Williams edges Morton for USRA B-Mod title as close finishes highlight Lucas Oil Speedway championship program

WHEATLAND, MO. (Aug. 26, 2023) – There was drama at the front and drama further back in the field in the Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mod main event Saturday night at Lucas Oil Speedway.

Kris Jackson picked up the victory with a last-lap pass, but Bobby Williams celebrated the championship with what was probably the best 10th-place run of his career. It all went down on Rempfer Memorial Season Championship Night at Lucas Oil Speedway Presented by Bill Roberts Chevrolet and KCTV 5 Kansas City.

In the other divisions of the Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series, Mason Beck nailed down the O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars title with another feature win; Ryan Middaugh celebrated the Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modified championship while Nic Bidinger captured the feature and Justin Wells capped his Hermitage Lumber Late Model championship with a 10th feature win.

The championship-night program honors Harold “Rowdy” Rempfer and his wife, Julia, who were killed in an automobile accident five years ago. Rowdy was the mayor of Wheatland and he and Julia both worked at Lucas Oil Speedway for many years.

The Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mod division was the only undecided class entering championship night and the race within the race for the points crown was just as fun as the battle for the race victory.

Williams, of Hermitage, claimed championship No. 1 after not winning a feature all season. But he was a mark of consistency, with eight top-five finishes and 14 top-10s.

“This season we’ve faced a lot of adversity at this track. It’s been a love-hate relationship for us here,” Williams said, adding that the championship was special for reasons other than himself.

“I wanted this for my niece. She has heart surgery here in a few weeks, so we’re glad to do that for her,” Williams said.

Turner set the pace in the B-Mod feature, leading the way as Gillmore, Morton and Jackson. The top four were separated by just 1.3 seconds when a caution slowed the action on lap seven.

Just before the midpoint, it appeared that Williams’ title chances were slim to none. On a lap-seven restart, Williams was caught up in a multi-car melee that sent him to the pits for quick repairs.

Williams made it back on the track, but at the back of the field in 15th and far behind fourth-running Morton, whom he needed to stay within four positions to win his first title. But as the laps clicked by, Morton made a bobble and lost two spots and Williams made steady gains. By lap 17, Williams was 11th and Morton seventh.

Meanwhile, there was action at the front on the final lap. Gillmore spun in turn three while looking to get around Turner to bring out a caution. The one-lap ensuing shootout saw Morton sixth and Williams 10th – and it gave seven-time track champ Jackson another chance.

Jackson made the most of the it, using a slider in turns three and four to pass Turner and walk away with the win. It was sweet for Jackson as well that Williams won the title as he drives a J2 Race Car built by Jackson.

“We had our work cut out for us, drawing a six in the redraw with five of the top competitors in front of me,” Jackson said. “I knew Bobby had his work cut out for him. I know JC, when you put him on the line, he usually doesn’t made any mistakes and he didn’t make any, that I could see any way.”

Franklin wound up third with JC Newell fourth and Jon Sheets fifth.

“I honestly thought when he turned in on the door in three,” Jackson said, “that he kind of was stopping the slide and I thought, ‘well, he has to slow down somewhat to make the turn and I don’t. I’ve got the whole track to slide to the wall’ so I left the wood down and kicked it sideways.

“I don’t think he was happy with me, but I didn’t touch him and he touched me. That’s the way it is.”

Beck celebrates feature win, USRA Stock Cars title: All Mason Beck needed to do was take the green flag on Saturday night as his points lead was such that he all but had the O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars title clinched. The Urbana driver did much more than that, leading all 20 laps for his sixth feature victory of the season.

William Garner entered the night 89 points behind Beck and, along with finishing second in the points chase he took second in the feature.

“It feels pretty good,” Beck said of the championship. “We worked our butts off this year and it paid off.”

Beck started on the outside of row one and he wasted no time grabbing the lead over third-starting William Garner. It took just five laps for those two to open a three-second lead over the rest of the field, with Rodney Schweizer far back in third.

