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Murray Goes from Last to First at Dawson County Raceway By Darin Racek LEXINGTON, NE (April 27) - Despite a few inches of rain and snow the three days and morning to prior April 27, the races at Dawson County Raceway were held as scheduled. The Blood, Sweat, and Tears Modified series came to town to run for the added purse in the Modified class. There were so many cars among three classes, some cars had to be parked outside the pit fence. At the end of the night, David Murray, Jr. of Oberlin, Ks., Dan Walker of Eddyville, and Branden Stange of Cairo managed to be the three drivers out of the 72 who brought cars to race to pick up the A Feature victories. David Murray, Jr. was offered a chance at an extra $400 to the $700 winner’s purse by BST promoter Joe Bellm if he would start at the rear of the field of the scheduled 26-car BST Modified A Feature. Murray took the offer, actually starting 24th after two cars were unable to run due to mechanical woes. The race was slow going, with four cautions in the first five laps. The scariest incident night occurred after the car of Charley Brown of Maxwell was hit by another car coming out of corner four, breaking the steering in his car, and sending it towards the wall. Before it got there, North Platte driver Jay Steffens got in it’s way. Jay’s car went into the wall and rolled on the front stretch, landing on its roof. Fortunately, neither driver was hurt. By lap five, Murray had moved his way to third place, behind Will Brack of Mead, Co. and Robby Haines of Benkelman. Brack spun out, handing the lead over to Haines. Murray got by on the restart and set his sights on the end of the race. However, five more cautions slowed the race down, dropping the race to fourteen laps. A wreck on lap twelve nearly wiped out everyone running from second place on fifth place, as Haines, Chad Dolan of Gibbon, Matt Brack of Mead, Co., and Vince Leibert of Lexington were all involved. Vince was able to stay on the track, and restart in second place with two laps to go. Beatrice driver Jordan Grabouski started alongside in third place, and was able to get by him to take second place. By then, Murray had already cross the finish line and was counting his money. Steve Aitken of Cozad stayed out of trouble and finished the race in fourth place. Wade Cross of Phillips rounded out the top five. Murray, Aitken, and Leibert were also the three heat race winners. The IMCA Stock Car class started twenty-two cars for it’s race, and that race had more than its fair share of yellow flag periods, primarily for minor incidents. A major incident happened after it looked as though Tim Cooper of North Platte was going to pull his car into the pits. He opted to stay out, but as he went down the back stretch, his motor blew up, sending smoke everywhere. Leader Jason Smidt of Minden did not get slowed down in time and hit the back of Cooper’s car hard, causing the Smith car major front end damage. That handed the lead over to Dan Walker, who was more than happy to take it over. He had been battling with Mikey Dancer and Shane Stout of North Platte for position, but once he was able to have the lead on his own, Walker kept everyone at bay. Colton Osborn of Cozad came into the pits during an early caution period, came back out onto the track without losing a lap, and motored through the field to cross the finish line in second place. He must have kept motoring too fast, because after the race, he went directly to his pit, a violation of the rule that requests the top finishers to drive directly to the claim area after the race. By doing that, he had to forfeit his finish. Shane Stout was moved into second place, with Mikey Dancer third, Kerry Jones of North Platte fourth, and Casey Werkmeister of Maywood fifth. The Stock Car heat winners were Jim Hagan of Lexington, Osborn, and Dancer. When 24 IMCA Hobby Stocks came out to start the A Feature, everyone within eyeshot knew it was going to be a wild affair. Despite the number of cars, they managed fewer cautions than the other classes, and more cars finished in their feature than the other two. Branden Stange seemed to be in a race of his own, as he started on the front row, missed all of the excitement behind him, and was never confronted too closely for the win, except on restarts. There was a lot of good racing throughout the field, but many eyes were on Kyle Bond of Kearney, who started in the eleventh row. He managed to avoid enough trouble and pass enough cars to move into second place at the finish. Fifteen year-old Cody Blessing of Kearney finished in third place, ahead of Jeromy Wagner of Kensington, Ks., and Jim Buss of Blue Hill. Buss, Stange, Aaron Koch of Cambridge, and Ricky Runnion of Phillipsburg, Ks. were the winners of the four IMCA Hobby Stock heat races. With a little help from Mother Nature this week, Dawson County Raceway will be back in action on Sunday, May 4. It will be a regular night of racing with the I MCA Modifieds, IMCA Stock Cars, and IMCA Hobby Stocks. The gates open at
5 PM, and the races start at 7 PM. April 27 results |