Celebrating in style, the competitors at Lincoln County Raceway have a lot to be thankful for and it showed during the Thanksgiving in July races that featured five IMCA classes challenging for accolades on Saturday evening in North Platte, Nebraska.
The most thankful competitors included the quartet of Colton Osborn, Paul Donovan, Luke Wassom and Christian Destefano, who all punched their tickets to the Winners Circle.
It was a see-saw battle for the lead in the early going of the IMCA Hobby Stock feature before Awesome Luke Wassom of Broken Bow was able to snare the lead and then run away and hide for the victory. Wassom started the feature on the outside of the second row. Wassom was able to garner the lead when he passed Brady Henderson of Curtis on the fifth lap. Henderson was able to stay up on the wheel and earn third place overall. Henderson himself garnered the lead from Tanner Clough of Wallace who led the first two laps of the feature. Clough relinquished the lead when contact between himself and Wassom brought out a caution flag on the second lap. Clough was able to recover quite nicely to finish as the runner-up. Rounding out the top five finishers was Paxton Stubbs of Paxton and Joe Thiem Sr of North Platte in fourth and fifth place, respectively.
Leading all but one lap, Colton Osborn of Cozad was a force to be reckoned with in claiming the checkered flag in the IMCA Modified feature. At the drop of the green flag, Bryan Herrick of Curtis, Nebraska led the first lap before he relinquished the lead to Osborn who would never look back in winning top honors and driving his way to the Winners Circle. Osborn started on the inside of the fourth row when the green flag was waved. Continuing to gain experience at the North Platte oval, JR Owen of Pocola, Oklahoma was able to put a little pressure on Osborn by riding around on the high groove near the midway point of the feature event. Owen started the feature in the third row and was able to earn a podium finish in second place overall. Starting on the outside of the fourth row, Brandon Clough of Wallace, Nebraska bobbed and weaved through traffic to be among the lead group for much of the feature and his efforts were rewarded greatly with a third place finish. Dave Pedersen of Brady and Lance Lewis of Mitchell rounded out the top five finishers in fourth and fifth place overall.
Just like his modified victory, Colton Osborn of Cozad led all but the first lap in the IMCA Stock Car feature to earn his second victory of the evening. To achieve the double-vision success, Osborn drove his way to the front from his third row starting position and with stand the caution flags that extinguished his big cushions over the rest of the field. Starting on the front row and staying near the front and avoiding being involved in any of the miscues, the Flyin’ Farmer Kyle Clough of Wallace was able to take home a runner-up finish. Coming from deep in the field, Andrew Dillenburg of North Platte was rewarded for his efforts with a podium finish in third place overall. Dillenburg drove with gumption and was elbows up early on to gain the third place positon where he would stay throughout the feature. Jeff Whiting of Gothenburg and Mikey Dancer of North Platte rounded out the top five with their fourth and fifth place finishes.
Riding the power of the Mopar Magic Dodge Neon, Christian Destefano of Cozad earned the victory in the IMCA Sport Compact Feature. Destefano was able to ride the momentum on the cushion to snare the lead on the fourth lap and lead the rest of the way to earn the win. During the waning laps, Lonnie Lenser Jr, of Valentine put all sorts of pressure on Destefano, but he wasn’t able to make the pass for the lead and had to settle with runner-up honors. Coming home in third place overall was Merle Johnson of Bertrand after he led the first three laps of the feature event.
Starting on the pole and staying up front was the formula for success for Paul Donovan of McCook, Nebraska in winning the IMCA Northern Sport Modified Feature. Donovan held off all challengers during the waning laps to earn the victory. Starting the feature in the fourth row, it took nearly half of the highlighted event for Gothenburg’s Jamey Kennicutt to climb into the runner-up position. Kennicutt would then put his best foot forward on the final laps to finish strong and earn a runner-up finish for his efforts. Doing his best to avoid incidence and be among the leaders, Jacob Wolsleben of Cozad, Nebraska started the feature on the inside of the fourth row and was able to drive his way to third place on the eighth lap, a position where he would stay for the remainder of the feature event to earn third place accolades. Making their first appearances of the 2020 season at Lincoln County Raceway, Brandon Poessnecker of Atkinson and Jacob Olmstead of Overton had remarkable efforts throughout the feature to finish fourth and fifth place, respectively.
(Unoffical Results)
–IMCA Modified Feature: 1. 50c-Colton Osborn; 2. 79-JR Owen; 3. 20b-Brandon Clough; 4. 4p-Dave Pedersen; 5. 99-Lance Lewis; 6. 12a-Ayden Steffens; 7. 0hp-Bryan Herrick; 8. 71-Andrew Dillenburg.
–Northern Sport Modified Feature: 1. 1-Paul Donovan; 2. 15k-Jamey Kennicutt; 3. 01-Jacob Wolsleben; 4. 52p-Brandon Poessnecker; 5. 88j-Jacob Olmstead; 6. 69z-Zane Turner; 7. 12j-Kerry Jones; 8. 69-Adam Kackmeister; 9. 24-Douglas Beaman; 10. 29-Chris Turango.
–IMCA Stock Car Feature: 1. 50c-Colton Osborn; 2. 11k-Kyle Clough; 3. 71-Andrew Dillenburg; 4. 16w-Jeff Whiting; 5. 45-Mikey Dancer; 6. 5d-Travis Demilt; 7. 75-Dan Eller; 8. 12az-Rick Maier; 9. 15-Dusty Palmore; 10. 4-Mike Earll.
–IMCA Hobby Stock Feature: 1. 2w-Luke Wassom; 2. 20-Tanner Clough; 3. 20b-Brady Henderson; 4. 83s-Paxton Stubbs; 5. 93-Joe Thiem Sr.
–IMCA Sport Compact Feature: 1. 71c-Christian Destefano; 2. L2-Lonnie Lenser Jr; 3. 07-Merle Johnson; 4. 96k-Sean Miller; 5. 84d-Kaden Dady.
