Sedalia News-Journal

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Start your engines
Scenes from the third annual Bob Ramey, Sr., Memorial Race, held May 4 at State Fair Speedway.

Bodenhammer, Boney and Brown grab checkereds at 3rd annual Bob Ramey Sr. Memorial Race
By Kim Marcum
Sportswriter
Never a dull moment is the best way to describe the action Sunday night at the third annual Bob Ramey Sr. Memorial Race at Sedalia's State Fair Speedway.

It was a perfect night for racing at the annual event, as WOW 360 Sprints, ULMA Late Models and Modifieds blazed the historic half-mile track, giving fans a great night of racing.

Brian Brown took advantage of a caution on lap 16 to grab the checkered in the O'Reilly Auto Parts 360 Winged Outlaw Warriors feature, after trailing by as much as a half lap.

At the start of the race, Jason Johnson jumped into the lead down the back stretch from his outside row one start, followed by pole-setter Curtis Evans.

Knoxville Iowa's Wayne Johnson slide into the third spot coming out of turn three, but lost power in turn four, bringing out the races first caution.

On the restart Johnson again shot into the lead, with Evans claiming second. Brown moved into third and Springfield Nebraska's Jack Dover held on to fourth, while Randy Martin rounded out the top five.

The caution again came out before the completion of lap two when Austin Alumbaugh got crossed up coming out of turn four and ended up next to the guard rail, bringing the race to a halt twice within two laps.

Johnson again jumped into the lead on the second restart, followed by Evans, Brown and Dover.

Brown made a move on three and four and took over the second spot on lap four, with Dover making his way into third down the back stretch.

One lap later, Martin found a line around Evans on the back stretch and moved into fourth.

By lap six, Johnson was putting the power down on the track and was starting to pull away from the rest of the pack.

Danny Lasoski started 15th in the race after finishing fourth in his heat and worked his way up to the top six.

Johnson continued to increase his lead on the rest of the field while making his way through lap traffic.

On lap 11, Lasoski and Tony Bruce Jr. both made moves and got around Martin moving into the top five.

One lap later Dover made a move around Brown for second, but Brown held close until the caution flew once again on lap 16.

Rusty Potter's car came to a halt on the front stretch and brought out the third caution of the race, erasing the half lap lead by Johnson with four laps remaining.

The single file restart slated Johnson in the lead, followed by Dover. Brown was setting in the number three spot, followed by Bruce Jr. and Lasoski.

On the restart, Johnson took the lead out of one and two, but Bruce Jr. went down low coming out of turn two and grabbed the second spot down the back stretch, with Brown a close third.

A fight for second occurred for the next two laps with Brown taking back his second place spot on the top side of three and four with one-lap remaining.

Brown continued his move forward,shooting to the bottom on one and two and pulled even with Johnson down the back stretch, taking the lead away as they hit three and four, grabbing the checkered ahead of Johnson who led for 19 laps.

"We lost a race acouple of weeks ago by leading it, sometimes leading like that messes you up when you come on a yellow," commented Brown.

"You're a mile ahead and you think, I'm in good shape and then the yellow comes out. We wasn't the fastest car on the track but we found the rubber first and we'll take them any way we can get them," he said. Johnson took the second spot, followed by Bruce Jr. in third. Lasoski finished fourth and Dover rounded out the top five.

Twenty two cars hit the track for the feature in the modifieds, with Dustin Boney taking the lead out of turn one and never looking back.

At the end of lap one, Curt Potter held on to second, with Chad Lyle sliding into third with Aaron Poe hanging on to fourth.

Lyle shot to the bottom of one and two on the next lap and grabbed the second spot, while Scotty Roberts moved up into the fourth spot.

One lap later, Roberts took over the third spot, while Boney stretched his lead out even further.

By lap six, Boney lead reached half a straight away as he came up on lap traffic.

The positions stayed the same for the next several laps as the biggest battle for the rest of the race was for the second and third spots, between Lyle, Potter and Roberts.

On lap 14, both Potter and Roberts made their way around Lyle, but were trailing the leader by a straight away.

Lyle regained third from Roberts one-lap later and set his sights on Potter in second.

In final two laps, Lyle, Roberts and Potter put on the show, running door-to-door with Lyle taking the second spot on the final lap, followed by Roberts and Potter. Terry Shultz moved up from his inside row five start to round out the top five.

"I love racing this place, I wish they raced it weekly," commented Boney. "For not being raced on and the spring we've had, it was a very good race track. This crew did an excellent job on getting this track ready to race. "We had an excellent race car tonight it went where ever I need it to go."

It was a good turnout for the UMLA Late Model class with 19 cars making the call for the A-main.

Shad Badder took the lead on the opening lap, followed by James Rutledge. Jason Bodenhammer made up the third spot with Chad Clark and Randy McGraw fighting for the fourth spot.

On lap three Bodenhammer went high on one and two and took over the second spot setting his eyes on Badder in the lead.

One lap later, Clark made his move and pulled into the third spot around Rutledge.

Clark chased Badder for the next several laps waiting to make his move. As the cars hit lap traffic on lap 10, Bodenhammer shot to the out side of a lapped car on turns three and four and pulled ahead of Badder who went low.

Byan Allison broke into the top four on the next lap and held it the remainder of the race.

Bodenhammer increased his lead as the race wore on. On lap 15, A.L. Barbour lost power and brought out the caution bunching the cars back up, but there were no changes in positions.

Bodenhammer grabbed the checkered, followed by Badder. Clark finished in the third spot, with Allison in fourth. Rutledge rounded out the top five.