Twenty-six Late Models were in attendance on an absolutely beautiful night for racing and, when the first heat took to the track, by lap four I was seeing what I wanted as John Anderson, Alan Vaughn and Evan Hubert were racing three-wide for the lead. After some more good action in the rest of the qualifying events a twenty-car field was set for the thirty-lap feature with Anderson, who started seventh in that first heat before winning, earning the pole position through passing points. The last time that the MLRA visited 24 in July of ’09 Anderson snared the lead on lap three and then drove away from the field for a convincing win. Tonight, with this starting spot, there would be no need to wait until lap three for John to start the butt-kickin’.
As Al Purkey tried to keep pace Anderson raced away at the drop of the green, but there was plenty of racing action for the fans to watch mid-pack. The two Andy’s Frozen Custard cars of Jeremy Payne and Terry Phillips always seemed to be locked in battle with two or three other cars. Evan Hubert, Denny Woodworth, Chris Spieker and Dave Eckrich all engaged the Custard crew at one time or another with three-wide racing through the corners lap after lap. Both Woodworth and Eckrich found the bottom groove to their liking as they steadily marched forward from their respective fifth and sixth row starts.
A mid-race caution for Spieker, who slowed with a flat tire, erased Anderson’s near half-lap lead, but on the restart he again pulled away from Purkey and appeared headed for a certain victory. As Purkey came to the stripe with two laps to go, and with the leader already exiting turn two ahead of him, Al slowed and pulled to inside groove with apparent mechanical issues. He was out of the racing groove and appeared to have plenty of momentum to carry him to the pit entrance on the backstretch, but the caution waved anyway to bunch up the field for a green-white-checkered finish. Eckrich was now up to second and his preferred groove was different than what Anderson had been running, so when the green waved again Eckrich pulled even with Anderson in turn one. The leader shook off that challenge, but after taking the white-flag Eckrich again drove hard to the inside of turn one and actually nosed ahead of Anderson for a split-second. But the high-side momentum launched Anderson back to the lead off of turn two and he denied one last effort by Eckrich in turn four to take the victory. Woodworth had an impressive run in third, Phillips who had started tenth finished in fourth while current series point leader Brad Looney came home fifth.
MLRA Notes…..That three-wide battle in the first heat that I mentioned above ended after a couple of laps when Hubert and Vaughn got together sending Vaughn for a spin. He drove alongside the youngster Hubert during the caution laps and then retired to the pits after a couple of laps of racing. Despite pulling in, Vaughn earned enough passing points to start the feature on row eight, but he was never a factor…..Larry D. Clawson and Zack Simmons also dropped from that first heat race with issues that kept them from racing the remainder of the evening…..The B-Main had its share of drama as eight cars were racing for the final four transfer positions. Chris Smyser had a big lead before something broke on his ride and he pulled to the pits. From there it was all Ricky Frankel out front until he took the white flag and his right rear tire blew out. This allowed Denny Eckrich, who sounded like he was nursing a sick motor, to take the win ahead of Bill Koons and Sonny Findling. The fourth and final transfer would go to twenty-one-year-old Ashlee Lancaster who had a crate engine under the hood of her #16……Frankel would earn a provisional and start last on the grid that only had twenty cars rather than the twenty-two that was announced earlier in the evening. Bryon Allison finished second in his heat and Eric Turner was third in his, but neither driver reported to the staging area for the feature. And I’m not sure if John Farmer, who was still running at the end of the B-Main, was invited to the party or not……The MLRA Late Models will hit the big half-mile in Sedalia tonight (Friday) and then move down to the racy quarter-mile in Springfield on Saturday with this three-race swing definitely showing the versatility of the drivers on this series……One of the Racin’ Boys, Trenton Barry handled the announcing duties for the Late Models and did a terrific job!
24 Raceway’s Sportsman and Hobby Stock divisions had a track points race in support with eight cars on hand in the Hobby class and eleven in the Sportsman field. The Hobby division took a hit when Tim Dawson broke an axle while battling Clayton Crump for the lead in the second heat race and when Blake Hultz loaded up and left after finishing third in the first qualifier. Pole-sitter Jamie Bevill blew a right rear tire as the green flag waved on the main event and Clayton Crump went unchallenged to the win over Tom Creed and Justin Bevill.
The Agee family had an interesting night in the Sportsman class. On the first lap of the second heat race Cody Agee lead the five-car field into turn three on the first lap and spun collecting the entire field. Derrick Agee’s #14 suffered the worst damage and was towed to the pits while the #111 of Butch Bailey sat and waited in turn three for the wrecker to return. After checking out their damage, three drivers returned to the track with Agee taking the win over Wes Mayfield and Rick Girard. During the Late Model heats Derrick Agee worked a deal with the Rindom Racing crew to borrow their car for the feature and he prepared for action knowing that he would start last (ninth) for the twelve-lap finale. As the field raced off turn four of the first lap contact between Cody Agee and Mayfield sent the field scrambling with the car of Lucas Galland ending up in a tangle with Cody Agee’s #25 in front of the flagstand. It took the wrecker, a push truck and seven safety crew workers several minutes to pry the two cars apart, and only Galland was able to restart. Once back to action it was Chad Walter who was setting the pace with Andrew Page in hot pursuit. Derrick Agee was getting the feel for his borrowed ride and was getting faster every lap. With two laps remaining Agee, Page and Walter raced three-wide off of turn two and it was Agee going from third to first down the back straightway. Derrick then held off one last bid from Page to take the unlikely victory in the borrowed car. Walter had to settle for third while Galland drove his damaged car in for fourth. William Dahl drove his sharp looking #40 car in for a fifth-place check at the pay window.
As I have come to expect, the racing action was once again spectacular at 24 Raceway, but the show could have been even better with some minor changes. Hot laps were scheduled for 6:15 with racing set to start at 7 o’clock. The hot laps actually started about ten after 7 and the forty-five cars were split into eight different hot lap sessions. The first heat race took the green at 7:40 with the Hobby Stocks and Sportsman heats being run first prior to the four Late Model heat races. This order of events then necessitated a thirty-minute intermission before the start of the Late Model B-Main. The final checkers still waved at a respectable time of 10:17 p.m., but it could have been as much as an hour earlier, which would have been ideal on a Thursday night.
A big thanks to track announcer Doug Mealy for the PositivelyRacing.com plug as he spotted us in the grandstand. Doug has one of the smoothest voices that you will find at a speedway and during the break I was trying to come up with a good nickname for Doug and I thought that some variation of the “Velvet Fog” would be a good fit. But I guess if Mel Torme didn’t like it, neither would Doug, so if any of you have suggestions just let me know.
USAC Sprints and Midgets at 34 Raceway are next up for me. Enjoy your racing weekend!
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