Keeter takes USRA Mod feature in Lucas Oil Speedway headliner; Brown, Fennewald, McCowan also win

 

WHEATLAND, Missouri (May 23, 2020) – Mitch Keeter survived numerous restarts in a dominating performance to win Saturday night’s Pitts Homes USRA Modified feature, the Memorial Day Weekend headliner at Lucas Oil Speedway.

 

Keeter, of Webb City, led all 25 laps in earning $1,000 on Week 2 of the Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series.

 

Also earning feature wins in a program presented by Ozarks FOX were Derek Brown (O’Reilly Auto Parts Street Stocks), Johnny Fennewald (Warsaw Auto Marine & RV ULMA Late Models) and Dillon McCowan (Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods).

 

Caution flags on the first two attempts to start the USRA Modified feature only briefly delayed Keeter’s domination. Once the race went green for a sustained period, Keeter pulled away and was 6.46 seconds in front of Justin Johnson when a lap-11 caution bunched the field.

 

Keeter had opened a 1.7-second led by lap 16 over Johnson and Joe Duvall when another caution wiped out his cushion with nine laps to go. Again, Keeter opened a comfortable lead before a trio of cautions, with five laps left, forced Keeter to handle restart after restart after restart to protect his advantage.

 

Once the event stayed green – and remained that way – Keeter once separated himself. He finished 1.6 seconds in front of Johnson with Duvall third, Ryan Middaugh fourth and first-week feature winner Robbie Reed in fifth.

 

“I had some good luck and a real good heat race,” said Keeter, who earned the pole in the feature with a last-to-first run in his heat. “Things just went my way.”

 

“We had a bunch of restarts there. It’s hard to find 15 different ways to take off, but I’m thrilled. It’s awesome.”

 

Brown wins Street Stocks thriller: Derek Brown led every lap in winning last week’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Street Stocks season-opening feature. This time, Brown only led the final circuit while making it 2-for-2 in trips to victory lane in 2020.

 

Brown, of Stoutland, started tailback after sustaining a DQ after his heat-race win. He quickly worked has way into the mix after avoiding a first-lap accident that took out a large chunk of the field. Still, it was Cody Frazon who appeared on his way to victory, holding a 3.5-second lead with just five laps remaining.

 

But Brown kept slicing into the lead and, coming to the white flag, Frazon had trouble avoiding a lapped car. That gave Brown the opening he needed and he made the decisive pass coming off turn two and prevailed by .125 seconds at the finish.

 

“I was trying awful hard to get there. I’m glad some people can’t get through lapped traffic and I caught up,” Brown said. “I had a little (technical) infraction after the heat race and I started last. It didn’t make much difference.”

 

Frazon wound up second with Johnny Coats third and Toby Ott fourth.

 

There was plenty of misfortune among potential contenders. Scheduled pole starter Taylor Carver of Lockesburg, Arkansas, was unable to answer the bell for the main event due to mechanical issues. Then, seven cars starting in the front half of the field were involved in a turn-four pileup on the opening lap.

 

Among those involved was Ott, the defending track champion. He had to restart 12th and had rallied to third in just nine laps. But Brown quickly rolled past Ott and, eventually everyone else.

 

Fennewald bounces back with Late Model win: After his car went up in flames during the opening-week feature, three-time defending track champion Johnny Fennewald bounced back with a flag-to-flag feature win.

 

Fennewald, of Appleton City, finished 5.29 seconds in front of Aaron Marrant with Cole Henson in third. Fennewald was running second when a fire under his hood ended his run a week earlier.

 

As running his own construction business takes much of his week-day time, Fennewald said he compressed the work in getting the car repaired into two days.

 

“We had a pretty good car,” Fennewald said. “We were running a little bit late to get here. It’s hard to rebuild a car in two days. About everything underneath it was burned up. It was a pretty bad deal. We had a car to win last week.”

 

Fennewald opened a 5.6-second lead by the midpoint of the 20-lapper and cruised home from there.

 

Week One feature winner Kaeden Cornell was scheduled to start on the front row, but his car lost power on the parade lap. After a trip to the pits he was able to re-fire the car, but had to start at the rear of the 11-car field. Cornell rallied to finish fourth.

 

McCowan elevated to B-Mod triumph: Dillon McCowan of Urbana was elevated to his first Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mod feature win when Ryan Gillmore, who crossed the finish line in first, was disqualified in post-race technical inspection.

 

McCowan paced the first five laps before Kris Jackson used an outside line to nip him by a couple of feet at the start-finish line to conclude lap six. Two circuits later, McCowan – driving the car Jackson piloted to a USRA National Championship last season – regained the lead with an inside pass out of turn four.

 

Fifth-place Andy Bryant rolled to a stop in turn three on lap 11 to bring out a caution. For several laps, Bryant had been battling with Gillmore and Jon Sheets, not far behind the top pair.

