Auto racing action returned to Moberly's 24 Raceway
by: Ron Lueck

MOBERLY, Mo. (April 15, 2006) -  Auto racing action returned to Moberly's 24 Raceway on Saturday, April 15, 2006. An outstanding field of 107 race cars with the finest drivers returned to the highbanked oval to compete in six classes for 24 Raceway's opening night. A very nice crowd of supportive fans attended under a slightly cloudy and somewhat breezy, but pleasant evening. The track was in excellent shape as the races moved along very well and the evening concluded around 11pm.

Several prizes were awarded to lucky winners in the crowd. Among them was a new bicycle donated by 24 Raceway. It was presented to Jr. Race Fan Club participant, 5 yr. old Lexi Everhart from Madison, MO. Ron Samuels from Columbia was the lucky 50/50 drawing winner of $163.

A big thank you goes to the Army-National Guard units from Macon, Moberly, and Columbia who furnished the vounteers and set up a tent for promotional give-aways. A big treat was the use of their Hum-vee as the evening's official pace vehicle. Allison Ausmus was again the track's trophy girl.

The first 12 lap feature race of the evening was the 4-cyl. Hornets, with 25 cars showing up to compete, and likely using this night as a warmup for next week's Hornet Special. Coming out of turn 4 for the green flag was pole sitter #3 Rob Chase from Clark, who took the lead. Rich Moret in #02 passed Chase on the back stretch, but they were even in turn 3 until Chase pulled ahead. The racing was close competition throughout the field. A yellow caution flag was waved for debris on the track and a flat tire on the 07 car driven by Fabian Mares. The race resumed with Moret in #02 taking the lead, but he hit the wall and lost some car body parts which caused another yellow. The #24/7 car driven by David Lorton of Moberly progressed from his starting position of 10th to finish in 2nd place. Rob chase drove into lapped traffic but succeeded on into victory lane. Columbia's Brooke Hassler in #21 and Perry Morton from Hallsville in car #11m entertained the crowd by trading places several times for 3rd and 4th position with Hassler pulling ahead to finish 3rd.

The Hobby Stock class also completed a 12 lap feature. Pole sitter Madison's Michael Wolfe in car # 11w took the lead from #11 Tom Elsen of Clarence while #7 Clinton Dale of Cairo snuck underneath #11 to take 2nd position. On the 2nd lap off of turn 2 #7 Dale took the lead and ultimately the victory. Wolfe finished 2nd. A battle between #11 Elsen and Madison's #51 Alan Hultz resulted in Hultz settling for 3rd position. Later, 11w and 51 were set to be disqualified after the post-race inspection discovered illegal parts. The DQ was derferred for a week to geve both a chance to get things taken care of. It was a clean race with no competition incidences. Victor Clinton Dale thanked his crew and sponsors and said it was a "fun night".

The 15 lap B-Mod feature proved to also be a close race. However pole sitter #3 Bob Woodrow from Perry, Mo. had a successful evening by taking and holding the lead throughout the race. Columbia's #32 Brad Pfeiffer held 2nd position close behind #3. Tony Garner #20 of Macon finished 3rd. The competition had several close-pack racing throughout the field. Bob Woodrow in his lime green #3 car, being last year's Point Champion, started the new season as the winner of this feature. An "atta boy" goes out to Chris Leathers of Macon. After mssing the heat races, he had to start the feature at the rear and brought his #17 up to finish in 5th by doing some very good driving.

The Limited Late Model class was also "limited" to 3 cars of which only 2 were able to start the 6 lap feature. Walter Imhoff from Jamestown in the #69 and Mexico's Marion Hooten in #43 started the feature evenly going into
turn 1, but #69 took off and maintained about a 3 car spacing lead. After
the white flag he extended the lead even further to be the winner.

