WHEATLAND, Mo. – R.C. Whitwell dropped into Lucas Oil Speedway to tune up for an upcoming special and walked away with momentum and a nice pay day.
Whitwell drove to a $1,000 victory in the Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modified feature Saturday night, headlining the Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series program.
Also earning feature wins on Fan Appreciation Night Presented by The CW Ozarks/O-zone were Scotty Allen (O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars), Johnny Fennewald (ULMA Late Models) and Kris Jackson (Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods).
The Show-Me Vintage Racers made their annual appearance as a special guest class, with Andy Wiles taking the feature win.
Whitwell, an Arizona native who now resides in Fayetteville, Ark., started on the front row and led all 25 laps in a caution-free event to capture his first feature win of the season.
Fourth-starting Dillon McCowan moved into second on lap two and that’s where he stayed the rest of the way. Whitwell finished 1.93 seconds in front of McCowan, who solidified his points lead in the division.
“I was actually just hanging on there for dear life. I about spun it out on the infield over here one lap,” Whitwell said in victory lane. “It was quite a handful, but we came out here this week to practice for next week.”
Whitwell was referring to the upcoming USMTS Slick Mist Show-Me Shootout, next Saturday.
Mike Hansen advanced from eighth at the start to wind up third, with Nic Bidinger fourth Jason Pursley finishing fifth.
Allen led the final six laps and went on to beat points leader David Hendrix to earn the O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars feature win.
Allen picked up his third feature win of the season. He passed Hendrix on the backstretch on lap 14 and made the lead stand up, finishing just under one second in front of the runner-up.
Hendrix had taken the lead from Allen on lap two by using an outside pass in turn two, but never was able to shake Allen and eventually surrendered the lead as Allen worked the inside line.
“We had to take a few weeks off, we’ve been so busy in the shop,” said Allen, who runs Allen Autosports building race cars. “I’ve been a little under the weather with my back and my son took care of it and worked on it, otherwise we wouldn’t have been here tonight.”
Ed Griggs wound up third with Doug Keller fourth and Jeff Dixon in fifth.
Fennewald did it again Saturday night, winning his fifth straight ULMA Late Model feature and sixth overall this season.
Fennewald and fellow front-row starter Larry Ferris battled side-by-side through the first three laps, with Ferris barely hanging onto the lead. But Fennewald was able to made the pass, out of turn four to conclude lap four.
From there, it was all Fennewald – much like it’s been for the last several weeks. His lead over Ferris grew to 2.5 seconds by lap 15 as the race clicked off without a caution.
“It’s fun when you can race like that,” Fennewald said of the early laps with Ferris. “I knew Larry would be the guy to beat tonight with a lot of traction out here. In the past few years we haven’t been that great in the traction, but we’re headed in the right direction.”
Fennewald finished 2.6 seconds in front of Ferris with Cole Henson third, Matt Becker fourth and Tucker Cox in fifth.
A three-time track champion, Fennewald closed unofficially to within 14 points of 2020 champ and season leader Henson.
“We don’t really think about that points deal. We’re just out here to win races,” Fennewald said. “It we can just keep winning – even if we don’t win the points – we’ve still won a lot of races this year.”
Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mod points leader Jackson was a wire-to-wire winner in the 20-lap feature, his sixth trip to Lucas Oil Speedway victory lane this season.
Jackson held off J.C. Morton and Jon Sheets after a restart with three laps remaining.
“We were definitely not too proud of this one. We did what we had to do to stay out front,” Jackson said. “We had to kind of protect the bottom and take the top lane. The caution saved us once or twice.
“You can sure tell I didn’t work on this thing today. We were in Wisconsin (at Mississippi Thunder Speedway) last night and racing a memorial race for one of our friends. We went to bed at 5 a.m., woke up at 9 and hit the road again and we made it here just in time for this race.
“I’m wore out and the car’s wore out. When you race with these guys at this track, you really need to have your stuff on its ‘A’ game. These guys were all over me tonight. They raced me clean and I’m appreciative of that.”
Jackson started on the pole and set the early pace in a race that was plagued by a rash of early cautions. JC Newell was running second to Jackson when he spun in turn four, bringing out the fifth caution of the race in six completed laps.
Jackson, Morton and 16th-starting Jon Sheets broke away from the pack by lap 10, with fourth-place Tyler Cadwallader four seconds behind the trio.
Jackson led Morton by half-a-second when John Schneider spun in turn four to bring out a caution and set up a three-lap shootout for the win.
Hugging the inside groove, Jackson was flawless the rest of the way to beat Morton by just under one second. Sheets finished one-half car length behind Morton, with Cadwallader fourth and Shawn Whitman finishing fifth.
John Schneider, who played the role of Bo Duke in the television program “Dukes of Hazzard,” raced in the B-Mod division along with his wife, Alicia. John Schneider started 26th and finished 14th in the main event. Alicia started 25th and wound up 21st.
During intermission, Schneider auctioned off both door panels off his orange No. 01 car, attracting a total of $4,100 going to Shriners Hospital for Children.
Wiles came from deep in the starting field to capture the Show-Me Vintage Racers feature as the guest class made its annual appearance at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Wiles started 11th and had the lead by lap eight, then paced the final seven circuits of the feature. Rodney Ashworth finished second and Jeff Siler was third.
“This is my first time being here and the third race I’ve raced with these guys. So far, it’s two out of three,” said Wiles, who drove a 1951 Studebaker to the win.
Brad Barlow capitalized on his front-row starting spot to grab the lead and he set the pace in the early going with Wiles moving into second by lap five.
Wiles drove around Barlow on the outside coming out of turn four to take over the lead to complete eight. The top three of Wiles, Ashworth and Barlow had broken away when a caution with two to go set the stage for an exciting finish.
Wiles took away any drama with a flawless restart. He won by 1.2 seconds over Ashworth with Siler third, Damon Clevenger fourth and Jeremy Turner fifth.