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Keefe Hemel Wins Caution-Free Sprint Feature at Dawson County Raceway By Darin Racek LEXINGTON, NE (June 27) - It was the first night in a while at Dawson County Raceway where no one had to worry about bad weather. The United Rebel Sprint Series was in town, and with the regular four classes, there was a full night of racing to be enjoyed by the fans. Keefe Hemel of Dodge City, Kansas, David Murray, Jr. of Oberlin, Kansas, Mike Nichols of Harlan, Iowa, Jim Buss of Blue Hill, and Shane Stout of North Platte enjoyed the features the most, as they won the five main events of the night. The URSS 305 Sprint Cars got around the 3/8-mile track quickly, and made quick work of their 25-lap A Feature, running the event without a caution. A Dawson County deputy was parked off of corner three and clocked the cars down the back straight at 103 m.p.h., with one time at an astounding 106 m.p.h. Heat winner Zach Blurton of Jetmore was setting the fast laps early, as he took the lead on the opening lap and pulled away from the crowd. Keefe Hemel reeled him and challenged for the lead before lap ten. By the next lap, the Dodge City driver had control of the race. At the halfway point, Hemel drifted up the track, allowing Blurton to close the gap, and lapped cars allowed him to cut his lead to under .25 seconds, but once Hemel cleared the traffic, he pulled away again. Blurton would not go away, and on the last lap was able to get under Hemel, but Keefe jumped on the gas and came to the finish line with the advantage. Ray Seemann of Jetmore, Kansas stayed out ahead of last time’s winner Ty Williams of Liberal, Kansas for third place. Heat winner Smokey Fairbank of Ransom, Kansas rounded out the top five. David Murray took the lead of the IMCA Modified A Feature on the third lap and was getting ready to lap cars when the caution came out with four laps to go. Zach Schultz of North Platte had a strong run going and had checked out on everyone else at the same time. Schultz had by far his best run in a Modified during his rookie year, but Murray was in his own class, and the veteran went on for his fourth victory of the weekend, two coming from McCook on Friday night and the other from Doniphan on Saturday night. Steve Aitken of Cozad passed a few cars in the last few laps to move into third place. Josh Sabin of North Platte followed Aitken to finish in fourth. Jeremy Frenier of Fort Morgan, Colorado was fifth. Murray and Bo Egge of Kearney won the heat races. Mike Nichols returned to the winner’s circle in the IMCA Stock Car class for the fourth time in six races at Lexington. Nichols made his move to the front on the fifth lap of the twenty lap race, which went the last eighteen laps without stoppage. Heat race winners Casey Werkmeister of Maywood and Cale Osborn of Cozad finished in second and third place, respectively. Dan Walker of Eddyville finished in fourth place, and Sara Powers made her first trip to the tech area in a while with her fifth place finish. To say the IMCA Hobby Stock A Feature was wild would be understating the entire situation. While Michael Zerr of Ravenna was showing the way, the others were jockeying for position. Lonnie Greuter of Grand Island and Jim Buss caught him when the thread of the race came undone. Lonnie’s son Terry, who was running in the top five at the time, had a rear axle snap while he went into corner three. The car shot off the track and went into a barrel roll. Before it stopped rolling, the car caught on fire. Fortunately, the car landed on it’s wheels, and Terry had presence of mind to get out of the car a quickly as he could. He helped load the car after the races, but will more than likely not be doing much on Monday. During the red flag, Zerr tried to go to the pits with a broken front ball joint, and had to wait for one of the tow trucks handling Greuter’s wreck to come over to pull him in. Lonnie Greuter had the lead on the restart and held Jim Buss at bay to take the checkered flag first. Frank Mladek of Cozad finished in third place, ahead of Corey Cruzan of Maxwell, who came from the back after changing a tire during a caution, and Anthony Martin of Wilcox. After the races, Greuter and Cruzan, the two heat race winners earlier in the night, failed tech, Grueter having adjustable shocks and Cruzan having unapproved brake drums. That gave Buss his second win in as many weeks, moved Mladek to second place, and Martin into third. The IMCA SportMods had five caution periods during their fifteen lap race, but the battle for the win came down to the wire. For the second week in a row, heat winner Eric Steinmark of Kearney paced most of the race, then ran too high, allowing Bryan Herrick of Curtis to take over with two laps to go. Herrick was hounded by Shane Stout, and on the last lap, Stout made a move to the bottom of the track in corner three. He came out of four in the middle of the track, but ahead of Herrick, to lead the last half straight away and garner the victory. Herrick had to settle for second place. Robby Leonard of Gibbon backed his heat win with a third place feature finish. Steinmark got by Kyle Vohland of Gibbon for fourth, but was penalized a spot after the post race inspectors found a cable on the car that called for a one spot penalty. Dawson County Raceway will take July 4 off, but will be back in action on Sunday, July 11. The gates will open at 5 p.m., and the races will start at 6:30 p.m.
June 27 Results
Heat 2
A Feature
IMCA
Stock Car
Heat 2
A Feature
IMCA
Hobby Stock
Heat 2
A Feature
IMCA
SportMods
Heat 2
A Feature
URSS
Sprint Cars
Heat 2
A Feature
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