360 Sprint Cars roar into RPM Speedway
By Mike Hughes

HAYS, KS (September 2)—The O’Reilley NCRA 360 Sprint Car Series invaded Rolling Plains Motor Speedway in Hays, KS, Saturday evening, September 2, with 22 of the winged warriors. They were joined by the IMCA Modifieds, IMCA Stock Cars, IMCA Hobby Stocks, Cruisers and Econos.

Point leader Garry Lee Maier ran off and left the field in the NCRA 360 Sprint Car feature. Maier encountered lapped traffic as early as lap 6 and kept several lapped cars between himself and Luke Cranston, J.D. Johnson and B-feature winner Mike Peters. The lone caution flag in the 25-lap race came on lap 23 when Cranston spun in turn 4. Lee Maier led Johnson, Peters and Marc Robe back to the green and pulled away for the win. Johnson finished second, followed by Chadd, Cranston and Robe. Heat race winners were J.D. Johnson, Cranston and Lee Maier.

Colby’s John Fabrizius made it 3 in a row in the IMCA Modified division but had to earn it. The first 3 laps had 3 different leaders in Ryan Goheen, Jeremy Zorn and Rick Schwab. The first caution flag waved on lap 8 when Kevin Hoeme spun. During the caution period, Schwab stalled on the track and had to be shoved back to the pits ending his night. Zorn then inherited the lead on the restart with Fabrizius right behind. Zorn led the field back to green after caution periods on laps 14 and 15, but after the final restart, Fabrizius got past Zorn and held him off at the checkers for the victory. Dustin Daniels finished third, followed by Hoeme and Marty Clark. Zorn, Goheen and Fabrizius were victorious in the three heat races.

Travis Sherfick of Wakeeney picked up his first win of the season at the 3/8-mile oval in the IMCA Stock Car division. Stockton’s Tyler Hahn took the lead at the start and led most of the way in the 20-lap feature until Fabrizius, who followed Hahn most of the race, finally got by with 2 laps to go and was first to the checkers. Dan Lauer, Cory Struckhoff, Hahn, and J.R. McCreery rounded out the top five. Heat race winners included Josh Hudson, Nathan Glendening, and Hahn.

Stockton’s Adam Balthazor also won his third feature in a row. Balthazor took the lead from Jay Hrabe on lap 5 of the 12-lap IMCA Hobby Stock feature and led the remaining distance for the win. Dustin McClurg finished second, followed by heat race winners Jerry Hudson and Gene Sneath. Brian Conness rounded out the top five.

The Econos and Cruisers ran separate heat races but ran combined in the feature race. Cruiser heat winners Kenny Cain & Jerry Bates of Lucas was able to hold off Econo heat race winner Reed Bernbeck of Ransom at the finish for the win. Jay Simpson finished third.

The final night of racing at RPM Speedway for the 2006 season will take place Sunday evening, Sept. 24, with the IMCA sanctioned Modifieds, Stock Cars and Hobby Stocks, along with the Bombers. The green flag waves at 7:00 p.m.



RESULTS

Econos/Cruisers
Econo Heat: 1. Reed Bernbeck, 2. Jay Simpson, 3. Brian Leiker, 4. Troy Robinson.
Cruiser Heat: 1. Kenny Cain/Jerry Bates, 2. Joe Carter/Jim Carter, 3. Scott Kohl/Kevin Kohl, 4. Norman Wiechman/Kenny Wiechman.

Econo/Cruiser Feature: 1. Cain/Bates, 2. Bernbeck, 3. Simpson, 4. Kohl/Kohl, 5. Al Emmons/Amy Emmons, 6. Curt Chapin/Barry Kleweno, 7. Leiker, 8. Robinson, 9. Ken Lutters, 10. Carter/Carter (DNF), 11. Wiechman/Wiechman (DNF), 12. Brett Stokes/Jesse Herrman (DNS), 13. Mike Lewis/Kevin Schaffer (DNS).

 

IMCA Hobby Stocks
Heat 1: 1. Gene Sneath, 2. Adam Balthazor, 3. Dustin McClurg, 4. Adam Bryant.
Heat 2: 1. Jerry Hudson, 2. Laura Hinger, 3. Phil Hinger, 4. Rhett Kingsbury.

Feature: 1. Balthazor, 2. McClurg, 3. Hudson, 4. Sneath, 5. Brian Conness, 6. P. Hinger, 7. Kingsbury, 8. L. Hinger, 9. Bryant, 10. Jay Hrabe (DNF).

 

IMCA Stock Cars
Heat 1: 1. Josh Hudson, 2. Travis Sherfick, 3. Cory Struckhoff, 4. Willie Wynn.
Heat 2: 1. Nathan Glendening, 2. Terry Cunningham, 3. J.R. McCreery, 4. Jason McCartney.
Heat 3: 1. Tyler Hahn, 2. Jason Schoenberger, 3. Jason Rogers, 4. Dan Lauer.

Feature: 1. Sherfick, 2. Lauer, 3. Struckhoff, 4. Hahn, 5. McCreery, 6. Cunningham, 7. Hudson, 8. Glendening, 9. Rogers, 10. Schoenberger, 11. Wynn, 12. McCartney, 13. C.J. Pfannenstiel, 14. Larry Grady, 15. Tim Gassmann (DNF), 16. Jay Hachmeister (DNS), 17. Jason Gross (DNS), DQ – Craig Werth.

 

IMCA Modifieds
Heat 1: 1. Jeremy Zorn, 2. Rick Schwab, 3. Dustin Daniels, 4. Kevin Hoeme.
Heat 2: 1. Ryan Goheen, 2. Marty Clark, 3. John Fose, 4. Randy Wilson.
Heat 3: 1. John Fabrizius, 2. Corey Lagroon, 3. Jim Bell, 4. Doug Shearer.

Feature: 1. Fabrizius, 2. Zorn, 3. Daniels, 4. Hoeme, 5. Clark, 6. Ronnie Hill, 7. Randy Washburn, 8. Wilson, 9. Bell, 10. Fose, 11. Goheen, 12. Shearer, 13. Kenny Schmidt, 14. Lagroon (DNF), 15. Schwab (DNF), 16. John Lashell (DNS).

 

NCRA 360 Sprint Cars
Heat 1: 1. J.D. Johnson, 2. Jake Martens, 3. Rob Lipker, 4. Scott Cochran, 5. David Wheeler.
Heat 2: 1. Luke Cranston, 2. C.J. Johnson, 3. Allen Unruh, 4. Mike Peters, 5. Mike Chadd.
Heat 3: 1. Garry Lee Maier, 2. Marc Robe, 3. Nick Haywood, 4. Jon Freeman, 5. Raymond Seeman.
B-Feature (top 10 advance): 1. Peters, 2. Chadd, 3. Wheeler, 4. Brian Herbert, 5. Mark Walinder, 6. Cochran, 7. Seeman, 8. Darren Bowman, 9. Dan Freeman, 10. Gary Herbst, 11. Roger Sundquist, 12. Zach Merritt (DNS).

A-Feature: 1. Lee Maier, 2. J.D. Johnson, 3. Chadd, 4. Cranston, 5. Robe, 6. Peters, 7. Unruh, 8. C.J. Johnson, 9. Martens, 10. Herbert, 11. J. Freeman, 12. Lipker, 13. Haywood, 14. Cochran, 15. Walinder, 16. Bowman, 17. Wheeler, 18. Seeman, 19. D. Freeman, 20. Herbst (DNF).