Story by Kelly Ninas
Flying high with emotion were a quartet of competitors that stepped into the promised land known as the winners circle at Dawson County Raceway on Sunday evening in Lexington, Nebraska. Racers that punched their ticket to the winners circle included: Brandon Clough, Jacob Olmstead, Mike Nichols and Luke Wassom on Sunday.
Running away and hiding from the field in the IMCA Modified Feature was Brandon Clough of Wallace. Clough started the feature on the outside of the front row and wasted no time at all flexing his muscle on the loud pedal to roll to a big lead that propelled the Wallace wheelman to the convincing victory. Coming from the rear of the field, Cozad’s Cale Osborn worked through traffic swiftly to be among the lead pack for much of the feature event. Osborn’s efforts were rewarded with a runner-up finish. Veteran hotshoe Jay Steffens had another stellar evening of consistency throughout the feature event to earn third place accolades.
Going to the top and making it stick was the name of the game for Jacob Olmstead of Overton, as he was able to pilot his hot rod to the IMCA Northern Sport Modified Feature victory. Starting on the outside of the second row, Olmstead was able to ride the cushion into the lead, a position he would not relinquish, on his way to the checkered flag. Doing his best to be in hot pursuit of Olmstead was Jacob Slough of Doniphan, who had to work through traffic and then attempt to dent the deficit between the two leaders. Slough settled for second place overall. Coming on strong in the late laps of the feature, Craig Howard of Lexington was on a mission during the waning laps and his efforts were rewarded dearly with a third place finish.
No stranger to the winners circle, the Harlan Hustler, Mike Nichols worked his magic on the cushion to garner the lead on the sixth lap of the IMCA Stock Car feature on his way to claiming the victory. Nichols of Harlan, Iowa started on the inside of the fifth row and at the drop of the green flag went to the top of the race track to use the cushion to his advantage. Nichols was able to hold off the challenges from hard chargers Casey Woken of Ogallala and Mikey Dancer of North Platte, who respectively finished second and third overall. Woken Started his climb onto the podium from the outside of the fourth row whereas Dancer was stuck in traffic early as he started on the inside of the third row. James Sheldon of Kearney and Gothenburg’s Jeff Whiting rounded out the top five as fourth and fifth place finishers, respectively.
Putting on a whale of a performance, Awesome Luke Wassom of Broken Bow was the victor in the IMCA Hobby Stock feature. Wassom started his trek to the front from the outside of the third row. He wasted no time to grab the lead and roll to a dominating victory. Last week’s feature winner, Caleb Hetrick of Grand Island was able to continue his hot streak by earning a runner-up finish. Hetrick was among the leaders for much of the feature event, as he started on the inside of the second row and was consistent throughout the feature. Having one of his best finishes at Dawson County Raceway was TC McKain of Holdrege in taking home third place accolades. McKain started on the pole and was able to gain confidence throughout the feature as his hot rod continued to prosper to the tune of a third place finish.
(Unofficial Results)
–IMCA Modified Feature: 1. 20b-Brandon Clough; 2. 6c-Cale Osborn; 3. XII-Jay Steffens; 4. 50s-Kale Smith; 5. 0hp-Bryan Herrick; 6. 50-Scott Smith; 7. 14t-Trent Roth; 8. 19-Chuck Stryker; 9. 34jw-Cole Hodges; 10. 60iv-Anthony Roth.
–IMCA Northern Sport Modified Feature: 1. 88j-Jacob Olmstead; 2. 15d-Jacob Slough; 3. 68-Craig Howard; 4. 88-Eric Kackmeister; 5. 59-Tyler Rajdl; 8-Andrew Rayburn.
–IMCA Stock Car Feature: 1. 63-Mike Nichols; 2. 35jw-Casey Woken; 3. 45-Mikey Dancer; 4. 84-James Sheldon; 5. 16w-Jeff Whiting; 6. 2x-Travis Kernick; 7. 19-Dana Morgan; 8. 57-Dan Stoll; 9. 11p-Jamie Porterfield; 10. 24-Bob Chalupa.
–IMCA Hobby Stock Feature: 1. 2w-Luke Wassom; 2. 44-Caleb Hetrick; 3. 88m-TC McKain; 4. 5-Chuck Ledbetter; 5. 99m-Allyn Myers; 6. 1-Tanner Clough; 7. 12t-Tanner Jones; 8. 98z-Zach Olmstead; 9. 20b-Brady Henderson; 10. 14jr-Tyler Barribo.
