WHEATLAND, Mo. – For Nic Bidinger, landing in victory lane Saturday night at Lucas Oil Speedway was a combination of excitement and relief.
“We finally got one here,” Bidinger said after holding off Kevin Blackburn to capture the Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modified feature win.
Bidinger earned $1,000 for the win in the headliner of the Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series program.
Other feature winners in the action Presented by iHeart Media were Scotty Allen (O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars), Johnny Fennewald (Missouri Metal Buildings ULMA Late Models) and Andy Bryant (Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods).
Joining the action as a special guest class were the Pure Stocks and Mason Beck earned that feature win.
In the night’s headline division, Bidinger took over the lead from Jason Pursley on lap 11 of the 25-lap feature and went on to prevail, but it was far from easy for Bidinger.
Bidinger held off repeated challenges from Blackburn and Dillon McCowan and finished .337 seconds – or about one car length – in front of Blackburn. McCowan finished third with Kyle Thompson fourth and Ryan Middaugh fifth.
“I feel like I’ve given away a couple here, so hopefully this one makes up for it,” said Bidinger, who also won on Friday night at Lakeside Speedway. “I just have to thank my family. My dad, he helps me a ton, and I have to thank my wife and have my entire family.
“This is a big family sport and we enjoy it. All you fans, I’m glad you’re here. That’s what makes it fun to come out and race.”
Pursley started on the pole with Bidinger to his outside and it was Pursley leading the first 11 laps before Bidinger took over and prevailed in a hard-fought battle the over the final 14 laps.
McCowan, the season points leader, made a run at Bidinger on the inside for several laps before Blackburn wrestled away the second position and himself took a run at Bidinger but was unable to get past him.
Allen emerged from a thrilling four-way battle, making a last-lap pass to edge Burl Woods and Derek Brown for the O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Car win by a half-car-length.
Woods wound up second and Derek Brown was third as the trio was separated by just under a half-second at the finish line.
This after Allen came to the white flag behind Woods and Brown.
“There were two super race-car drivers right there, Derek Brown and Burl Woods,” Allen said. “They have dominated this class and they are great to race with. That was clean, good, hard racing. We rubbed and touched, but nobody was gonna take anybody out. That was a lot of fun.”
The race, with four different leaders, was a dandy from the start. Brown passed Robert Southerland for the lead coming out of turn four to complete lap three. Just after he slipped back to fourth on the next circuit, Southerland spun going down the backstretch to bring out the race’s first caution.
Woods took over the top spot as the race returned to green, getting by Brown with an inside move out of turn four. Woods remained in front until the final lap, when Allen rallied for his second straight feature win.
Robert White finished fourth and Ed Griggs was fifth.
For the second straight week, Fennewald turned the Missouri Metal Buildings ULMA Late Model feature into a complete runaway.
Fennewald started on the front row and led all 20 laps, finishing 7.68 seconds in front of second-place Tucker Cox. Just like a week earlier, Fennewald’s winning margin equaled nearly a half lap. He lapped half the 20-car field.
The caution-free race took only six minutes and four seconds.
“It’s been not a very good year, but we’re kind of hitting on some stuff now,” Fennewald said after his third feature victory of the season following finishes of 10th and 11th in the opening two weeks. “The car is really good right now and we have some really good help.
“Hopefully we can keep this up. We’re plugging away,” Fennewald said of the points battle, which saw him 74 points behind Cole Henson at the start of the night. Henson finished sixth in the feature and the lead is now unofficially 55 points.
“We’re up to second in points. Hopefully we can keep this up and make it a good points battle,” Fennewald said.
J.C. Morton started eighth and finished third while Larry Ferris rallied from 17th to finish fourth.
Bryant’s first Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods victory of the season was decisive as he led all 20 laps. He finished 1.86 seconds in front of defending track champion Kris Jackson.
“It’s always stiff competition in the B-Mods here,” Bryant said. “You’ve got, the last five or six years, nationals champions who race here weekly.”
Bryant started on the front row and had opened up a 3.8-second lead by lap five over Jackson when a caution wiped that margin out. But it didn’t take long before Bryant, riding the high groove, opened up another comfortable margin.
When a lap-15 caution slowed things, Bryant was 3.2 seconds in front of Jackson with Ryan Gillmore 6.1 seconds behind the leader. Bryant handled the restart without issue and pulled away for his fifth USRA B-Mod win overall in 2021.
Gillmore finished third with Tyler Kidwell fourth from a 14th-starting position and JC Newell wound up fifth.
Beck led all 15 laps to earn the Pure Stocks feature win, a race plagued by six cautions forcing Beck to protect his lead on each restart.
Beck wound up 1.9 seconds in front of runner-up Jeremy Wheeler. Conrad Kaufman was third and Dustin Ladd finished fourth. Kaufman started third, but spun on the opening lap to bring out a caution and had to rally from tailback.
“I’ve never raced against any of these guys before. I didn’t know what to expect,” Beck said. “I’ve raced here, but I’d never seen any of them or raced against them at any other track.”
Beck won on Friday night as his hometown Dallas County Speedway. He was 12th in the Pure Stocks’ other appearance this season at Lucas Oil Speedway, on April 17.