth battled back from an early race spin to finish third. A.J. Sayers and Chuck Adkins rounded out the top five.
The USRA B-Modifieds were the first class to deal with a track heading to the slick side. The 19 drivers all made the right setup changes and put on a show in a mostly green feature. Daniel Harris took the early lead, but that did not last long as Ricky Thornton Jr. made his way to his back bumper before a lap five caution. On the restart, Thornton made the slide job stick and took off with the lead. Thornton dominated the rest of the race while seven different drivers were in the rest of the top five at some point. Harris finished second, Doug Keller third, Ed Noll fourth and Kyle Henning fifth, while Jason Billups and Jacob Blair were the two that missed out on the top five.
Brett Heeter backed up his win in the Gary Davis Super 66 Stock Car race with another feature win. He battled with Gary Donaldson for the win, who subbed for Cletus Murray in the 75 car. Donaldson finished second, with William Dahl third, Gene Stigall fourth and Robert Fisk fifth.
Mark Dotson jumped to the early lead in the USRA Modified feature. Fourth place starter Ricky Thornton Jr. made quick work of Darren Shaw and Houston Johnson to get to second. Dotson and Thornton swapped the lead several times with sliders and crossovers before Thornton grabbed the lead for good and scorched his way to the win, his second for the night. Dotson finished second, as Dennis Elliott battled back from an early race incident to finish third. Darren Shaw finished fourth and Houston Johnson fifth.