Allen Wins 2nd Feature Of '07, Bidinger Pulls Off Last Lap Pass To Victory and Jay Kelly Plays Lex Luthor
by: Larry Lowrey

KANSAS CITY, KS  (June 15) – The night started out as a possible downer. Showers were popping off all over the area. The night started to get better. Rain never touched the speedway and the racing action turned in by all classes was phenomenal.

John Allen has put his bad luck past behind himself in 2007. To begin the new season Allen has put together finishes of 7th, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd and 2 victories! A strong output to say the least.

"The track was tricky tonight and we had to work on the chassis," said the two-time winner Allen, "The track is usually good enough to leave the same setup on it all night long. I had to look for some sweet spots, change my line up and I knew it was going to be a race to the end."

Gene Claxton, once again, took the early lead on the evening's main event. At one point it seemed that Claxton had checked out from the field, but as most races this one went yellow a few times. This gave the competitors a chance to mount another run at the leader with some help of closing the gap.

Allen used a solid strategy of conserving his tires, while hoping for a yellow. This strategy would allow him to have some life left in his tires if he were to get a yellow. He got and made a run on Claxton on lap #15. Allen got by Claxton and moved out to the front to stay.

Chad Lyle has been struggling a bit this year trying to get a handle on his Larry Shaw modified. Friday night he turned the corner. Lyle battled in the top 5 of the field all night long, before settling in the runner up spot for the feature. Gene Claxton also produced another solid finish in 3rd. Fourth place went to Kerry Davis and last week's winner, Tim Karrick, rounded out the top 5 in the modified division.

When you go to the race track, you have an idea about how you want things to turn out. Having your distributor go south in hot laps isn't the kind of start one would be looking for. Don't tell Nic Bidinger that.

"We have to give a big shout out to John Allen's dad (Wendell Allen)," said Bidinger, "he helped us troubleshoot our problem. We swapped one distributor from the hot laps to the heat race, it didn't work out. We took the guts from one and placed them in the other and it was as good as new."

The trouble Bidinger suffered early in the night from his troubled car, insured him of a 9th row starting spot for the feature event.

Seven cars at one point were racing for the lead in the main event. For the first time in several years, parity has become normal in the Grand National division.

Jim Baker held onto the early lead, on lap 16 Jimmy Winkler took the top spot and on the very next lap it went back to Baker. While this was going on up front. Scotty Martin, Bidinger and Marshall Jewett were just a few drivers making their way to the front.

Baker would spin and lose the top spot on lap 13 and Winkler would again take the point. He would hold it until lap 19. On lap 19, Bidinger raced past Winkler coming to the flag stand and set sail to the victory. The win was Bidinger's 2nd of the season.

Winkler would finish 2nd, Scotty Martin raced to a 3rd place finish, 4th went to Tim Billings and rounding out the top 5 was Marshall Jewett.

Tim Shields had one every Factory Stock feature event for 2007. He won so frequently that some people were starting to call him Superman. Well, if Shields is truly Superman than Jay Kelly must be Lex Luthor. At least for one night anyway.

The race got underway with an early yellow being thrown for an accident involving Shields, Tyler Schmidt and Len Hill. Shields was put back to the 20th position. For him to win tonight, would be a hard task.

Jake Newman raced hard early with leader Bud Wallis. On lap 3 Newman would get the lead. It looked as if he would walk away with the victory. Jay Kelly would reel in Newman a little bit at a time. A late race yellow would set up some green, white, checkered drama for the finish.

Kelly and Buzz Kaster would get around Newman on the restart. Newman raced back by both of them going to the white flag lap. Newman drove in hard into turn 3, Kelly made an underneath move coming out of four and contact followed. As they came to the flag stand they touched and Kelly won the race by a few feet.

"I knew on the restart that I didn't have anything for him (Newman) down low," said Kelly, "I thought if he drove in hard that I had a chance. We had some contact and I hated to win a race like that. I talked to Jake and everything is fine."

Kaster finished 3rd, 4th went to Brian Mills and in 5th spot was Marshall Jewett. Tim Shields, the point leader, managed a 6th place finish on the night after being sent to the rear.

Lakeside completes it's weekend of racing with the World of Outlaw Late Model Series on Saturday night. Tickets are $25.00 for adults, kids 8-14 $8.00 and kids 7 and under are free. Hot laps are scheduled for 6:00 p.m., time trials at 7:00 and the first heat race is set for 7:30 p.m.