On the highbanked 24 Raceway, the Sportsman class battled in an exciting 15 lap race. Columbia's Rick Girard in #00, Cairo's Jeff Creed in #01, and Huntsville's Pete Agee in #14 entertained the fans with close competition for the first three positions. After a couple of yellow flags, the race continued. Jeff Duncan in #87D traded places with #00. An interesting event came after car #111 driven by Butch Bailey who started in 11th position closed in and passed #87D and on the next lap passed #00 and finally finished in 3rd with #14 Agee in 2nd. The victory went to #01 Jeff Creed who was last year's Sportsman's Point Champion.

The final feature race was the 20 lap A-Mods. Three cars dominated the race but provided a close match for several laps and ultimately finished the race in the positions where they started. Vance Wilson from Frankford in #22C started on the pole with Fulton's Gary Blackburn, Jr. #26 on the outside and Kelly Smith in car #41started 3rd. After a yellow flag due to a liquid leak from #15 Terry Wilson, the race resumed and the three leaders extended their lead over #49 Ben Ballard and #31 Steve Cain. On the restart #26 closed in on #22c by trying to overtake him on the underneath but was unsuccessful. The leaders drove will through lapped traffic and after the white flag lap #22c Wilson pulled off a win with about a 2 car length lead.

Next Saturday, April 22, will also be an exciting night of racing. Moberly's 24 Raceway looks forward to having even more spectators to enjoy a special Hornet Race of 20 laps which will pay $250 to WIN, along with $150 for runner up! This is being brought to you by Bentz GM Country of Macon, Pepsi Americas of Columbia, and the Best Western-Moberly Inn. Joining in the evenings activities are the other regular classes of A - and B - Modifieds, Sportsman and Hobby Stock. As an added event, the monthly show by the Classic Dwarf Car Association together with some scaled down racecars called Mod-Lites will be making their initial appearance at the track. This is a class similar to the now-defunct NEMO Dwarf Car Association that raced here once a month for the previous two years. Dirt Track Racing at its Best begins at 7pm with a driver's meeting, followed by hot laps, starting at 6pm. Kids ticket prices are $5 for ages 6 to 12, and adults are $10 for the grandstands. Pit passes are $22 per person. Please see the website of www.24racewayinmoberly.com  on the forum for additional info, promotions and points standings.

24 Raceway, Moberly Results - April 15, 2006

A-Modifieds (of 25 starters)
1. 22c Vance Wilson, Frankford
2. 26 Gary Blackburn, Jr., Fulton
3. 41 Kelly Smith, Kirksville
4. 49 Ben Ballard, Sturgeon
5. 31 Steve Cain, Columbia
6. 66 Kenny Mudd, Winfield
7. 21m David Melloway, Hallsville
8. 26k Kevin Blackburn, Fulton
9. 99H Lee Hibner, Chillicothe
10. 89 Tyler Hibner, Chillicothe
11. 7 Clinton Dale, Jacksonville
12. 68 Keith Fisher, Fulton
13. L75 Eddie Whitney, Sturgeon
14. 71 David Holder, Clarence
15. 99 Brad Smith, Excello
16. 3 Dave Kinder, Moberly
17. 8 Darin Boling, Clarence
18. 03 Bill Baker, Hannibal
19. 27 Danny Lorton, Moberly
20. 57 Stephen Baugh, Columbia
21. 85 Matt Dotson, Sturgeon
22. 15 Terry Wilson, Bowling Green
23. 11P Curt Potter, Boonville
24. 20m Jon Melloway, Hallsville
25. 1P Steve Potter, Boonville
26. 27m Roger Moser, Auxvasse (N/S)

