During a salute to First Responders, there were a select few that put forth the best response to salute and honor those hometown heroes during racing action held on Saturday evening at Lincoln County Raceway in North Platte, Nebraska.
Spotlighted in the winners circle while the First Responders were honored were the six standout racers that included Colton Osborn, Paul Donovan, Mikey Dancer, Luke Wassom, Merle Johnsen and Kyle Filyaw.
Wasting no time at all to get to the front, Colton Osborn of Cozad was able to flex his muscles early and often to run away and hide on his way to cruising to the IMCA Modified Feature victory. Osborn started the feature on the inside of the third row and was the leader at the end of the first lap on his way to building big leads that were only extinguished by caution flags on his way to claiming yet another feature victory at Lincoln County Raceway. Working through traffic after being involved in an incident about halfway through the feature event, Ayden Steffens of North Platte was able to finish strong to the tune of a runner-up finish after starting on the inside of the fourth row at the onset of the feature. Having one of his best finishes of the season, the Brady Bullet Dave Pedersen was among the lead group for much of the feature event and his efforts were rewarded with a third place finish after starting on the outside of the fourth row.
After weathering the storm of cautions on lap five, it was just three laps later that Paul Donovan of McCook drove his way to the lead on his way to claiming the IMCA Northern Sport Modified Feature victory. Donovan was able to avoid being involved in the flurry of incidents on lap five and garner the lead after starting on the outside of the second row. Donovan took over the lead from early leader Adam Kackmeister of North Platte. Coming to the lead group from his third row starting position, Jamey Kennicutt of Gothenburg put the pressure on Donovan numerous times but was not able to get past the leader and the veteran wheelman was forced to settle with runner-up accolades. Traveling great distances and being rewarded for the effort, Ryan Moser of Englewood, Colorado bidded his time weaving through the traffic to be ‘on top’ of his game when it counted the most as he was able to score a third place finish in the feature.
Being in the right place at the right time, Mikey Dancer of North Platte was able to garner the lead and then with the assistance of a timely caution flag, able to score the IMCA Stock Car feature victory. Dancer was running in second place before a caution flag was credited to early leader Jeff Whiting of Gothenburg. As a result of the caution, Dancer moved into the lead a position he would fight dearly for and then earn the victory. After being the early leader, Whiting was able to work back through traffic and his efforts put forth resulted in a runner-up finish. Travis Demilt of Keystone was able to showcase his consistency throughout the feature to earn a podium finish in third place overall.
Scoring the lead on the first lap and leading every lap of the feature, Awesome Luke Wassom of Broken Bow cruised to the victory in the IMCA Hobby Stock Feature. Wassom started in the third row when the green flag was dropped. Wassom was elbows up early to gain the lead and never look back. Trying his best to gain ground on Wassom was fellow Broken Bow standout Allyn Myers. Myers started in the rear of the field and took too much time to ‘bob and weave’ through traffic to get to the runner-up position and set his sights on Wassom who had a nearly straightaway lead at the time. Myers was forced to settle with runner-up accolades. Cody Topinka of Cozad was able to put together one of his best efforts of the season and he reaped the benefits from his consistency with a third place finish.
Taking advantage of running double features, Merle Johnsen and Kyle Filyaw both were able to score feature wins in the IMCA Sport Compact division. In the first feature event, Johnsen of Bertrand was able to drive with gumption and led every lap of the feature to earn the victory. Oxford’s Robert Clanton was close behind him for much of the feature and was scored as the runner-up. Kyle Filyaw of North Platte earned the podium finish in the opening feature by finishing third overall.
Taking two more steps up the ladder, Kyle Filyaw was able to score the win in the second feature event for Sport Compacts. Putting the pressure on Filyaw throughout the feature was Merle Johnsen after he slowed to avoid being involved in the Jessica Egri of Gothenburg rollover incident during the early laps of the feature. Sean Miller of Cozad was able to drive his way onto the podium in third place overall.
Lincoln County Raceway will return to action on Saturday, August 29th for Championship Night with racing action slated to start at 7 p.m.
(Unofficial Results)
–IMCA Modified Feature: 1. 50c-Colton Osborn; 2. 12a-Ayden Steffens; 3. 4p-Dave Pedersen; 4. 848-Troy Douglas; 5. 99-Lance Lewis; 6. 2ba-Bob Aspenleiter; 7. 71-Andrew Dillenburg; 8. 0hp-Bryan Herrick.
–IMCA Northern Sport Modified Feature: 1. 1-Paul Donovan; 2. 15k-Jamey Kennicutt; 3. 18c-Ryan Moser; 4. 2-Troy Bayne; 5. 69-Adam Kackmeister; 6. 69z-Zane Turner; 7. 20b-Brady Henderson; 8. 57j-Shane Jones; 9. 29-Chris Turango; 10. 12j-Kerry Jones.
–IMCA Stock Car Feature: 1. 45-Mikey Dancer; 2. 16w-Jeff Whiting; 3. 5d-Travis Demilt; 4. 4-Mike Earll; 5. 31-Darin Racek; 6. 47-Russ Small Jr; 7. 14-Brook Baker; 8. 50c-Colton Osborn; 9. 12az-Rick Maier; 10. 20-Les Brogdon.
–IMCA Hobby Stock Feature: 1. 2w-Luke Wassom; 2. 99m-Allyn Myers; 3. 5t-Cody Topinka; 4. 83s-Paxton Stubbs; 5. 7h-Jeromy Wagner.
–IMCA Sport Compact Feature 1: 1. 07-Merle Johnsen; 2. 74x-Robert Clanton; 3. 7-Kyle Filyaw; 4. 93-Jessica Egri; 5. 96k-Sean Miller.
–IMCA Sport Compact Feature 2: 1. 7-Kyle Filyaw; 2. 07-Merle Johnsen; 3. 96k-Sean Miller; 4. 74x-Robert Clanton; 5. 93-Jessica Egri.
