WHEATLAND, Mo. — At last, William Garner was able to celebrate an O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars feature win at Lucas Oil Speedway after finishing runner-up the last two outings.
Garner led all 25 laps to grab the headliner on Saturday night’s program, earning $750 for the triumph.
Other feature winners on Ozarks Food Harvest Food Drive Night Presented by KY3 were Eric Turner (Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modifieds), Kris Jackson (Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods) and Larry Ferris (Hermitage Lumber Late Models).
Garner had three second-place finishes overall this season at Lucas Oil Speedway.
“This class is a blast to race with,” said Garner, whose best friend Bryan White leads the season standings. White’s dad, Rob, holds down second in the points. “Everybody is just super-good racers. The top 10, any of the could win any night. It’s an awesome class.
“I have to thank Josh and Mitchell Franklin of Franklin Motorsports. They gave me a heck of a race car.”
Garner grabbed the top spot as the race went green, out-sprinting fellow front-row starter Rodney Schweizer entering turn one. Ed Griggs moved by Schweizer and into second on the first lap, which is how the running order remained through 13 laps.
That’s when third-running Scheizer spun to bring out the race’s first caution, putting season points leader Bryan White into third with Rob White fourth.
Griggs continued to stay right behind Garner as the race returned to green, but Garner remained glued to the inside groove and Griggs had no answer.
Garner took the checkers by .907 seconds with Bryan winding up third, Mason Beck fourth and Rob fifth.
Eric Turner Hangs On For USRA Modified Win
Turner picked up his first victory of the season, hanging on to beat Jason Pursley by .094 of a second.
“We’ve had a monkey on our back and happy to be here,” Turner said of the road to victory lane this season.
Andy Bryant started on the pole and led the first 11 laps, losing the lead on the backstretch as Turner went around Bryant and Jason Pursley. Bryant and Pursley had waged a fierce battle for the lead, sometimes running side by side, for five laps prior to Turner’s third-to-first move.
Bryant, while running third, spun on lap 15 to bring out a caution, forcing him to the back of the pack for a restart.
Turner worked the low line around the pavement to stay in front and was two laps from the win when a caution flew for Lucas Dobbs’ spin on lap 18. That set up a green-white-checkers finish with Turner, Pursley and Dustin Hodges running 1-2-3.
As the race resumed, Turner held off a charging Pursley by a half-car-length as Pursley made a tremendous move out of turn four on the final lap, first going outside and then diving inside near the start-finish line.
“I didn’t want to see a yellow,” Turner said. “I was trying to be patient out there and conserve, when the track’s good like that. Just keep my line, keep my head on. We finally got some things clicking. We had a little water leak, but we’re good to go.”
Points leader Dillon McCowan rallied from eighth to third with Ryan Middaugh fourth and Dustin Hodges fifth.
Kris Jackson Earns Another Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mod Win
Chalk up a fifth USRA B-Mod feature win for Jackson, as he was able to lead all 20 laps and hold off the charging Ryan Gillmore by half a second for the win.
Jackson made it 20 wins this season with his latest Lucas Oil Speedway triumph.
“I could hear him [Gillmore] that whole race,” Jackson said. “I don’t know if he was trying the outside lane or not, but I knew if I made one little bobble he’d be there.”
Gillmore took to the high line on lap four and began to make up ground after Jackson had opened up a 1.2-second lead in the early going.
Jackson, the six-time track champion, continued to maintain the low line around the dirt oval as the duo neared lapped traffic by lap 14. Gillmore was within .202 seconds, but Jackson suddenly opened up a 1.3-second lead as he used a lapped car as a shield as the laps ticked away.
With only three laps to go, a caution for a sliding car on the back stretch bunched things for a sprint to the finish.
Gillmore had a big run as action resumed, pulling alongside with two to go, but Jackson was up to the challenge. Jackson held on to prevail by three car lengths.
Colson Kirk wound up third, JC Morton was fourth and Andy Bryant finished fifth.
Late Models Feature Goes To Larry Ferris
Not even a new young gun could slow veteran Ferris’ charge through the Hermitage Lumber Late Model division as the driver picked up his third feature win of the season.
Ferris beat Dillon McCowan — the track’s USRA Modified reigning points champ — who was making his late model debut.
Ferris rolled away from the start from the pole position and opened a 1.6-second lead over McCowan just four laps into the action. A lap-four caution wiped out that lead, but it didn’t keep Ferris from re-opening a similar command.
Ferris went on to win by nearly two seconds over McCowan to further stretch his widening points lead.
“The track kind of locked down and I had to get in front because it was going to be hard to pass,” Ferris said.
Byron Allison finished third with Larry Jones fourth and Kayden Clatt coming home in fifth.
USRA Modifieds Feature (20 Laps): 1. 16S-Eric Turner[4]; 2. 38C-Jason Pursley[6]; 3. 7X-Dillon McCowan[8]; 4. 21M-Ryan Middaugh[2]; 5. 22H-Dustin Hodges[5]; 6. 96-Cody Brill[12]; 7. 88-Jimmy Dowell[10]; 8. 73-Mickey Burrell[7]; 9. 21TW-Tracy Wolf[9]; 10. 49-Andy Bryant[1]; 11. 24D-Donnie Fellers[11]; 12. 23-Lucas Dobbs[3]; 13. 28C-Thomas Creech[13]; 14. 11-Dustin Atkinson[14]
USRA Stocks Cars Feature (25 Laps): 1. 7-William Garner[2]; 2. 47-Ed Griggs[3]; 3. 41-Bryan White[4]; 4. 0F-Mason Beck[11]; 5. 5-Robert White[6]; 6. 11D-Derek Brown[5]; 7. 83-James Ellis[9]; 8. 11-Waylon Dimmitt[10]; 9. 68-Dean Wille[7]; 10. 2-Colton Bourland[13]; 11. 74-Rodney Schweizer[1]; 12. 717-Chris Tonoli[17]; 13. 8M-James McMillin[8]; 14. 421-Karla Lampe[15]; 15. 174-Derek Lampe[19]; 16. 12-Christopher Sawyer[14]; 17. (DNF) 54-David Hendrix[18]; 18. (DNF) 7X-Dayton Newell[12]; 19. (DNF) 34-Blake Bolton[16]
USRA B-Mods Feature (20 Laps): 1. 65-Kris Jackson[2]; 2. 66-Ryan Gillmore[1]; 3. 55-Colson Kirk[8]; 4. 18M-JC Morton[5]; 5. 28-Andy Bryant[4]; 6. 9-Sam Petty[11]; 7. 2-Quentin Taylor[15]; 8. 24L-Dakota Lowe[12]; 9. 30-Rex Harris[9]; 10. 24-Jerry Ellis[13]; 11. 18-Austin Joplin[6]; 12. 21-Greg Scheffler[10]; 13. 39-Dwight Brown[14]; 14. (DNF) 15-Colin Pierce[7]; 15. (DNS) 98-Christopher Watts; 16. (DQ) 1F-Mitchell Franklin[3]
Late Models Feature: 1. 51-Larry Ferris[1]; 2. 8-Dillon McCowan[2]; 3. 1A-Bryon Allison[7]; 4. 99-Larry Jones[8]; 5. 50-Kayden Clatt[6]; 6. 42H-Chad Richwine[4]; 7. 7J-Jake Morris[10]; 8. 7F-Jay Fields[12]; 9. 90-Joe Walkenhorst[9]; 10. 0X-Jason Sivils[3]; 11. (DNF) 22-Tim Petty[11]; 12. (DNF) 1T-Tucker Cox[5]