Moberly Motors B - Modifieds (of 21 starters)
1. 3 Bob Woodrow, Perry
2. 32 Brad Pfeiffer, Columbia
3. 20 Tony Garner, Macon
4. 74x Chuck Melloway, Hallsville
5. 17 Chris Leathers, Macon
6. 29L Chad Lebsock, Centralia
7. 40 Dave Kinder, Moberly
8. 46 John Collins, Clarence
9. 36 Dustin Boling, Lentner
10. 7s Craig Spegal, New London
11. 10 Steve Robinson, Huntsville
12. 11 Gary Wilson, Holliday
13. 82J Josh Calvert, Hallsville
14. 1 Bill Bentley, Madison
15. 07 Josh Albright, Higbee
16. 55 Megan Adkison, Bowling Green
17. 22A Shannon Schmidt, Bowling Green
18. 78T Travis O'Neal, Columbia
19. 96 Mike McCarty, Moberly
20. 4L Tyler Lewis, Columbia
21. 18 Jonathon Petersheim, Clark

Sportsman (of 16 starters)
1. 01 Jeff Creed, Cairo
2. 14 Pete Agee, Huntsville
3. 111 Butch Bailey, Novelty
4. 00 Rick Girard, Columbia
5. 87D Jeff Duncan, Fulton
6. 92 Blake Peeler, Milan
7. 73 Alan Bergfield, Harrisburg
8. 3 Tim Eravi, Moberly
9. 19t Tony Ratliff, Moberly
10. 5 Dean-o Smith, Higbee
11. 81 Kyle Chinn, Clarence
12. 14Jr Derrick Agee, Huntsville
13. 69A Jerry Ames, Huntsville
14. 46 Larry Perkins, Jr, Clark
15. 89 Chris Genenbacher, Shelbina
16. 26 Shane Stone, Moberly
17. 37 Scott Lancey, Jefferson City (N/S)

Hobby Stocks (of 18 starters)
1. 7 Clinton Dale, Cairo
2. 11w Mike Wolfe, Madison
3. 51 Alan Hultz, Madison
4. 11 Tom Elsen, Clarence
5. 6 Larry Krog, Clarence
6. 17 Tom Creed, Moberly
7. 41 Kevin Renzelmann, Moberly
8. 22 Josh Langhammer, Columbia
9. 207x Rob Sanders, Columbia
10. 3 Tim Eravi, Moberly
11. 23c Chad Walter, Clarence
12. 01 Steve Hisle, Liberty
13. 4 Bill Apel, Renick
14. 12 Chase Breid, Madison
15. 32 Darrell Nickerson, Moberly
16. 5 Dennis Moenck, Moberly
17. 35 Rev. Jerry Bown, Brookfield
18. 55 Chris Strain, Higbee
19. 10 Mark Forrester, Columbia (N/S)
20. 1 Mike Stout, Moberly (N/S)

Hornets (of 19 starters)
1. 3 Rob Chase, Clark
2. 24-7 David Lorton, Moberly
3. 12 Brooke Hassler, Columbia
4. 11M Perry Morton, Hallsville
5. 9H Chad Hickam, Hallsville
6. 37 Robert Winfrey, Moberly
7. 9 Darren Morgan, Paris
8. 33 Kristi Chase, Clark
9. 11R Billie Roberts, Renick
10. 8 Sarah Woodhurst, Perry
11. 73 Devin Still, Anabel
12. 07 Fabian Mares, Moberly
13. 11P DeWayne Eravi, Moberly
14. 12B Jeremy Bell, Huntsville
15. 03 Jerry Warren, Moberly
16. 31c Shawn Holt, Shelbina
17. 69 Blake Fishbeck, Moberly
18. 19 Kyle Joseph, Cairo
19. 02 Rich Moret, Cairo
20. 01 John Brown, Huntsville (N/S)
21. 82A Josh McBee, Moberl(N/S)
22. 37 Lowell Smith, New Cambria (N/S)
23. 55 Travis Bell, Huntsville (N/S)
24. 5 Paul Stine, Clarence (N/S)

Limited Late Models (of 3 starters)
1. 69 Walt Imhoff, Jamestown
2. 43 Marion Hooten, Mexico
3. 27 Danny Lorton, Moberly