Beck’s margin over Garner was 1.3 seconds by the halfway mark on lap 10 and 1.6 seconds when the first caution came out on lap 15. The final five laps saw Beck continue his dominance, finishing 1.3 seconds in front of Garner.

Johnny Fennewald finished third with Waylon Dimmitt fourth and Schweizer in fifth.

Bidinger outduels Davis for USRA Modified win: Nic Bidinger stalked race-long leader Kerry Davis for all the but the final 100 yards, as Bidinger made the winning pass off turn four to earn the Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modified feature win.

Bidinger, of Perry, Kan., earned his third Lucas Oil Speedway victory of the season by the margin of .327 seconds.

“I kind of gave him a warning nudge a couple of times and he still wasn’t leaving me room,” said Bidinger, who was committed to the high groove. “I wasn’t sure whether I was gonna get room on the last lap, but he left it. That was a heck of a race. I enjoy racing with Kerry. I race with him a ton at Lakeside and respect him. Kerry’s a hell of a shoe.”

Davis sprinted away to the lead from his front-row starting position and held it throughout, thought Bidinger pulled alongside on laps 13 and 14 and was unable to get around him.

Bidinger made one more bid on the final lap, riding the high groove and pulled off the highlight-reel pass coming off turn four.

Jason Pursley finished third and Middaugh wrapped up his championship season with a fourth-place finish. Middaugh had five feature wins on the season.

“Every year we set our goals and our number one goal this year was to win a championship down here,” Middaugh said. “It’s such an awesome facility and awesome competition. To get it done means a lot. Anything on top of this is just a cherry on top.

“Points racing is stressful. We’re just out here trying to win races and have fun.”

Wells makes it 10 in Late Models: Veteran Justin Wells of Aurora capped a dominating season in the Hermitage Lumber Late Models, celebrating his first Lucas Oil Speedway championship by winning his 10th feature of the season.

“It’s been a great year here and it’s been a pleasure to run this track,” Wells said. “It’s run so professional and the track is always good. It’s been a fun year.

“They’ve got a lot of good cars here. They threw a lot at us and we survived. We had some close ones, but that’s what racing is all about. We’re here to put on a show and see some side-by-side racing. We’ve been really lucky this year with what we’ve done.”

Wells took over the lead from Larry Ferris on lap two and never trailed. JC Morton was a distant second. Morton moved into second by lap five, but Wells was catching lapped traffic soon after and had a 1.1-second lead by the halfway mark. Wells’ lead briefly shrunk to a half-second when he was caught up in slower cars, but he quickly regained his momentum.

Wells continued on to a 2.4-second victory over Morton in the caution-free event. Bryon Allison, the points runner-up, finished third with Andy Bryant fourth in his late model debut and Ferris finished fifth.

LUCAS OIL SPEEDWAY UNOFFICIAL RESULTS (Aug. 26, 2023)

Rempfer Memorial Season Championships

Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods

A Feature – 1. J2-Kris Jackson[6]; 2. 99T-Eric Turner[1]; 3. F1-Mitchell Franklin[11]; 4. 83-JC Newell[4]; 5. 8-Jon Sheets[13]; 6. 18-JC Morton[2]; 7. 55-Colson Kirk[15]; 8. 56-Shadren Turner[14]; 9. 42J-Donnie Jackson[21]; 10. 1B-Bobby Williams[8]; 11. 51S-Brian Schutt[10]; 12. 24L-Dakota Lowe[5]; 13. 51-Michael Stake[24]; 14. 66-Ryan Gillmore[3]; 15. 94C-JT Carroll[22]; 16. 96-Dylan Daniels[23]; 17. (DNF) 28-Andy Bryant[9]; 18. (DNF) 28B-Wesley Briggs[17]; 19. (DNF) 2-Quentin Taylor[12]; 20. (DNF) 11L-Logan Smith[7]; 21. (DNF) 10P-Dayton Pursley[19]; 22. (DNF) 24D-Donnie Fellers[18]; 23. (DNF) 30-Rex Harris[16]; 24. (DNF) 24-Jerry Ellis[20]

