WHEATLAND, Mo. – Earlier in the week, Robert White said his major goal the remainder of the season was to win an O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars feature at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Call it mission accomplished for White as the veteran racer from Lebanon led all 25 laps and beat David Hendrix in the headliner of the Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series program.
Other feature winners during Saturday’s Ozarks Food Harvest Food Drive Night at the Races Presented by KOLR were Ryan Middaugh (Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modifieds), Kris Jackson (Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods) and Johnny Fennewald (ULMA Late Models).
White started third and grabbed the lead on the opening circuit. He never looked back, posting a 3.34-second margin over Hendrix. Butch Bailey finished third with Darren Phillips fourth and Tanner Calhoun in fifth.
“I’m glad there weren’t any yellows,” White said. “This is a fun class. We have so many people who help us on the car.”
White said the win was special after his dad, Robert White Sr., passed away earlier this year.
“This win is for him,” White said.
White wasted no time grabbing the lead in the early going, then stretching it out as Hendrix and Phillips battled for the runner-up position much of the race. White gradually kept building his lead, opening the gap to two seconds by lap 15 and 2.5 seconds by lap 20, as the race remained green to the finish.
White had two previous second-place finishes this season and finally, he was able to celebrate the trip to victory lane and take home $750.
Middaugh earns second USRA Modified feature win: Ryan Middaugh collected his second Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modified feature win of the season, leading all 20 laps to beat Kyle Thompson.
Middaugh never got to build a large lead, as the race had numerous cautions over the final half of the event, but the driver from Fulton handled each restart in winning fashion.
“I think we had a pretty good handle on this new car and the last few weeks, we’ve been just a little off,” Middaugh said. “We made a couple of small changes this week and it made a night-and-day difference.”
Middaugh said he hustled to the speedway, leaving Fulton about 4 p.m. after his wife was discharged from the hospital after having contractions earlier in the day.
“I thought we might have a baby today, but luckily she was dismissed at 4 o’clock and we hustled down here,” he said.
Middaugh bolted from his front-row starting position and into the lead, with Thompson and Jason Pursley giving chase as those two swapped the second spot a couple of times prior to a lap-eight caution.
Pursley lost ground on the restart and slipped back with fifth, with McCowan moving into third and Paden Phillips fourth.
That’s how the running ordered remained until Chase Domer brought about a lap-15 caution with a spin in turn two, leaving Middaugh five laps to hold off the challengers.
Points leader McCowan fell out of contention while running third with one lap to go, spinning in turn four.
Middaugh held off a last-turn charge from Thompson to claim the victory, with Thompson second, Pursley third and Jesse Stovall finishing fourth.
Track points leader Kris Jackson had to work for it, but the Lebanon driver held off Ryan Gillmore to capture his fifth Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mod feature win of the season.
Jackson led all 20 laps, but held off Gillmore by one car length in an exciting finish that saw Gillmore made a last-turn bid to come up just short.
“I saw his nose there with a couple (laps) to go and I know he’s been wanting to win one here awful bad,” Jackson said of Gillmore. “He’s deserving. He’s super fast. We had what I thought was a really good race.
“We got saved by a caution early on,” Jackson said, noting that Gillmore was fast on the top groove and he decided to go up there as well. “I saw his nose and it was too late really to take his lane and luckily for me, the caution came out. This is racing, no hold’s barred. I went and took his lane. He showed me the fast way around tonight.”
Jackson started on the pole and set the pace through eight laps, holding a 1.5-second lead when the event’s first caution flew. Bryant, after passing Gillmore on lap three, was in second with Cole Campbell in fourth.
The top three remained the same when cautions waved on laps nine and 12. As the race settled into an all-green-flag run the final eight laps, Gillmore began to pressure Jackson, pulling within one car length with three laps to go.
But it was Jackson who again prevailed, riding the high line out of turn four coming to the checkers, to hold off Gillmore by .263 seconds.
Cole Campbell finished third with Bryant fourth and J.C. Newell in fifth.
Chalk up another ULMA Late Model feature victory for Appleton City’s Johnny Fennewald.
Fennewald the final 18 of 20 laps to earn his fourth straight feature victory and fifth of the season, beating Nevada’s fellow front-row starter Larry Ferris by 5.3 seconds.
“I knew Larry would be pretty quick right there at the start,” Fennewald said of Ferris leading the opening two laps. “I knew I had to be patient and take my time to get there. Then once we got there, just set sail.”
Once Fennewald got there he wasted little time extended the lead and making it a runaway, working through lapped cars as the race ran caution-free.
Matt Becker finished third with Tucker Cox fourth and defending track champ Cole Henson fifth. Fennewald unofficially cut Henson’s lead to 23 points.