WARRENSBURG, Mo. – Gunner Martin led the list of winners during the return to weekly racing at Central Missouri Speedway on Saturday evening.
Martin started his march to victory with a victory in the second A-Mod heat race, which put him on the front row alongside Dean Wille for the 25-lap A-Mod feature.
When the green flag waved the front row starters took off, with Wille leading the opening circuit ahead of Martin on the high side. Martin took command by lap three, sweeping off turn four as Wille ran second ahead of Jimmy Dowell.
Shad Badder, fresh off his Friday night Lakeside Speedway victory, moved to fourth position by lap six in a close battle with Dustin Hodges. By lap 10, Martin led Wille, Hodges, Badder, and Tim Karrick.
Martin continued pressing hard off turn four and put the right-rear of the car right up against the fence on exit several times as Wille slowly began to creep closer by lap 15.
Midway through the race, Tim Karrick, Schultz and Badder had a great battle going just as Martin approached lapped traffic with Wille and Hodges closing in. On lap 19, Johnny Wyman’s car made contact with the frontstretch wall and the caution waved for the first time after 19 laps.
Martin was the leader for the restart ahead of Wille, Hodges, Karrick and Schultz with six laps remaining. Late cautions slowed the race twice, during one of which officials deemed Karrick’s car to have left the race surface on the inside of the track in turn two to bring out the yellow. Meanwhile, Hodges closed in for second ahead of Schultz and Wille late in the race.
In the end, Martin secured his first victory of the year with Hodges in second. Wille held strong in third with Schultz advancing from ninth to fourth, just in front of Badder in fifth.
Other winners at Central Missouri Speedway Saturday included Aaron Poe (Street Stocks), Patrick Royalty (B-Mods), Dillon Raffurty (Mod Lites) and Logan Headley (Pure Stocks).