Whew! Unbelievable

I have never seen such racing in one night in my life! All but one class had the ultimate winner challenged up to the last lap or even the last turn. It all started with the Youth Hobby Class and a young man that normally won't even start on the pole even if he draws it, lead strongly for about six laps of ten and was challenged by one of the strongest racers in the field and held steady and fought off the advances even after a 3 car pile up involving 2 past feature winners and another top two finisher. It took 2 cars out. Ultimately on lap 7 and turn four Skyler Cockran #66 broke traction and it was over for the win, but everyone was excited as the 13 year old proved to himself that HE HAD IT!

The Cruisers were next and the top 2 cars lined up in the first 2 rows. The most recent success had belonged to the double OO El Camino of Clifford Collins and with every skilled he attained he passed for the lead and the 18 year old from Hardy, AR, Tyler Newcom, was in tow. It was bumper to bumper the entire 15 laps and Newcom even passed for the lead once. Ultimately the driver known as Bozo won in the Double OO, but it was clearly an exciting race and #7 Benny Grogan was only about 60 yards back for third.

You're thinking man so far so good, but the best is yet to come. The Hobby feature was unreal. Four former feature winners were starting in the top 6 and it was unreal the competition for the top spot in the 20 lap event. John Stiner had been very strong winning the week before, and after 3 or 4 laps it got down to Stiner and #2 Chris Piper, a former Modified Points Champion. The two changed the lead several times and sometimes twice in a single lap. While all of this was going on the race for third with Kevin Collins and Mike Elliot was the same. Back and forth and only a few yards behind the exciting battle for the lead. It seemed that John Stiner had an oh so slight advantage as the white flag dropped, but about the time the flag came out a car way back just coming out of turn two blew his engine and spilled oil in a stream from the top of turn two to the infield about 50 yards down the back straight away. As Stiner was coming off the bottom of 2, Piper was trying to pass off the top of 2 and only had a small amount of Oil to deal with and Stiner had twice as much. As a result Piper went on to win by a still small margin. It was exciting but the third place finish between Collins and Elliot had a similar challenge and #26 Mike Elliot of Ellsinor, MO took third in an equally exciting finish.

Billy James won the Late Model Feature again, but the real excitement came from the third place finish of Jacob Black. As he challenged Chris Hall of Sikeston. They kept it interesting as Young Nick Black held off the veteran James for a few laps, but the Hall and Black race was the fun part of the late model event, and Jacob Black ultimately won out for third.

Some of the Super Stock guys were in Batesville for a $5000.00 to win event, but we still had 12 top cars including 7 time points champion Stan Ellison. The field included 5 past feature winners in the Super class and four previous Hobby Stock winners. Well, Kevin Collins in K-7 was setting a torrid pace, but not to be outdone by #70 Bobby Bryant. Bryant had been Hobby Class Champion about 3 times and not to be denied as after about 5 lead changes he held out for his first Super victory. An added thrill was Jamel Korkis of Cave City, AR coming from dead last to finish third and passing four past feature winners and 2 former track champions to get it done.........but there's MORE!!!

The Modified Class has been dominated by Shawn Walsh of Ash Flat, AR. And there has usually been a strong challenge, if not a win by Brandon Ball of West Plains. Ball has had a real streak of bad luck lately and been out of the picture at the photo finish, but not this week. The IMCA rules require the top points cars take up the 6th row and the 3rd and fourth points take the 5th row. And that is the same every IMCA race. Which is all but 3 races the entire season. So at the start of the feature the strong heat finishers start in the front, and Lonnie Evans #02 of Houston, MO and Joey Smith #63 of Pomona, MO put on quite a show for several laps and it took quite a while for Walsh to make it to the front and even longer for Ball to get in position. A late Caution closed the gap for Ball #32 and it was a 3 lap shoot out, but Shawn Walsh in the #73 Modified held on to the bottom line and won by a few feet for the top prize. I'm going to stop by and look at the left front of Walsh's car to see how it takes the abuse from the concrete on the bottom of the turns.....It's amazing!!!!

Next week will be exciting as the Show-Me Racing series late models will be back in town and Billy James our Fas Trac points leader will take on Leslie Essary of the Show Me Series, sponsored by FNBC.

Also the 27th will be mid season champions night and #13 Larry Piper will be remembered. Piper was a 9 time points champion, father of Chris Piper mentioned earlier and the half brother of this writer, and grandfather to a points champion, Ben Piper.

Come to the races and say hi, and tell if you like my blog. IF YOU DON'T. Keep your mouth shut............Just Kidding...........