Carlson Grabs LebanonMidway Fastrak Triple Crown Feature
by: Ronnie Williams

Lebanon, Mo. (May 26, 2006) - Over 85 race teams checked into the pits Friday night at the Lebanon Midway Speedway for the Memorial Weekend Holiday and the running of the Missouri State Triple Crown for the Fastrak Late Models.
 

As the field of 21 took the green flag in the LateModel feature,defending MidWest Regional champion Joe Morris grabbed the lead with Tom Krankel right on his side as the duo were tight going into turn 1.The field bunched-up in turn 2 with several cars collecting damage including Morris,Krankel,Terry James along with Midway point leader Jared Harris.
 

Fastrak officials called for a complete restart as the field bunched again with racing underway.Morris grabbed the early lead with Krankel,Wisconsin driver Chris Carlson,Harris,Chuck Still and Mike Berger in tow.The yellow waved as Lebanon's Ron Myers had a tire come off and after quick repairs,he restarted 21st.
 

On the restart,Carlson and Morris showed how racy the track was as Morris jumped to the botom while Carlson used the middle groove.Krankel moved upstairs and was looking to go to the lead.On lap 10,prerace favorite Scott Hutchinson pulled in with problems ending his night.During this long green run,Morris and Carlson stayed close as Krankel was gaining on the top groove.With morris in control,Carlson,Krnakel,Harris and Mike Berger were battling as Jim Wheat began a charge from his 9th starting spot along with Steve Beach who started 12th.A quick yellow for Tracey Cottrell's front bumper bunched the field-up as Morris brought the field down on the restart with Carlson looking upstairs for the lead.On lap 21,Carlosn pulled along side of leader Morris and they raced side by side until lap 24 when Carlson grabbed the top spot.Behinf the lead duo were Harris,Krankel,Wheat,Still,Beach,Mike Berger and Josh Carroll battling.Ron Myers who started 21 had moved into the top 10 and was gaining quickly.A quick couple of yellows kept the field bunched-up as on lap 30,16 cars remained on the lead lap.On the restart,Carlson pulled to a 5 car length lead,but the defending Midwest champion Joe morris started to reel-in the Wisconsin driver.Harris and Krankel were battling back and forth with the 3rd spot being swaaped.On lap 34,Midway points runner-up Berger had something break on the supension and the yellow waved as his nigt ended along with MidWest runner Mat Dusablon.On the final restart,Carlson took off,but morris quickly moved in on the leader with 4 to go.Carlson was quicker off turn 2,but Morris who was fighting an ill-handling racecar was gaining in the corners.As the white flag flew,Morris made a strong run going into turn 1,but Carlson smoothly got out of turn 2 as Morris gained on the backstretch and in turn 3 to 1 car length.Coming for the checkered,Morris was right on Carlson's back bumper,but Carlson made the bottom of the track work to his advantage grabbing his second MidWest Regional win followed closely by Morris,Harris,Krankel, and Jim Wheat in the top 5.
 

"The track was in great shape tonight and Morris is tough."quoted winner Carlson."Morris got into that mess on the opening lap and I think it hurt his car as it looked very tight when he was leading.Midway is perfect for the Fastrak Series and Harold Armstrong and his crew did an outstanding job in putting on the race program tonight."
Morris who finished 2nd,had a front strut on the car get damaged in the incident on the opening lap."We were going for the sweep.""We won a very tough heat,won the pole dash and I knew that Carlson and Harris were going to be tough here.I believed if we hadn't gotten into the wreck,we could have won,but another day to race Chris,he really ran me clean."
"We broke a shock and had alittle supension damage getting colected in the opening lap wreck"quoted Jared Harris."Everyone went into turn 1 trying to win it early because of the talent of drivers here tonight.To finish 3rd it like a win for us as the local drivers really did good tonight."
 

In other Friday night action,point leader Shawn Winfrey overtook early leader Missy Shaw on lap 5 of the 15 lap Bomber feature over the 20 car field as only 1 caution came out during the A feature as points runner-up Jack Hamer charged from the middel of the field to grab 3rd place followed by defending champion Dale rodden and Donnie Jackson.
 

The Modified feature had plently of action as Eric Hudson grabbed the early lead with James Hartman close behind.Hudson had moved to the top grove and was pulling away as Jason Russell,Jim Roach,Micheal Maggard,last weeks winner Jamie Ragland and current point leader Tony Jackson Jr were battling for position.On lap 5,Maggard's night ended as oil came from out the bottom of the motor bringing out the yellow.On the restart,Hudson again pulled away with Hartman,roach,Russell,Ragland and Jimmy Willis along with Jackson were swapping positions.A late caution again bunched the field-up on lap 15.On the restart,Roach began his charge to the front of leader Hudson and moved to the bottom of the track and grabbed the lead on lap 17 to record his 1st ever Modified feature win followed closely by Jason Russell who moved around Hudson for the runner-up spot,Hudson,Jamie Ragland and early contender Hartman.
 

The Winged SprintCar feature saw point leader Clint Todd jump to the early lead and was never headed in capturing his 1st win of the season as Joe Todd,Mike Williams,Matt Tatro,and rookie Kyle Bellm rounding out the top 5.Earlier in the feature last weeks winner Eric Todd who had charged from 11th to 3rd place flipped his car.Eric walked away and came out later without a Wing on the top to rally for and 8th place finish.
 

