WHEATLAND, Mo. — The late model rookie is now a champion and Robbe Ewing did it in style on Championship Night at Lucas Oil Speedway.
The Stockton driver led the final 15 laps to earn the Hermitage Lumber Late Model feature victory on Saturday night while also clinching the track championship in his first season after driving USRA B-Mods.
Also sweeping his division championship with a feature win on the final night of the Pitts Homes & Realty Weekly Racing Series season was Nic Bidinger in the Arctic Food Equipment USRA Modified division.
Other track champions crowned on Rempfer Memorial Season Championship Night Presented by Bill Roberts Chevrolet were Jon Sheets (Clear Creek Golf Cars USRA B-Mods), Mason Beck (O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars and Tim Brown (Hickamo Super Stocks). Joining Ewing and Bidinger as feature winners were Colson Kirk (USRA B-Mods), William Garner (USRA Stock Cars) and Johnny Fennewald (Super Stocks).
Eighty-four cars were entered on the final night of the regular season. Prior to opening ceremonies, a majority of the them gathered four-wide on the front stretch and fired their engines in unison, then made a ceremonial pace lap together in tribute to Lucas Oil and Lucas Oil Speedway founder Forrest Lucas.
Ewing started third and took the lead away from Jim Greenway out of turn four to complete lap six. The late model rookie wasted no time opening up the lead, with a 2.5-second margin over Greenway by lap 10.
A caution slowed the action at that point, giving Greenway and third-place Tucker Cox a chance over the second half of the race. But it was no problem for Ewing, as he quickly regained command after the restart with Cox moving into second.
With no further cautions, Ewing drove away to prevail by 2.3 seconds for his second feature victory of the season to go with four runner-up finishes and four other top fives.
“This is how I wanted to do it. I wanted to win and take the championship home on the same night,” Ewing said.
“Bryan Larimore takes care of this car, week in and week out,” Ewing added. “He does everything on it. I get to drive it, that’s it. And we would not be here, at all, without Eric and Kathy (Johnson), my car owners (EKJ Motorsports). We kind of came together on this deal at the end of last year and we wouldn’t be here without them.”
Bryon Allison rallied for third with Greenway fourth. J.C. Morton, a three-time feature winner who began the night 34 points behind Ewing, settled for fifth.