 

Gillmore took the lead after the restart and appeared to score his first feature win at the speedway after four runner-up finishes a year ago. But instead, the 16-year-old McCowan wound up as the official winner.
Jackson was second with Sheets third, Clint Johnson fourth and JC Morton fifth.

LUCAS OIL SPEEDWAY RESULTS (May 23, 2020)

O’Reilly Auto Parts Street Stocks

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 11-Derek Brown[20]; 2. 04-Cody Frazon[2]; 3. 35-Johnny Coats[7]; 4. 27OTT-Toby Ott[6]; 5. 60-Chuck Knight[11]; 6. 73-Francisco Escamila[9]; 7. 74-Scott Stuart[10]; 8. 69-Brian Brown[12]; 9. 7X-John Scott[8]; 10. 7M-Scott Johnson[13]; 11. (DNF) 27-Bob Barnett[4]; 12. (DNF) 25XXX-Jay Prevete[19]; 13. (DNF) 35Z-Zach Zeugin[3]; 14. (DNF) 45-Aaron Poe[5]; 15. (DNF) 1G-Nick Gibson[15]; 16. (DNF) 44S-Steve Scott[14]; 17. (DNF) 7-Joshua Lewis[18]; 18. (DNF) 2-Colton Bourland[17]; 19. (DNS) 66-Tyler Worley; 20. (DNS) 40-Taylor Carver

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 04-Cody Frazon[2]; 2. 27-Bob Barnett[1]; 3. 45-Aaron Poe[5]; 4. 27OTT-Toby Ott[8]; 5. 69-Brian Brown[3]; 6. 60-Chuck Knight[9]; 7. (DNF) 25XXX-Jay Prevete[10]; 8. (DQ) 11-Derek Brown[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 40-Taylor Carver[5]; 2. 35Z-Zach Zeugin[3]; 3. 7X-John Scott[1]; 4. 35-Johnny Coats[7]; 5. 73-Francisco Escamila[8]; 6. 74-Scott Stuart[10]; 7. 7M-Scott Johnson[6]; 8. 44S-Steve Scott[2]; 9. 1G-Nick Gibson[9]; 10. 66-Tyler Worley[4]

Pitts Homes USRA Modifieds

A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 52-Mitch Keeter[1]; 2. 7J-Justin Johnson[3]; 3. 91-Joe Duvall[8]; 4. 21-Ryan Middaugh[2]; 5. 5-Robbie Reed[4]; 6. 03-Chase Jones[5]; 7. 21R-Rusty Skaggs[9]; 8. 155-Terry Kirk[10]; 9. 227-Chase Domer[6]; 10. 24D-Donnie Fellers[13]; 11. 18JR-Chase Sigg[16]; 12. 7D-Shawn Duncan[18]; 13. 93D-Josh Dugan[19]; 14. (DNF) 134-Robert Heydenreich[22]; 15. (DNF) 4R-Jared Russell[7]; 16. (DNF) 98D-Paden Phillips[17]; 17. (DNF) 51G-Lucas Gibbs[24]; 18. (DNF) 29-Blonde Bomber Mitchell[21]; 19. (DNF) 112-Justin Moon[12]; 20. (DNF) 12M-JC Morton[11]; 21. (DNF) 38C-Jason Pursley[15]; 22. (DNF) 1X-Matt Johnson[14]; 23. (DNF) 73-Mickey Burrell[23]; 24. (DNF) 13-Shawn Whitman[20]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 52-Mitch Keeter[8]; 2. 21R-Rusty Skaggs[1]; 3. 4R-Jared Russell[7]; 4. 112-Justin Moon[4]; 5. 38C-Jason Pursley[5]; 6. 7D-Shawn Duncan[6]; 7. (DNF) 29-Blonde Bomber Mitchell[3]; 8. (DNF) 73-Mickey Burrell[2]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 227-Chase Domer[1]; 2. 91-Joe Duvall[3]; 3. 5-Robbie Reed[8]; 4. 155-Terry Kirk[6]; 5. 1X-Matt Johnson[2]; 6. 18JR-Chase Sigg[7]; 7. 93D-Josh Dugan[5]; 8. (DNF) 51G-Lucas Gibbs[4]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 21-Ryan Middaugh[2]; 2. 7J-Justin Johnson[5]; 3. 03-Chase Jones[8]; 4. 12M-JC Morton[3]; 5. 24D-Donnie Fellers[6]; 6. 98D-Paden Phillips[4]; 7. 13-Shawn Whitman[7]; 8. (DNF) 134-Robert Heydenreich[1]

 

Warsaw Auto Marine & RV ULMA Late Models

A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 21-Johnny Fennewald[4]; 2. 1X-Aaron Marrant[3]; 3. 31C-Cole Henson[7]; 4. 50-Kaeden Cornell[2]; 5. 51-Larry Ferris[6]; 6. 1T-Tucker Cox[10]; 7. 14-Shawn Strong[5]; 8. 42H-Chad Richwine[1]; 9. 69-Walt Imhoff[8]; 10. 14W-Dustin Walker[12]; 11. 16-Ashlee Lancaster[9]; 12. (DNS) 7J-Jay Field; 13. (DNS) 0X-Jason Sivils

