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Ragland Grabs Opening Night In USRA Mods At LebanonMidway
by: Ronnie Williams
LEBANON, MO (April 24) - Under beautiful skies and 80 raceteams in the
pits-the 2009 Race season at the Lebanon Midway Speedway began in grand
style with an action packed night.
Defending USRA Modified champion Jamie Ragland had to work hard in capturing
the season opener.
2007 champion Eric Hudson of Rolla grabbed the early lead with Rusty Dukes
and Craig Wood following close behind with Dukes showing the high groove.On
lap 3 Ragland made a 3 wide move on the front stretch to grab the runner-up
spot and began his move to the front as Hudson was setting a fast pace.
On lap 6 Ragland caught leader Hudson as the duo ran side by side for 3 laps
until Ragland grabbed the lead using the top side as Hudson stayed down low
while the battle for third was tight with 4 cars invloving Rusty
Dukes,Donnie Fellers,Justin Neuman and Craig Wood.The 2nd and final yellow
flew on lap 13 for debris as the track had both low lines and top lines
working strong.On the restart Hudson moved to the top groove as
Dukes,Fellers,Wood and Neuman battled hard.In the closing laps Ragland
pulled away leaving the race for second with Dukes and Hudson running side
by side.Coming to the checkered Ragland grabbed the win with Dukes sliding
high in turn 4 allowing Hudson and Fellers to move around taking the second
and third place spots with Dukes and Wood following.
The FactoryStock feature went 15 laps solid with no cautions and plenty of
racing action as Tyson Troutman grabbed the opening lead,but Bob Gustin
moved to the high groove and took the lead.With Gustin setting a quick
pace,Ben Solberg moved into second and set his sights on Gustin leaving the
race for third between Troutman,Lonnie Henderson,Burl Woods,Dylan Keeper and
Donnie Miller.As the race stayed green,Solberg began to close in as Gustin
went through lapped traffic on lap 13,Solberg moved to within 5 cars,but
Gustin cleared traffic to grab the win with Solberg,Troutman,Woods and
Henderson completing the top 5 in a tight battle in the pack.
The B-Mods came out strong as Tyler Brown grabbed the opening lead from his
front row pole spot while outside pole setter Colt Cheevers took control on
lap 2 while JC Morton followed.The yellow waved on lap 4 as Brown and Mark
Simon got together in turn 2 as both drivers went to the pits with Brown
returning at the rear of the field.
Cheevers set a fast pace with morton staying close behind for the battle up
front while a tight pack including Mickey Burrell,Josh Woody defending
champion Jason Otto and others.On lap 11,Morton dove to the inside on
Cheevers only to have the yellow fly as Doug Smith spun.On the restart
Cheevers pulled away only to have Morton close-up the gap again as Jeff
Albright who started 17th had moved to battle within the top 5.Cheevers
would withstand a late charge by Morton to capture the feature win with
Morotn,Burrell,Woody and Otto completing the top 5 in an action packed
feature.
The Bombers provided plenty of action as Brandon Waters jumped to the early
lead with Joe Francis following closely along with Bill Schoen and Wayne
Coffman.On lap 2 leader Waters car began to tail smoke and fall by the
wayside putting Francis into the lead with Bill Schoen following.The races
only yellow flew on lap 12 as Keith Cheevers car came to a halt on the
backstretch closing up the field.With Francis leading,Wayne Coffman had
closed up with Mike Willoughby and Rob White charging from mid pack to move
into the top 5.On the restart Francis pulled away as Coffman was a solid
second with Willoughby and White going side by side for third place.Francis
croosed the finish about 6 cars ahead of Coffman as Willoughby and White
were charging to finish third and forth in a photo finish while Bill Schoen
finished fifth.
Defending LateModelSportsman champion Ben Newell took control early and
never looked back in grabbing the feature win while a strong run deveolped
in a runner-up spot for Bennie Joiner as early contender Bill Joiner
overcame a rear spring popping out to finish third while Bradley McDowell
and Leland Seymour following.
The Debut of the new purestock division provided close racing during the 12
lap feature as Les Hayes jumped to the early lead with Jason Brumbley close
behind and Matt Doublin third.On lap 6 Brumbley moved into the lead as Hayes
moved back into the lead on the following lap.This see-saw battle lasted
back and forth until lap 10 when Hayes pulled ahead and held off Brumbley to
grab the win with Brumbley,Doublin,Jeff Delong and Frank Brison completing
the top 5.
Action continues Next Friday night as a Non-Winged Sprint event along with
racing in the FactoryStocks,B-Mods,Bombers and Purestocks with Racing at
8PM.
