WHEATLAND, Mo. — William Garner broke through for his first Lucas Oil Speedway O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars feature win of the season Saturday night.
Garner grabbed the lead with a huge opening lap and paced all 25 circuits to earn the $750 victory.
Other feature winners on Ozarks Food Harvest Food Drive Night at the Races Presented by OzarksFirst.com were Terry Kirk (Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modifieds), Dayton Pursley (Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods) and Justin Wells (Hermitage Lumber Late Models).
Garner soared from sixth to first on the opening lap. As cars in front of him shuffled out of turn two, Garner shot through a gap in the middle to pick up five positions in a hurry. By lap five, Garner had a 1.3-second lead over Ellis with season points leader Mason Beck in third.
Beck passed Ellis the next time around and set his sights on Garner.
Garner’s lead held steady to just under two seconds until a caution on lap 12 wiped out that gap. Beck lost a position after the restart to Ellis as Garner led the way by five car lengths. As Beck regained second by lap 18, Garner’s lead was 1.5 seconds. He cruised from there to earn his first feature win of the season at Lucas Oil Speedway, beating Beck by 2.1 seconds.
“I was just trying to hit my marks each lap,” Garner said. “I thought I gave it up a couple of times, but I think we’re finally working with something. We’ve been struggling the last couple of weeks and we finally have something to work with.”
Garner posted his ninth top-five finish of the season as he began the night 82 points behind Beck.
Ellis came home in third, with Waylon Dimmitt fourth and Johnny Fennewald fifth after starting 10th.
Kirk goes wire-to-wire in USRA Modifieds
Terry Kirk started up front and wired the field, leading all 20 laps to outdistance season points leader Ryan Middaugh for the Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modified victory. Kirk, with his first win in four years at Lucas Oil Speedway, finished 2.8 seconds in front of Middaugh in a caution-free event.
While his son Colson Kirk won at Lucas Oil Speedway a month ago in a USRA B-Mod, this was Terry’s first trip to victory lane in a long while.
“It’s the first time I’ve won one here in 10 or 15 years,” Terry Kirk said. “It’s been a long time since I won a race and I’m glad to do it.”
Middaugh advanced from fifth to second in just two laps, but trailed Kirk by 1.3 seconds. Kirk added on to his margin over the next few laps, with a 2.3 lead by lap seven and 2.6 by the midpoint. With the racing clicking along without any cautions, Kirk kept pouring it on from there to win by a comfortable margin.
Jason Pursley finished third with Shad Badder fourth and Tracy Wolf in fifth.
Young Pursley earns B-Mod triumph
Second-generation driver Dayton Pursley out-dueled veteran JC Morton and went on to capture his first feature win in the Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods. The son of long-time local USRA Modified competitor Jason Pursley lead 18 of the 20 laps to earn the memorable triumph, beating Morton by 1.7 seconds after a terrific early-race duel.
“First off, I want to thank the good Lord above for getting me here in the first place,” Pursley said in victory lane. “Second, I want to thank my dad, my mom and my girlfriend. Just this Lucas Oil facility, everything is top notch. I don’t even know what to say.”
Pursley led the way through the opening lap, but Morton took to the high side to grab the top spot on lap two.
Then it was Pursley’s return to re-take the top spot on lap four.
Over the next few laps, those two front-row starters waged a side-by-side battle with Pursley riding the low groove and holding off the cushion-riding Morton with Bobby Williams a second behind in third.
Pursley’s lead was one second and steadily increasing at the midway point. Pursley’s main issue from there was picking his way through lapped traffic, which he was able to do and he wound up 1.7 seconds clear of Morton. Williams hung on for third with Cody Brill fourth and Jon Sheets finishing fifth.
Wells makes it seven Late Model wins
Justin Wells dominated all 20 laps, picking up his seventh Hermitage Lumber Late Model feature win of the season.
Wells beat Larry Ferris and JC Morton after a late caution led to a one-lap shootout at the finish.
“I was watching that scoreboard and I knew that as multi-grooved as this track was, I figured JC would be up there busting the cushion,” Wells said. “So I moved around there and found a little bit more speed. Hats off to Lucas Oil Speedway. This track, as a racer, that’s what you want to see. Any place you wanted to be, you could run.”
Wells started on the pole and wasted no time opening a comfortable lead.
Just five laps into the 20-lapper, he was 1.6 seconds in front of Morton with Ferris running third.
Those three broke away with a wide gap to fourth-place Bryon Allison by the halfway mark. Wells weaved his way through lapped traffic as the race stayed green until a lap-12 caution as he avoided a pair of spinning cars on the front stretch to bring out the first yellow.
Ferris moved past Morton as the green flew with Morton soon regaining second. Meanwhile, Wells checked out on everyone. He was 2.7 seconds in front of Morton by lap 15 and pulling away. Wells had the checkers nearly in sight when a three-car melee brought out the caution on the white-flag lap. That wiped out a 4.4-second lead and gave Morton and Ferris a final shot.
The restart was no problem for Wells, who beat Ferris by 1.2 seconds with Morton right behind.
Cole Henson finished fourth and Tucker Cox was fifth.