B Feature – 1. 42J-Donnie Jackson[2]; 2. 94C-JT Carroll[3]; 3. 96-Dylan Daniels[1]; 4. 51-Michael Stake[6]; 5. 6-Jay Flinn[4]; 6. 8S-Clayton Smith[7]; 7. 3D-Dexton Daniels[5]; 8. 414-Ryan Thomas[10]; 9. 0K-Tracy Killian[8]; 10. 91-Hoyt Miller[11]; 11. 7D-Dustin Wyland[9]

Heat 1 – 1. 24L-Dakota Lowe[2]; 2. 11L-Logan Smith[1]; 3. 28-Andy Bryant[5]; 4. F1-Mitchell Franklin[8]; 5. 10P-Dayton Pursley[7]; 6. 42J-Donnie Jackson[4]; 7. 51-Michael Stake[3]; 8. (DNF) 91-Hoyt Miller[6]

Heat 2 – 1. 99T-Eric Turner[1]; 2. 83-JC Newell[3]; 3. 51S-Brian Schutt[5]; 4. 8-Jon Sheets[7]; 5. 30-Rex Harris[8]; 6. 96-Dylan Daniels[2]; 7. 8S-Clayton Smith[4]; 8. 414-Ryan Thomas[6]

Heat 3 – 1. J2-Kris Jackson[2]; 2. 1B-Bobby Williams[1]; 3. 2-Quentin Taylor[4]; 4. 55-Colson Kirk[5]; 5. 28B-Wesley Briggs[8]; 6. 6-Jay Flinn[6]; 7. 0K-Tracy Killian[7]; 8. 7D-Dustin Wyland[3]

Heat 4 – 1. 18-JC Morton[6]; 2. 66-Ryan Gillmore[7]; 3. 56-Shadren Turner[3]; 4. 24D-Donnie Fellers[2]; 5. 24-Jerry Ellis[4]; 6. 94C-JT Carroll[5]; 7. 3D-Dexton Daniels[1]

O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars

Feature – 1. 0F-Mason Beck[2]; 2. 7-William Garner[3]; 3. 91-Johnny Fennewald[1]; 4. 11-Waylon Dimmitt[5]; 5. 74-Rodney Schweizer[6]; 6. 0-Chase Galvan[12]; 7. 21-Darren Phillips[4]; 8. 12-Christopher Sawyer[16]; 9. 2-Colton Bourland[15]; 10. 83-James Ellis[10]; 11. 27-Jeff Tennant[11]; 12. 50-Darrell Hurt[9]; 13. 24M-Blayne McMillin[14]; 14. 34-Blake Bolton[13]; 15. (DNF) 5-Bryan White[7]; 16. (DNF) 8M-James McMillin[8]; 17. (DNF) 24-Noah Long[18]; 18. (DNF) 116-Zack Smith[17]

Bill Roberts Chevrolet Heat 1 – 1. 0F-Mason Beck[6]; 2. 11-Waylon Dimmitt[4]; 3. 8M-James McMillin[1]; 4. 27-Jeff Tennant[5]; 5. 34-Blake Bolton[3]; 6. 12-Christopher Sawyer[2]

Bill Roberts Chevrolet Heat 2 – 1. 7-William Garner[3]; 2. 91-Johnny Fennewald[1]; 3. 50-Darrell Hurt[2]; 4. 83-James Ellis[6]; 5. 24M-Blayne McMillin[5]; 6. 116-Zack Smith[4]

Bill Roberts Chevrolet Heat 3 – 1. 74-Rodney Schweizer[1]; 2. 21-Darren Phillips[2]; 3. 5-Bryan White[4]; 4. 0-Chase Galvan[3]; 5. 2-Colton Bourland[5]; 6. (DNF) 24-Noah Long[6]

Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modifieds

Feature – 1. 3B-Nic Bidinger[4]; 2. 68-Kerry Davis[2]; 3. 38C-Jason Pursley[6]; 4. 21M-Ryan Middaugh[3]; 5. 98-Jeff Cutshaw[5]; 6. C3-Chad Staus[7]; 7. 21W-Tracy Wolf[10]; 8. 23-Lucas Dobbs[8]; 9. 21-Greg Scheffler[9]; 10. (DNF) 75L-Lane Whitney[12]; 11. (DNF) 73-Mickey Burrell[1]; 12. (DNF) 4B-Eric Brady[11]

