Wild Night at Dawson County Raceway
By Darin Racek

LEXINGTON, NE (June 18, 2006) - Since Dawson County Raceway took a week off, the drivers and fans produced twice the wildness to make up for it. A mud hole in corner one and Runza Rex added to the excitement as well. At the end of the night, Chad Dolan of Overton, Jason Davis of Norton, Kan., and Gibbon drivers Brett Hagan and Josh Leonard used their methods for the madness to take the A Feature wins.

Once the IMCA Modified A Feature got under way, Jay Steffens of North Platte jumped to the lead, hounded by Robby Haines of Benkelman. The cars seemed to be racing in pairs, and on lap eight, things went crazy. Heat winner Ronnie Wallace of North Platte got sideways on the backstretch and was collected by Chuck Stryker of Eddyville and Charley Brown of Maxwell. Heat winner Vince Leibert of Lexington had no where to go and ended up rolling off of the backstretch. He was not hurt, but his night was ended. On the restart, heat victor Chad Dolan shot in between Haines and Steffens to take the lead on corner two. Dolan dropped to the bottom of the track, thinking he could pull away, but the high side was the place to be. Steffens caught Dolan as the two came to take the white flag. Dolan moved back up to the top and was able to keep Steffens at bay. Haines finished in third place. Charley Brown was able to come back to earn fourth place, while Stryker came back to finish in fifth place.

Heat race winner Steve Aitken of Cozad was unable to make it out for the IMCA Stock Car A Feature after he rolled his car down the front stretch in the Cash Dash, which was eventually won by Jason Davis. Fortunately, Aitken was able to climb out of the car. The A Feature was a fantastic race with Brady Koch of Cambridge taking the lead on lap one, closely followed by Jason Davis and the other heat race winner, Shane Stout of North Platte. When Stout wasn’t battling Davis, Davis was battling Koch. On the last corner of the last lap, the three were nearly 3 wide. Davis and Koch were nearly side-by-side at the finish line, but the scorekeepers felt Davis crossed the finish line in first. Stout finished in third place, less than a car length behind Davis. Eddyville drivers Jim Hagan and Dan Walker rounded out the top five.

The IMCA Hobby Stocks took four tries to make one lap. In that time, there were about five flat tires. When the race got going, Chuck Ledbetter, Jr. of Loomis took the lead. After a caution on lap five, Brett Hagan got by Ledbetter on the restart. Jason Koch also got by and set his sights on Hagan. It appeared as Hagan came out of corner four on the last lap, he was waving. At the same time, Koch was making a serious threat for the lead and the win, but came up just a little short in denying Hagan’s victory. Koch was followed by fellow heat race winner Jeromy Wagner of Kensington, Kan. Austin Davis of Benkelman finished in fourth, ahead of heat winner Ledbetter.

The Grand National Late Model A Feature was led wire-to-wire by Josh Leonard. His dad Robby Leonard got by Doug Warner of Minden for second place at the half way point and finished in second place by about five car lengths. Chris Avery of Kearney finished in fourth, while Tim Hans of Grand Island rounded out the top five. Robby Leonard and Chris Avery were the winners in the Late Model heat races.

After six days of much needed rest, the staff of Dawson County Raceway will set everything up again for races on Sunday night, June 25. The IMCA Modifieds, Stock Cars, and Hobby Stocks will be joined that night by the Mini-Sprints. The races will start at 7 PM.

June 18 Results
IMCA Modified
Heat 1
87D-Chad Dolan
94H-Don Hagan, Jr.
9R-Robby Haines

Heat 2
3RW-Ronnie Wallace
19-Chuck Stryker
29S-Dewain Coleman

Heat 3
7R-Vince Leibert
4C-Charley Brown
4P-Dave Pedersen

A Feature
87D-Chad Dolan
12J-Jay Steffens
9R-Robby Haines
4C-Charley Brown
19-Chuck Stryker
4P-Dave Pedersen
21H-Brandon Hagan
94H-Don Hagan, Jr.
1X-Scott Blessing
29S-Dewain Coleman
12-Gene Smith (DNF)
7R-Vince Leibert (DNF)
3RW-Ronnie Wallace (DNF)
9-Brian Cash (DNF)
35-James Libra (DNS)

IMCA Stock Car
Heat 1
5S-Shane Stout
76-Jason Davis
24-Dan Walker

Heat 2
7A-Steve Aitken
22-Chris Avery
72H-Jim Hagan

Cash Dash
76-Jason Davis

A Feature
76-Jason Davis
25KO-Brady Koch
5S-Shane Stout
72H-Jim Hagan
24-Dan Walker
18-Jason Smidt
42KC-Kyle Werkmeister
2-TIm Cahoy
24KC-Casey Werkmeister (DNF)
22-Chris Avery (DNF)
28-Alex Silos (DNF)
7A-Steve Aitken (DNS)

IMCA Hobby Stock
Heat 1
74KO-Jason Koch
70KO-Aaron Koch
72H-Kevin Hagan

Heat 2
25-Chuck Ledbetter, Jr.
00H-Greg Hoing
22-Austin Davis

Heat 3
29-Jeromy Wagner
84-Joe McDole
3H-Brett Hagan

A Feature
3H-Brett Hagan
74KO-Jason Koch
29-Jeromy Wagner
22-Austin Davis
25-Chuck Ledbetter, Jr.
00H-Greg Hoing
84-Joe McDole
70KO-Aaron Koch
23H-Bruce Hagan, Sr.
72H-Kevin Hagan
9-Robert Donaly
5-John Huffman (DNF)
00K-Kyle Bond (DNF)
38-Jack Sherman
20-Hunter Cantrall (DNF)
040-Gary Knehear (DNF)
53-Tyler Easterday (DNF)
20X-Cody DeWester (DNS)

Grand National Late Models
Heat 1
22-Chris Avery
74W-Doug Warner
99-David Easterday

Heat 2
85-Robby Leonard
85J-Josh Leonard
93-Alan Jordening

A Feature
85J-Josh Leonard
85-Robby Leonard
74W-Doug Warner
22-Chris Avery
03-Tim Hans
99-David Easterday
0-Mike Hetrick (DNS)
93-Alan Jordening (DNS)