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NORTH PLATTE, Nebr. (July 18) - With July 18 being the last regular night of points before the Sandhills Shootout break, the drivers at Lincoln County Raceway drove as hard as they could to get the best finishes they could. Some drove too hard and had to make early departures from their races. Cole Hodges of Ogallala, Travis Tilford of North Platte, Austin Davis of Benkelman, and Austin Farley of Brighton, Colo. were the ones that just hard enough to take the A Feature wins. Heat winner Jay Steffens of North Platte took the lead at the start of the IMCA Modified A Feature. Two cautions in the first five laps kept the field close to him, and on the restart heat winner Charley Brown of Maxwell aligned on his tail. Steffens spun on corner three after that restart and was charged with the caution. Cole Hodges became of the leader of the race, while Brown realigned in third as the caution was not thrown until after that lap was completed by the field (Brown had slowed after the incident with Steffens.) Brown wasted no time in getting into second place and stayed right with Hodges, but could not deny the Ogallala driver his first Lincoln County Raceway feature win (he was won features before in Holyoke, Colo.) Kyle Clough of Wallace finished in third place. Jeremy Herbst of North Platte finished in fourth place. Jim Mlady of North Platte came back from a wreck in the heat race to take a fifth place finish. Twenty-one IMCA Stock Cars started their main event, and most of them tried to win the race in the first two laps. A four-wide squeeze through corner two on lap two caused three cars behind them to pile up, creating the first caution of the race. Kyle Werkmeister of Maywood was ahead of the rest of the field for the first twelve laps. By that time, Travis Tilford had found his way to second place and began looking for a way around the Maywood driver. Opportunity knocked on lap thirteen after Werkmeister bobbled in corner two, allowing Tilford to get by and take the lead. Tilford would not enjoy his time at the front long, because North Platte driver Todd Chrisman had found his way to second place from a row seven starting spot and was hungry for his first win of the year. Brent Gibson of North Platte was part of the mix as well at the end of the race, with fourth place runners Zach Schultz of North Platte and Werkmeister close behind. Tilford held his ground, used part of Chrisman’s high groove, and came across the finish line in first for the first ever in his career. Gibson beat Chrisman the line by a bumper for second place. Werkmeister, Charley Brown, and Earl Woodward of Fort Morgan, Colo. were the three heat race winners. It was night eight for the Burger King Nine for Nine Challenge Series for the IMCA Hobby Stocks, and eight of the top nine drivers in points were there to improve their points positions. Austin Davis got by fellow Benkelman driver Litton Stute on lap six of the twenty lap race. With two laps to go, third place runner Corey Cruzan of Maxwell blew a motor and could not make it back to the pits, ending his night. Despite his trouble, he took the lead of the Challenge Series points after Leland Stute of Benkelman, who was tied with Cruzan going into the night, dropped out of the race several laps sooner. Davis would stay out front for the win the race and unofficially move into third place in the challenge points, while extending his track point lead. Litton Stute finished in second place in the feature, ahead of Hunter Cantrall of Lexington, Ron Edge of Amherst, Colo., and Greg Hoing of Johnson Lake. Dan Morash of North Platte and Leland Stute of Benkelman were heat race winners earlier in the night. Austin Farley had not been to Lincoln County Raceway in several weeks, but reminded everyone how fast he was. After finishing second place to John Webster of North Platte in the heat race, Farley came back to win the cash dash. He started in row two of the A Feature, passed Webster on lap three of the caution-free event, and pulled away to a huge lead by the end of the race. Arden Myers of McCook finished in third place. J. R. Way of Lexington finished in fourth, ahead of Cory Kelley of North Platte, and the rest of the field. The Sandhills Shootout, promoted by the Lincoln County Ag Society, will run at Lincoln County Raceway on July 24-25. Those races will feature the IMCA Modifieds and IMCA Stock Cars. The regular season will resume on Saturday night, August 8, at 7 PM, Central Time, for all four classes.
July 18
results
Heat 2
A Feature
IMCA Stock
Car
Heat 2
Heat 3
A Feature
IMCA Hobby
Stock
Heat 2
A Feature
Mini-Sprints
Cash Dash
A Feature
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