Story by Kelly Ninas
Drive like lightning wasn’t just a figure of speech for the competitors that challenged for top honors at Lincoln County Raceway in North Platte on Saturday evening as the Raceway staff did their best to get in the show prior to the ensuing storms moved across the area.
Punching their ticket to the winners circle with their top of the podium finishes was David Murray Jr, Jacob Olmstead, Casey Woken, Luke Wassom and Terry Tritt.
Veteran wheelman David Murray Jr of Oberlin, Kansas was able to hold off all the challengers on the final laps to claim the victory in the IMCA Modified Feature. Murray started the main event in the third row when the green flag was unfurled. At the onset, right next to Murray was Tyler Frye of Belleville, Kansas. Frye was able to drive his way onto the podium with a runner-up finish to Murray. The pair of Kansas drivers put on an impressive display of driving and competing during the final laps of the feature. Brandon Clough of Wallace was able to finish strong to the tune of third place accolades for his efforts.
Gaining lots of confidence in his skills behind the wheel of an open wheel hot rod, Jacob Olmstead of Overton was able to showcase his skills at the front of the field to win the IMCA Northern Sport Modified Feature. It was a long road to the front for Olmstead, as he started the feature on the outside of the fifth row. Jacob Slough of Doniphan was close to claiming his second win in North Platte on Saturday, but he had to settle with a runner-up finish after starting on the inside of the fifth row. Fan favorite Tony Schultz of North Platte was able to avoid incidence in the finals laps of the feature event to earn the third place accolades.
The 1-2 punch of Casey Woken and Travis Demilt were able to take home the top two spots in the IMCA Stock Car Feature. Woken of Norton, Kansas was able to cruise around the bottom and was able to get a good drive off of the corners to be the first one to the checkered flag after working through traffic quite well, since he started in the fifth row. Travis Demilt of Ogallala was able to apply pressure to Woken down the stretch to no avail, Demilt had to settle with runner-up accolades. Continuing to get his rhythm back in a stock car, Cale Osborn of Cozad was rewarded for his efforts with a third place finish. Osborn started on the pole and was able to stay among the leaders for much of the feature contest. Kyle Clough of Wallace and Cody DeWester of McCook rounded out the top five in the feature.
When all the smoked cleared on the IMCA Hobby Stock Feature, the order of finish went back to the last completed lap as a result of a final lap melee which in turn had Awesome Luke Wassom of Broken Bow as the victor. Wassom was in the fourth row on the starting grid when the green flag dropped. Coming across the finish line just trailing Wassom on the white flag lap was Zach Olmstead of Overton, who was awarded the runner-up finish. Olmstead started the feature in the fifth row. Displaying great consistency throughout the feature, Nate Refior of Sutton crossed the finish line in third place overall.
Returning back to Lincoln County Raceway resulted in similar finishes for York’s Terry Tritt as he won his second IMCA Sport Compact feature at the North Platte dirt track. Tritt started the feature on the inside of the second row. Gothenburg’s Quincy Eggleston had Tritt within reach during the waning laps, but he ran out of real estate and was forced to settle with a second place finish. Merle Johnson of Bertrand was able to keep his hot rod strong during the final laps to earn third place accolades.
(Unofficial Results)
–IMCA Modified Feature: 1. 97m-David Murray Jr; 2. 55-Tyler Frye; 3. 20b-Brandon Clough; 4. 11h-Henry Henderson; 5. 34jw-Cole Hodges; 6. 0hp-Bryan Herrick; 7. 4p-Dave Pedersen; 8. 93h-Klancy Honeycutt; 9. 255-Zach Schultz.
–IMCA Northern Sport Mod Feature: 1. 88j-Jacob Olmstead; 2. 15d-Jacob Slough; 3. 55-Tony Schultz; 4. 1-Paul Donovan; 5. 15k-Jamey Kennicutt; 6. 511-Zach Buesing; 7. 88-Eric Kackmeister; 8. 69-Adam Kackmeister; 9. 12j-Kerry Jones; 10. 69z-Zane Turner.
–IMCA Stock Car Feature: 1. 35jw-Casey Woken; 2. 5d-Travis Demilt; 3. 6c-Cale Osborn; 4. 11k-Kyle Clough; 5. 20k-Cody Dewester; 6. 16w-Jeff Whiting; 7. 24-Bob Chalupa; 8. 75-Dan Eller; 9. 47-Russ Small Jr; 10. 12az-Rick Maier.
–IMCA Hobby Stock Feature: 1. 2w-Luke Wassom; 2. 98z-Zach Olmstead; 3. R89-Nate Refior; 4. 72b-Jacob Hagan; 5. 1-Tanner Clough; 6. 7d7-David Norquest; 7. 12t-Tanner Jones; 8. 5-Chuck Ledbetter; 9. 45r-Riley Kort; 10. 5t-Cody Topinka.
–IMCA Sport Compact Feature: 1. 5x-Terry Tritt; 2. 7e-Quincy Eggleston; 3. 07-Merle Johnson; 4. 84d-Kaden Dady; 5. 00d-Daryl Cauffman; 6. 71a-Andrew McClellen; 7. L2-Lonnie Lenser Jr; 8. 14-Rliegh Flohrs; 9. 26-Marcus Florom.
