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NORTH PLATTE, NE (August 13) - For the first time in nearly three years, the United Rebel Sprint Series, headquartered in Oberlin, Kansas, made an appearance Saturday Night at Lincoln County Raceway. The regular four classes were also on hand to make it a full night of racing for the fans. Darren Berry and Ronnie Wallace of McCook, Casey Werkmeister of Maywood, Bryan Herrick of Curtis, and Corey Cruzan of Maxwell made appearances in the winner’s circle at the end of their A Features. Sixteen Sprint Cars from a three-state area started the twenty-five lap URSS main event. Heat winner Darren Berry started in the second row and was able to zip by Mark Walinder of Wheatridge, Colorado in corner four to take the lead on the opening lap. Barry Crane of Hugoton, Kansas moved quickly from his seventh starting spot into second place, but bogged down some after his nose wing began to come loose. About the same time, third place Keefe Hemel of Dodge City also appeared to have some trouble with his front wing. As the field completed lap nine, Crane lost his wing, but nearly snookered by Berry on the ensuing restart. His car would eventually lose the handle and Crane would be forced to take it to the pits. On lap fourteen, Hemel would hit an inside tractor tire and bouncing him into fellow heat winner and Dodge City driver Brian Herbert. Hemel would go to the pits on the wrecker while Herbert, who was running in the top four, would struggle for the remainder of the race. Meanwhile, Darren Berry was bulletproof up front, and would keep a forward-moving Josh Fairbank of Goddard, Kansas in his slipstream on his way to his second career URSS win. Colorado drivers Blake Smith, Jr. of Fredrick and Tim Perkins of Parker strongly finished in third and fourth positions, and Judd Shaeffer of Gypsum, Colorado finished in fifth place. Don Hagan, Jr. of McCook took the night off in the IMCA Modified division, so Ronnie Wallace drove the racecar Hagan won with the previous week. After winning his heat, Wallace followed leader Cole Hodges of Ogallala in the A Feature. On the sixth lap, Hodges hit a hole in corner four which disrupted his car to the point it was sideways. Wallace drove underneath him, took a tap in the right rear fender, and came around with a lead he would not relinquish. Charley Brown of Maxwell was able to get by Hodges in the closing laps for a second place finish. Terry Houchin and Jim Mlady of North Platte rounded out the top five. The other Modified heat race was won by Brent Bohmont of McCook. Six drivers were within six car lengths of each other past the halfway point of the IMCA Stock Car A Feature. Kent Lower of North Platte had been leading the race from the start and been able to keep the crew behind him until he went too high on the track on lap fourteen and could only watch as a group led by Kyle Clough of Wallace would go by. Clough enjoyed the lead for only one lap, as Casey Werkmeister, who started back in eighth place, was able to get by the Wallace driver on the next lap and continue on for the win. Casey Woken of Ogallala pressured Clough, but could only muster a third place finish. Ronnie Wallace was unable to win his third consecutive Stock Car feature and finished fourth, ahead of Colton Osborn of Cozad. Despite issues in his heat race and cash dash, Bryan Herrick was a lucky duck in the IMCA Northern SportMod division. Suspension parts were broken around his right front wheel in his heat race, and came up just short of winning after Shane Stout of North Platte got by him. Herrick then won the cash dash, despite losing a left rear spring near the end of the race. In the A Feature, Herrick was involved in a crash while running in the top three, but the car survived the incident, he realigned in third place, and took the lead from Mikey Dancer of North Platte two laps later. Without the aid of a caution for the final sixteen laps, Shane Stout again tracked down Herrick and nearly clipped his wings again for the win. He not only fell short, he smacked the wall as he crossed the finish line. Colton Osborn was involved in another wreck that sent his car in the air, but he did finish in third place. R. C. Heil of North Platte and Jacob Adler of Holyoke, Colorado were the fourth and fifth place finishers. Heil and Jerry Cox of Arnold were the other two heat race winners. Rick Eller of North Platte did his best to try to give his mom Jan a birthday present in the IMCA Hobby Stock A Feature. Eller took the lead on the opening lap and opened up a nice lead until the only caution period for the fifteen lap race happened after lap six. That bunched up the field. After the restart, Chuck Ledbetter of Loomis did not appear to be in the gift giving mood and worked his way around Eller to take the lead with five laps to go. As it was, Ledbetter ended up being in the giving spirit, pushing out of the groove as he came to take the white flag, and allowing Corey Cruzan to sneak underneath, take the lead, and add another win to his resume. Ledbetter did hold Austin Davis of Benkelman at bay to preserve his Lincoln County Raceway best finish of second place. Eller was able to hold off the peppy Terry Eatherton of Gibbon for fourth place. Davis and Cruzan also took the two heat race wins for the class. Lincoln County Raceway will conclude it’s 2011 racing season on Saturday night, August 20. Racing for the four regular divisions will start at 7 p.m.
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Results
Heat 2
Heat 3
A Feature
IMCA
Modified
Heat 2
A Feature
IMCA
Northern SportMods
Heat 2
Heat 3
Cash Dash
A Feature
IMCA Stock
Car
Heat 2
A Feature
IMCA Hobby
Stock
Heat 2
A Feature
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