Cedar Creek Beef Jerky Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 42H-Chad Richwine[2]; 2. 1X-Aaron Marrant[4]; 3. 14-Shawn Strong[6]; 4. 69-Walt Imhoff[3]; 5. 16-Ashlee Lancaster[1]; 6. 7J-Jay Field[5]

Cedar Creek Beef Jerky Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 50-Kaeden Cornell[2]; 2. 21-Johnny Fennewald[4]; 3. 51-Larry Ferris[3]; 4. 31C-Cole Henson[5]; 5. 1T-Tucker Cox[1]; 6. (DNF) 14W-Dustin Walker[6]

 

Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods

A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 8DM-Dillon McCowan[2]; 2. 65-Kris Jackson[4]; 3. 8S-Jon Sheets[7]; 4. 37-Clint Johnson[5]; 5. 18-JC Morton[10]; 6. 83N-JC Newell[9]; 7. 99T-Eric Turner[23]; 8. 15E-Ryan Edde[16]; 9. 1F-Mitchell Franklin[3]; 10. 4B-Brayton Skaggs[21]; 11. 32-Robbe Ewing[19]; 12. 3366-Jaren Martin[6]; 13. 33-Danny Martin[20]; 14. 9-Sam Petty[11]; 15. 360-John Seets III[18]; 16. 42C-Casey Thomas[22]; 17. 11-Jimmy Willis[15]; 18. 10P-Dayton Pursley[17]; 19. 15-Cayden Stacye[13]; 20. (DNF) 28-Andy Bryant[8]; 21. (DNF) 68-Dan Daniels[12]; 22. (DNF) 160-Michael Maggard[24]; 23. (DNF) 67-Austin Seets[14]; 24. (DQ) 66-Ryan Gillmore[1]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 65-Kris Jackson[2]; 2. 8S-Jon Sheets[3]; 3. 9-Sam Petty[1]; 4. 18-JC Morton[7]; 5. 10P-Dayton Pursley[6]; 6. 19-Jimmy Cummins[8]; 7. 42C-Casey Thomas[9]; 8. 32-Robbe Ewing[10]; 9. 83-Kyle Fritter[4]; 10. (DNF) 160-Michael Maggard[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 37-Clint Johnson[1]; 2. 28-Andy Bryant[3]; 3. 83N-JC Newell[4]; 4. 67-Austin Seets[2]; 5. 360-John Seets III[6]; 6. 4B-Brayton Skaggs[9]; 7. 99T-Eric Turner[10]; 8. 414-Ryan Thomas[7]; 9. 8-Clifford Lean[8]; 10. (DNS) 707-Jamie Judy

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 3366-Jaren Martin[1]; 2. 1F-Mitchell Franklin[6]; 3. 68-Dan Daniels[2]; 4. 11-Jimmy Willis[4]; 5. 55-Bill Schahuber[3]; 6. 46-Brice Gotschall[9]; 7. 56H-Scott Hall[7]; 8. 216-Philip Jackson[5]; 9. 58M-Jamie Mauk[10]; 10. 99-Jim Cihy[8]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 66-Ryan Gillmore[6]; 2. 8DM-Dillon McCowan[8]; 3. 15-Cayden Stacye[2]; 4. 15E-Ryan Edde[4]; 5. 28B-Wesley Briggs[1]; 6. 1B-Ben Newell[9]; 7. 21F-Hannah Frazee[3]; 8. 33-Danny Martin[7]; 9. 84-Dayton Newell[5]

B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 10P-Dayton Pursley[1]; 2. 32-Robbe Ewing[7]; 3. 4B-Brayton Skaggs[2]; 4. 99T-Eric Turner[5]; 5. 1B-Ben Newell[3]; 6. 55-Bill Schahuber[4]; 7. 21F-Hannah Frazee[6]; 8. 414-Ryan Thomas[8]; 9. 99-Jim Cihy[11]

B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 360-John Seets III[1]; 2. 33-Danny Martin[8]; 3. 42C-Casey Thomas[5]; 4. 160-Michael Maggard[11]; 5. 83-Kyle Fritter[9]; 6. 28B-Wesley Briggs[3]; 7. 216-Philip Jackson[7]; 8. 56H-Scott Hall[6]; 9. (DNF) 8-Clifford Lean[10]; 10. (DNF) 46-Brice Gotschall[2]; 11. (DNF) 19-Jimmy Cummins[4]

 

Next up: Round 3 of the Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series, Presented by Benne Media, is set for next Saturday. The Warsaw Auto Marine & RV ULMA Late Models will run a 25-lap, $1,000-to-win courtesy of HICKAMO Country Store main event. O’Reilly Auto Parts Street Stocks, Pitts Homes USRA Modifieds and Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods also will be in action.

 

Gates are scheduled to open at 4 p.m. with hot laps at 6:30 and opening ceremonies at 7.

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Category: Missouri