Modifieds - Feature
Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Race Points
1 8 98 John Allen Chanute , Ks 25
2 3 16S Chad Lyle Lone Jack, Mo 24
3 1 42 Gene Claxton Kansas City, Mo 23
4 7 68 Kerry Davis Parkville , Mo 22
5 9 1K Tim Karrick Basehor , Ks 21
6 17 8 Terry Bruner Ii Kansas City, Ks 20
7 6 81 Tom Charles Bonner Springs, Ks 19
8 19 15 John O'neal, Jr. - 18
9 2 3 Larry Harvey, Jr. Kansas City, Ks 17
10 4 81J Danny Charles Bonner Springs, Ks 16
11 11 5 Scott Crystal Overland Park, Ks 15
12 25 34 Mark Schafman Edwardsville , Ks 14
13 21 17 Mike Taylor Topeka , Ks 13
14 14 18R Rodney Sigg Iola , Ks 12
15 16 810 Jesse Wheeler Independence , Mo 11
16 24 94 Allan Lawrence Gardner , Ks 10
17 13 53 John Baker Bashor , Ks 9
18 23 45 Steve Brown Olathe , Ks 8
19 5 33 Nick Newton Kansas City, Ks 7
20 10 57 Tim Powell Lansing , Ks 6
21 18 38 Matt Pugh - 5
22 12 77J John Washburn Kansas Ctiy, Ks 4
23 15 9G Dylan Gentry Kansas City, Ks 3
24 22 0 Joe Cobb Kansas City, Ks 2
25 20 23 Brett Lafollette Kansas City, Ks 1

Grand National - Feature
Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Race Points
1 17 3B Nic Bidinger Perry , Ks 25
2 10 16 Jimmy Winkler Parkville , Mo 24
3 9 25R Scotty Martin Independence , Ks 23
4 12 25 Tim Billings Liberty , Mo 22
5 8 6 Marshall Jewett Gardner , Ks 21
6 16 53 Terry Bivins Lebo , Ks 20
7 5 99 Brad Dibben Kansas City, Mo 19
8 22 32 Cody Owens Kansas City, Mo 18
9 11 10 Mike Busby Kansas City, Mo 17
10 14 33X Kevin Elam Liberty , Mo 16
11 3 9 Don Marrs Shawnee , Ks 15
12 18 38 Brett Lafollette Kansas City, Ks 14
13 20 00 Raymond Gilbert - 13
14 15 48G Dustin Gilbert Lawrence , Ks 12
15 6 2M Jeff Miles Kansas City, Ks 11
16 13 29S Jeff Smith Kansas City, Mo 10
17 2 52 Jim Baker Leavenworth , Ks 9
18 19 8 Jamie Custer Kansas City, Mo 8
19 23 45 Ben Kyle Gardner , Ks 7
20 4 44 Ron Wagner Olathe , Ks 6
21 21 57 Jason Booze Olathe , Ks 5
22 1 69 Steven Dibben Smithville , Mo 4
23 24 75P Jason Park Kansas City, Ks 3
24 7 2 Dave Powell Kearney , Mo 0

Factory Stock - Feature
Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Race Points
1 3 44 Jay Kelly Kansas City, Ks 25
2 15 96 Jake Newman Kansas City, Mo 24
3 8 54 Buz Kaster Kansas Ctiy, Ks 23
4 9 69 Brian Mills Gladstone , Mo 22
5 6 7 Marshall Jewett Gardner , Ks 21
6 5 42T Tim Shields Kansas City, Mo 20
7 7 74 Bud Wallis Baldwin City, Ks 19
8 13 56 Joe Smith, Jr Kansas City, Ks 18
9 16 88X Cliff Hedges - 17
10 2 56J Jim Baker - 16
11 14 8 Jamie Custer Kansas City, Mo 15
12 4 55 Sean Foster Smithville , Mo 14
13 24 49 Don Chaffin Kansas City, Mo 13
14 22 32D Dennie Belknap Kansas City, Ks 12
15 23 3D Don Johnson Kansas City, Ks 11
16 21 25 Daniel Smith Kansas City, Ks 10
17 1 17 Bill Ruisinger Bonner Springs, Ks 9
18 17 3 Loyd Yonts Leavenworth , Ks 8
19 18 2 Randy Hand Bonner Springs, Ks 7
20 11 46W Will Whisler Kansas City, Ks 6
21 10 66T Tyler Schmidt Easton , Ks 5
22 12 11T Mike Taylor, Jr. Gladstone , Mo 4
23 20 47 Len Hill Kansas City, Ks 3
24 19 15B Brandon Penegar Kansas City, Ks 2
25 25 72 Matt Dibben Smithville , Mo 1