Results
USRA Modifieds
A Ft-1)Jamie Ragland-Lebanon 2)Eric Hudson-Rolla 3)Donnie Fellers-Wheatland
4)Rusty Dukes-Fair Grove 5)Craig Wood-El DoradoSprings 6)Justin Neuman-Crocker
7)Eric Lampe-Springfield 8)Sam Petty-Niangua 9)Tony Moore-Lebanon 10)Colson
Kirk-Urbana
1st HT-1)Hudson 2)Wood 3)Fellers 4)Lampe 5)Petty
2nd Ht-1)Dukes 2)Ragland 3)Neuman 4)Kirk 5)Moore
FactoryStocks
A Ft-1)Bob Gustin-Oasge Beach 2)Ben Solberg-Springfield 3)Tyson
Troutman-Houston 4)Burl Woods-Republic 5)Lonnie Henderson-Lebanon 6)Dylan
Keeper-Hurley 7)Donnie Miller-Houston 8)Sheldon Stoufer-Camdenton 9)Mark
Davis-Grovesprings 10)Larry Rifenburg-Conway 11)Bill Scharr-St Roberts
12)Chris Wynn-Niangua 13)Matt Wilson-Lebanon 14)nathan Wright-Lebanon 15)Tim
Petty-Niangua DNS-Jay Flinn-Lebanon
1st HT-1)Troutman 2)Henderson 3)Miller 4)Davis 5)Flinn 6)Rifenburg 7)Wynn
8)Wilson
2nd Ht-1)Gustin 2)Solberg 3)Woods 4)Keeper 5)Stoufer 6)Scharr 7)Petty
DNS-Wright
B-Mods
A Ft-1)Colt Cheevers-Macks Creek 2)JC Morton-Springfield 3)Mickey
Burrell-Fair Grove 4)Josh Woody-Buckhorn 5)Jason Otto-Richland 6)Jeff
Albright Jr-Lebanon 7)Tyler Brown-Stoutland 8)Brian Webster-Richland 9)Doug
Smith-Camdenton 10)Ted Ballinger-Halfway 11)Rich Reynolds-Mt Vernon 12)Derek
Cook-Lebanon 13)Frank Todd-Nixa 14)Jack Lancaster-Urbana 15)Matt Hamner-Camdenton
16)Mark Simon-Buffalo 17)Micheal Stake-Lebanon DNS-Kenny Morris Sean
Williams-Willard
1st HT-1)Brown 2)Simon 3)Lancaster 4)D.Smith 5)Ballinger 6)Morris 7)Williams
2nd HT-1)Cheevers 2)Woody 3)Burrell 4)Otto 5)Hamner 6)Todd
3rd Ht-1)Morton 2)Webster 3)Reynolds 4)Cook 5)Stake 6)Albright Jr.
Bombers
A Ft-1)Joe Francis-Lebanon 2)Wayne Coffman-Lebanon 3)Mike
Willoughby-Springfield 4)Rob White-Lebanon 5)Bill Schoen-Brighton 6)Tyler
Schoen-Brighton 7)Jack Hamer-Ava 8)Chris Cheever-Lebanon 9)Cody
Harmon-Lebanon 10)Josh Lewis-Stoutland 11)Brian Warner-Phillipsburg 12)Keith
Cheever-Lebanon 13)Tim Bostwick-Urbana 14)Brandon Waters-Lynchburg 15)Shawn
Winfrey-Lebanon 16)John McGinnis-Lebanon DNS-Kevin Forshey-
Dixon Rob Brewer
1st Ht-1)Waters 2)Coffman 3)Hamer 4)White 5)Willoughby 6)Warner
2nd Ht-1)Francis 2)T.Schoen 3)Harmon 4)C.Cheever 5)Forshey DNS-Brewer
3rd Ht-1)B.Schoen 2)Winfrey 3)Bostwick 4)McGinnis 5)Lewis 6)K.Cheever
PureStocks
A Ft-1)Les Hayes-Camdenton 2)Jason Brumbley-Camdenton 3)Matt Doublin-Lebanon
4)Jeff DeLong-Urbana 5)Frank Brison-Lebanon 6)Tom Powers-Camdenton 7)Adam
Lowrance-Lebanon DNS-Ronald Jansen Jr-lebanon
1st Ht-1)Hayes 2)Brumbley 3)Doublin 4)Brison 5)DeLong 6)Lowrance 7)Powers
8)Jansen Jr
LateModelSportsman
A Ft-1)Ben Newell-Stoutland 2)Bennie Joiner-Lebanon 3)Bill Joiner-Lebanon
4)Bradley McDowell-Eldon 5)Leland Seymour 6)JC Newell-Decatureville 7)Mike
Jones-Lebanon
1st Ht-1)B.Newell 2)Bill Joiner 3)JC Newell 4)Bennie Joiner 5)Jones
6)McDowell 7)Seymour
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