Heat 1 – 1. 73-Mickey Burrell[2]; 2. 38C-Jason Pursley[6]; 3. 68-Kerry Davis[4]; 4. C3-Chad Staus[1]; 5. 21-Greg Scheffler[3]; 6. 4B-Eric Brady[5]

Heat 2 – 1. 3B-Nic Bidinger[1]; 2. 21M-Ryan Middaugh[3]; 3. 98-Jeff Cutshaw[6]; 4. 23-Lucas Dobbs[4]; 5. 21W-Tracy Wolf[5]; 6. (DNF) 75L-Lane Whitney[2]

Hermitage Lumber Late Models

Feature – 1. 98-Justin Wells[2]; 2. 72-JC Morton[4]; 3. 1A-Bryon Allison[7]; 4. 49-Andy Bryant[6]; 5. 51-Larry Ferris[1]; 6. 21-Johnny Fennewald[3]; 7. 82-Jace Parmley[5]; 8. 1T-Tucker Cox[8]; 9. 99-Larry Jones[17]; 10. 13-Shawn Whitman[16]; 11. 7J-Jake Morris[11]; 12. 81-Jimmy Dowell[13]; 13. 7-Cole Wells[9]; 14. 68-Dean Wille[12]; 15. 73-Francisco Escamila[10]; 16. 22-Tim Petty[20]; 17. 30-Dalton Cloyd[15]; 18. 10T-Tyler Brown[21]; 19. 15-Bobby Ruff II[19]; 20. 6-Bob Cummings[22]; 21. (DNF) 90-Joe Walkenhorst[18]; 22. (DNF) 15N-Ed Noll[14]; 23. (DNS) 21P-Darren Phillips

Wasoba Seed & Trucking Heat 1 – 1. 21-Johnny Fennewald[8]; 2. 1T-Tucker Cox[2]; 3. 72-JC Morton[7]; 4. 68-Dean Wille[4]; 5. 15N-Ed Noll[6]; 6. 99-Larry Jones[5]; 7. 22-Tim Petty[3]; 8. 6-Bob Cummings[1]

Reed Environmental Heat 2 – 1. 49-Andy Bryant[1]; 2. 82-Jace Parmley[5]; 3. 51-Larry Ferris[6]; 4. 73-Francisco Escamila[3]; 5. 30-Dalton Cloyd[4]; 6. 13-Shawn Whitman[2]; 7. 10T-Tyler Brown[7]

Dirt Track Specialists Heat 3 – 1. 98-Justin Wells[4]; 2. 1A-Bryon Allison[1]; 3. 7-Cole Wells[5]; 4. 7J-Jake Morris[3]; 5. 81-Jimmy Dowell[7]; 6. 90-Joe Walkenhorst[6]; 7. 15-Bobby Ruff II[2]

Big Labor Day Weekend action next up: The Lucas Oil MLRA returns to Lucas Oil Speedway for the final time in 2023 next weekend for the Ron Jenkins Memorial Presented by Rugged Radios. The big two-night show will pay Friday night’s feature winner $5,000 with first place on Saturday worth $10,000.

For more information on the Lucas Oil MLRA, including results, points and schedule visit MLRAracing.com.

The Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modifieds, Ozark Golf Car USRA B-Mods and O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars also be in action.

Next door on Lake Lucas, the Kentucky Drag Boat Association-sanctioned 13th annual Diamond Drag Boat Nationals will be in action Friday, Saturday and Sunday with qualifying rounds the first two days and eliminations on the final day. Check out kydragboat.com for more information on the series.

For information on any event at Lucas Oil Speedway in 2023 contact admissions director Nichole McMillan at (417) 282-5984 or email her at nichole@lucasoilspeedway.com for more information.

CONTACT:

Danny Lorton

Lucas Oil Speedway General Manager

Office: (417) 282-5984