WHEATLAND, Mo. – Matt Johnson only led about 150 yards of Saturday night’s headliner of the Big Adventure RV Racing Series at Lucas Oil Speedway. That was all he needed.
Johnson used a dramatic turn four pass of Justin Johnson on the final lap to capture the Warsaw Auto Marine & RV ULMA Late Model feature win. He earned $1,000 after prevailing by half a car length.
Matt Johnson and Justin Johnson dueled side by side through most of the final five laps of the 25-lap main event before Matt Johnson finally prevailed. The margin between the top two was a scant .150 of a second.
The winner started inside of row three and worked his way into second by lap seven after Justin Johnson had grabbed the lead a couple of laps earlier. Those two staged an epic battle the rest of the way with Justin Johnson staying in front – until the final turn.
“I was trying to race him clean,” Matt Johnson said of the final lap. “I don’t like anybody beating and banging on me, so I was giving him plenty of room. I was that white flag come out and it was time to go.”
Chase Domer finished third with Lucas Gibbs fourth and Robbie Reed in fifth.
Toby Ott emerged from a three-car battle, edging into the lead with five laps remaining, and pulled away for his third O’Reilly Auto Parts Street Stocks feature win of the season.
Ott, the season points leader, started fourth. He used an inside pass of Daniel Deason in turn three on lap 15 as Derek Brown also was in the mix with the trio going three wide for a time.
“Daniel was doing a good job and he was holding his line; Derek showed me the bottom was good down there and I had to be patient,” Ott said of his decisive move. “I guess it was one of those deals where it was good not to be up front at the start. I got to see where everything was.”
Deason wound up second with Johnny Coats third and Brown fourth.
Johnny Fennewald patiently waited for his opportunity, then pounced with three laps to go to earn his third Warsaw Auto Marine & RV ULMA Late Model win of the season.
Larry Ferris, who started up front and led the first 17, finished 1.38 seconds behind Fennewald with Cole Henson third, points leader Kaeden Cornell fourth and Aaron Marrant in fifth.
Fennewald started outside of row two and moved into second by lap four. He kept the pressure on the leader – even passing him midway through the race but a caution flag wiped that out – until using a slide job in turns three and fourth to take over the lead with three laps remaining.
“I had a good run on him when that caution came out,” Fennewald said. “I knew he saw I was up there, so I figured he would start blocking me. Any good racer would. That’s how I got beat last week. I just didn’t think quick enough, when Todd Shute won, to move down to the bottom.
“I’ve got a pretty good hot rod, finally, after we’ve got everything lined out. Ferris ran a good race tonight.”
Kris Jackson earned win No. 4 on the season, leading the final 18 laps of the Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mod feature.
“We race against a really great group of guys,” said Jackson, the USRA B-Mod national points leader. “I’m glad to be here. I want to say thanks to my guys for helping me out in the pits.”
Jackson passed front-row starting Mark Long to grab the lead on lap three with Morton already advancing from sixth and into second. Long spun the next time around to bring out a caution.
From there, it was a matter of protecting his lead on numerous restarts as the race had eight caution flags. The final one waved on lap 15 after Jackson had built a 2.15-second lead over Morton.
Jackson drove away again and finished 2.34 seconds in front of Morton with Taylor Moore in third. Eric Turner, after starting 19th, rallied to finish fourth.