With LebanonHigh School Graduation the 50 lap Enduro was a bit smaller in the car count,but as always they provided great racing.Mike Wamsley jumped to the early lead and would pull away as Lee Sing and Steve Shaw began and great battled for second place.Wamsley had all but the top 4 lapped on lap 26 and Mike Scott who was running in 4th place went a lap down.Wamsley got caught intraffic and Scott got back on the lead lap as Sing's night ended with a flat tire.Wamsley continued to pull away as Scott had gathered a smooth style on the gren flag run.On lap 35,it was Wamsley,Shaw,Scott and Don Atkinson battling Charley Stienmark for the final Trophy spot.On lap 45,Wamsley's car began showing smoke as Scott was coming fast overtaking Shaw for second place.On lap 47,Scott reeled in leader Wamsley as Mike was trying to just finish the race as Scott pulled away to grab the feature win followed by Wamsley,Shaw and Don Atkinson for the top 4.Scott in now in thepole position for the June 23rd paying Enduro feature.
 

Next Weekend it will be Kid's Bike Races at the Midway for the children 10 and under as they will race each other at intermission as all regular 6 classes of cars compete.

Results
Fastrak LateModel State Crown Championship
 

1st Ht-1)Jared Harris-Lebanon 2)Chuck Still-Benton,ILL 3)Tracey Cottrell-Russelville 4)Scott Hutchinson-Johnson City,ILL 5)Shannon Kuhn-Highland,ILL 6)Gary Oliver-Wright City 7)Wesley Briggs-Phillipsburg
 

2nd Ht-1)Joe Morris-Galatia,ILL 2)Tom Krankel-CrestWood,Mo 3)Terry James-Winfield 4)Eric Rudd-Washington 5)A.J. Watson-Dalton,Ga 6)Josh Carroll-Alton,ILL 7)Casey Montague-O'Fallon,ILL
 

3rd Ht-1)Chris Carlson-Greenfield,Wisc.2)Mike Berger-Lake Ozark 3)Jim Wheat-Eldon 4)Steve Beach-Eldon 5)Mat Dusablon-Carmi,ILL 6)Joey Morris-Galatin,ILL 7)Ron Myers-Lebanon
A&C Construction Pole Dash-1)Morris 2)Krankel 3)Carlson 4)Harris 5)Still 6)Berger
 

A Ft(40 laps)-1)Carlson 2)Morris 3)Harris 4)Krankel 5)Wheat 6)Still 7)Carroll 8)Beach 9)Myers 10)Watson 11)Montague 12)James 13)Cottrell 14)Rudd 15)Briggs 16)Dusablon 17)Berger 18)Kuhn 19)Oliver 20)Hutchinson 21)Joey Morris
 

Modifieds
 

1st Ht-1)Jason Russell-Henley 2)Jimmy Willis-Macks Creek 3)Chris Johnson-Lebanon 4)Craig Halderman-Holts Summitt 5)Rick Brown-Iberia 6)Brian Millsap-Lebanon
 

2nd Ht-1)Tony Jackson Jr-Lebanon 2)Jamie Ragland-Lebanon 3)James Hartman-Eldridge 4)Micheal Maggard-Republic 5)Brian Brown-Lebanon 6)Gerald Mara-Lebanon
 

3rd Ht-1)Jim Roach-St Patrick 2)Eric Hudson-Rolla 3)Jack Jones-Lebanon 4)Troy Young-Lebanon 5)Bobby Ratterree-Mt Grove 6)Dennis Crider-Rolla(DNS)
 

A Ft-1)Roach 2)Russell 3)Hudson 4)Ragland 5)Hartman 6)Willis 7)Jackson 8)Johnson 9)Jones 10)Halderman 11)Ratterree 12)Brown 13)Young 14)Millsap 15)Mara 16)B.Brown 17)Maggard Crider-DNS
 

Bombers
 

1st Ht-1)Missy Shaw-Rogersville 2)Chad Cromer-Lebanon 3)Jack Hamer-Ava 4)Brian Goff-Jefferson City 5)Lance Bahnmiller-Seymour 6)Billy Watters-lynchburg 7)Keith Cheever-DNS
 

2nd Ht-1)Shawn Winfrey-Lebanon 2)Jennifer Crouch-Lebanon 3)Donnie Jackson-Lebanon 4)Mark Eagleburger-Waynesville 5)Jerry Goring-Lebanon 6)Larry Franklin-Crocker 7)Colby McClain-DNS
 

3rd Ht-1)Dale Rodden-Lebanon 2)Larry Rifenburg-Conway 3)Adam Lawrence-Lebanon 4)Kevin Hetland-Falcon 5)Joe Gregory-Falcon 6)Andrew Cheever-Lebanon
 

A Ft-1)Winfrey 2)Shaw 3)Hamer 4)Rodden 5)Jackson 6)K.Cheever 7)Franklin 8)Cromer 9)Goff 10)Crouch 11)Rifenburg 12)Hetland 13)Goring 14)Eagleburger 15)Gregory 16)A.Cheever 17)Lawrence 18)McClain 19)Bahnmiller DNS-Watters
 

WingedSprints
 

1st Ht-1)Eric Todd-Falcon 2)Keith Breedlove-Lynchburg 3)Mike Williams-Lynchburg 4)Steve Lowrance-Springfield 5)Jeremy Hazel-Lynchburg 6)Rob Parden-Waynesville 7)Mark Green-Lebanon
 

2nd Ht-1)Joe todd-Falcon 2)Clint Todd-Falcon 3)Kyle Bellm-Nixa 4)Matt Tatro-Crocker 5)Scott Wedelstadt-Lebanon 6)Jeremy Williams-Lynchburg
 

A Ft-1)C.Todd 2)J.Todd 3)M.Williams 4)Tatro 5)Bellm 6)Lawrence 7)Wedlstadt 8)E.Todd 9)Hazel 10)Green 11)Parden 12)Breedlove 13)J.Williams
 

Enduro-Ft-1)Mike Scott-Rogersville 2)Mike Wamsley -Lebanon 3)Steve Shaw-Rogersville 4)Don Atkinson-Phillipsburg 5)Steve Steimark-Lebanon