The
Thursday night before the Show Me 100 has traditionally been a practice night
for drivers to get their cars dialed in for qualifying on Friday night in hopes
of making the big show on Saturday. This year however the Lucas Oil Speedway in
Wheatland, Missouri, decided to make it a night of racing on Thursday with a
points race for the Lucas Oil MLRA series and the change went over quite well
with seventy-three Late Models and fifty USRA Modifieds signed in for
competition.
If
tonight’s Late Model show is an indication of what is to come this weekend, it
would be a pretty safe bet that Jimmy Owens will score his third straight Show
Me 100 title. “The Newport Nightmare” earned a front row starting spot by
tallying enough passing points in his heat race and he simply drove away from
pole-sitter Steve Shaver at the drop of the green. As Owens pulled away the
race for second was interesting to watch, especially near the mid-point of the
forty-lapper as Tyler Reddick eased ahead of Shaver. The veteran driver fought back
though and put the 17-year-old native Californian back to third for a few laps
before Reddick was able to complete the pass for position.
Reddick
could see the leader Owens a full straightaway ahead of him at that point and
while he may have gained a few car-lengths in traffic he was still way back as
Owens took the checkers for the $5,000 victory. Reddick had put some distance
on Shaver as well while Lebanon’s Tony Jackson Jr. did the locals proud
advancing from eighth to fourth. Jack Sullivan was fifth, Billy Moyer finished sixth
with his son Billy Jr. right behind him in seventh. A.J. Diemel, Don O’Neal and
Earl Pearson Jr. rounded out the top five.
The top
sixteen in passing points from the seven heat races qualified for the main
event and then the top two from each of three twenty-lap B-Mains also made the
show. One of the most entertaining races of the night was the third B-Main as
Chris Simpson held the lead with Ryan Gustin in hot pursuit and Earl Pearson
Jr. closing in. On lap ten the leader Simpson made contact with the lapped car
of Mason Oberkramer in turn four and slid sideways down the track. Gustin had
to turn hard right to miss him and that allowed Pearson to vault from third to
first. The scramble also allowed young Bobby Pierce to close in and over the
final three laps both he and Gustin used every inch of the racetrack battling
for that second spot. With the checkers waving the two young phenoms came out
of turn four door-to-door and it was Pierce who prevailed by inches to take the
final transfer spot.
The
Modified feature saw a runaway winner as well, but this driver had to come from
the outside of row four to do so. Hometown driver Jason Pursley paced the field
through the early laps using the lowest line possible around the 3/8-mile oval.
The man on the move though was Matt Dotson who had started eighth and was up to
second by lap six. Three laps later Dotson cruised around the outside of
Pursley to take lead and then motored away for a convincing victory. Terry
Schultz got by Pursley late to take second, Steve Muilenberg finished where he
started in fourth and Jason Russell rounded out the top five. Sixth through tenth
were Jeff Cutshaw, Rylan Long, Bobby Bryant, Jon Sheets and Mickey Burrell.
That
will likely be all the racing for me as I have some other important activities
to take part in this Memorial Day weekend. Stay safe and enjoy the Holiday, but
be sure to take a moment and thank all of those men and women who have served
our country to give us the freedom we so deeply cherish.
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