WHEATLAND, Mo. — Ryan Gillmore stalked the leader through numerous restarts due to cautions, then pounced with three laps remaining to capture the Clear Creek Golf Cars USRA B-Mods feature Saturday night at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Gillmore beat Jon Sheets by just under one second to grab the headliner of the Big Adventure RV Weekly Championship Series opening-night program.
Gillmore had to patiently wait out a series of cautions and ensuing restarts to make his winning pass with three laps remaining in the 25-lap main event. He earned $750 for the victory.
Early on, Sheets used the high groove to pressure Tanner Kade for the lead by lap four, then made a pass out of turn four for the lead to complete lap five. He wasted no time opening up a one-second lead over pole-starting Kade with Gillmore running third.
The race’s first caution came on lap seven and bunched the field, just as Sheets was threatening to make it a runaway. Kade spun in front of several front-runners in turn two on the restart, eliminating himself and fifth-running JC Newell from contention. That allowed Gillmore and JC Morton to move into second and third.
Morton moved to the low side and worked into second by lap 15 after a fifth restart, but a lap later Gillmore was back chasing Sheets as Morton fell a spot. Sheets and Gillmore traded slide jobs on back-to-back laps until Gillmore finally worked himself into the top spot off turn four on lap 22.
“That was awesome,” Gillmore said of the hot battle between himself and Sheets with Morton also in the mix. “JC was down there rolling the bottom and Sheets was just not messing up. I threw kind of a half-slider on him and it was game-on from there. Thanks to Jon for racing me clean. That was a lot of fun.
“The first time I tossed it in there, I wasn’t 100 percent sure,” Gillmore added of the sliders. “The second time I hit it a little harder and I hoped it was gonna be good. You have to be confident that you’re gonna clear the car and respect who you’re with and if they don’t have respect for you, they’re gonna show you.”
Gillmore had a five-car-length lead when the race’s seventh caution appeared on lap 23 to set on a two-lap sprint to the finish. Gillmore had a great restart on the low groove and drove away, finishing eight car lengths in front of Sheets with Morton third.
“I kind of hated those cautions because my car wouldn’t take off, it wasn’t running the best,” Sheets said. “I really wanted it to stay green. But congratulations to Ryan. That was a pretty good race there.”
Defending track champion Bobby Williams wound up fourth with Travor Drake fifth.
A total of 73 cars checked into the pits on a cool Public Telecommunicators Appreciation Night at the Races.
Other feature winners included Derek Brown (O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars), Justin Wells (Hermitage Lumber POWRi Late Models) and Robbie Reed (Arctic Food Equipment USRA Modifieds).
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