Cowtown Speedway 6-28-03

[rebelracewriter]

Cowtown Speedway 6-28-03

By J M Hallas

Kennedale, Texas., Finally got to make my first trip to the fabled Cowtown Speedway. It wasn’t long till I understood how it got the nickname, “Fastest Little Dirt Track in Texas.” The 1/4 Mile track surface was excellently prepared, especially considering the Texas summer heat. The Sprint cars and Modifieds ran their features early enough to have a tacky surface, and not dry it too much for the other classes.

 

 

Ramey Blisters field

It didn’t take long for action to start, at the start of the first Sprint heat Mike Sanders jumped the wheel of another car and went for series of nasty end over end flips. Sanders went nearly one complete revolution in mid-air, and landed back his wheel. Sanders was shaken, but able walk away under his own power.

 

ASCS driver Kevin Ramey beat polesitter Daniel Estes into turn one and began to run away quickly. D. Estes and Marvin Lough battled at the finish for second, but Ramey took the win by a full straightaway. Lough snuck in for second, D. Estes third and point’s leader, Brad Welborn was fourth.

 

Ryan Hall and Bill Waller led the second heat green, with Waller grabbing the top spot. Hall tried a slide job on lap three and again on lap six, but was unable to make the pass. Johnny Miller and Gary Bell battled hard for fourth as Waller got the victory. Hall had to settle for second, with Eric Winnett third and Miller fourth.

 

13 cars started the A-main paced to green by heat winners, Waller and Ramey. Ramey jumped into lead and never looked back. E. Winnett used the high groove to grab second from Waller on lap two. Waller and Lough then battled wheel to wheel for third on lap three. Waller continued to fall back, with Miller grabbing fourth the next lap. By lap six, Ramey had another full straight lead over E Winnett, as Lough and Miller slugged it out for third.

 

As the crossed flags were shown, it was Ramey(long gone), E. Winnett, Lough, Miller and Hall rounding out the top five. Ramey was on a pace to lap nearly the entire field when the races only yellow came out, for a blown motor by Robert Byrom on lap 14.

 

It didn’t take long back under green till Ramey had another comfortable gap. Miller tried to get by Lough on the high side, but got squeezed into the wall, both retained control and continued. As Ramey ran away, the battle was for sixth was the best race in the final laps with Welborn and Bell swapping 6th and 7th. As the checkers flew it was Ramey, piloting the Mikes Concrete Pumping/Burkham Const./Smileys/’96 Schnee Chassis, taking the easy win.

A-Main

1st 7 Kevin Ramey

2nd 21 Eric Winnett

3rd 39 Marvin Lough

4th 64 Johnny Miller

5th 17 Brad Welborn

6th 9 Ryan Hall

7th 85 Jerry Bell

8th 12 Benny Cordell

9th 114 James Peebles

10th 53 Bill Waller

11th 74 Claude Estes

12th 14 Robert Byrom

13th 15 Jonathon Winnett

14th 71 Daniel Estes-DNS

15th 6 Mike Sanders-DNS

 

Jones continues his domination

The action continued throughout the UMP Modified heats. Heat one saw a good three car battle for the lead between, Jimmy Littlejohn, Marc Hoster and Mitch McMillan. J. Littlejohn went on to grab the checkers, with McMillan grabbing second, Hoster third and Dale Mayo fourth.

 

In heat two, Larry Ray jumped into the top spot with Troy Taylor in pursuit. Sam Cox the bullied his way to the front as he pulled a bankshot pass on Taylor for second, then used the same move to get around Ray for the lead with one lap to go.

 

As the drivers exited, Taylor gave Cox a little, “what the heck was that move” tap, then along came an even more ticked off, Ray who drilled Cox. When Cox stopped spinning he was pointed at Taylor, who he assumed was the culprit. So Cox rammed Taylor head on, backed up and rammed Taylor again. Taylor finally had enough and returned the shot, as the two used $30,000 modifieds as demo derby cars—but a little early.

 

Track officials arrived on the scene and cooler heard prevailed. Cox and Ray were DQ’ed, though I thought all three should have been sent to showers. Poor sportsmanship has no place on track, especially when setting an example for the next generation of racers. Not that I condone it in the pits, but better there than in public view. I feel NASCAR has started setting the same bad example lately. Taylor was awarded the win, followed by Jim Knight, Nicholas Littlejohn and Dominick Palanza

 

Heat three was a little tamer, as Gary Day grabbed the early lead. Carl Large challenged G. Ray on the low side, while David Fiester and Sean Jones battled for third. Large put on a perfect slide job on G. Ray to grab the point on the final lap to snare the honors. G. Ray held second, Fiester third and Jones fourth.

 

The UMP Modified main lined up the 22 car field, with Large and Taylor setting the pace. Taylor got the top spot on lap one as he, Large and McMillan pulled ahead of the pack. The field battled 2-3 wide, with Jones moving up from his sixth row start. Caution flew on lap five when Fiester climbed the front stretch wall and slowed rolled on its side.

 

Taylor got a slight advantage on green as Large and McMillan ran door to door for second. Jones sailing around on the high side got by McMillan for third by lap six. Demetrius Carter’s car erupted in flames on lap eight to stop the action after running over a bumper and possibly puncturing the fuel line or oil pan.

 

On the restart Jones made quick work of Large for second, while Nathan Sugg spun but was able to keep going. Taylor and Jones then started their own little battle as the two eased away from the crowd. Jones gave Taylor a look low just before halfway, with Large, Hoster and McMillan in the other top five spots.

 

Jones went back to high side and eked ahead for the lead, but slid a little too high on lap 13, allowing Taylor to retake the point. The next lap Jones again inched ahead at the line as the two were side by side on lap 14. The great battle came to an end when Taylor got picked by a lap car and he spun himself out trying to avoid contact.

 

Jones got a good jump on the restart with Large and Hoster side by side and swapping second. Taylor worked his way back up to fifth with five to go and Hoster’s night ended when he broke while running third. By now Jones had built a healthy lead as Taylor continued his charge back to the front. As the checkers flew it was Jones by a full straightaway in his SouthWest Engines/PSC Steering Components/SVT Graphics/Track Master Chassis taking yet another win in the 2003 season. Jones is currently in the top five of UMP National points.

A-Main

1st 5 Sean Jones

2nd 33 Carl Large

3rd 56 Troy Taylor

4th 92 Mitch McMillan

5th 2 Greg Frazier

6th 1 James Lopez

7th 87 Nicholas Littlejohn

8th 105 Gary Ray

9th 190 Zach Sugg

10th 70 George Gafford

11th 175 Jerry Crowley

12th 65 David Fiester

13th 8 Marc Hoster

14th 49 Mark Mosley

15th 64 Danny Ferguson

16th 31 Chris Huckeba

17th 198 Nathan Sugg

18th 55 Dale Mayo

19th 40 Dominick Palanza

20th 125 Demetrius Carter

21st 37 Jim Knight

22nd 10 Cameron West

23rd 27 Jimmy Littlejohn-DNS blew motor in heat

 

In the 21 car Outlaw Street Stock main, Darrell Fletcher and David Bonham battled for the lead early. It wasn’t long until Gary Ray and Danny Ferguson joined in. Ferguson worked his way to fight it out with Fletcher as the white flag flew. Coming out of turn four to the checkers Ferguson and Fletcher rubbed together, with Ferguson getting win by a fender as he came across the line sideways.

Top ten finishers

1 64 Danny Ferguson

2 11 Darrell Fletcher

3 66 David Bonham

4 01 Carey Felkins

5 105 Gary Ray

6 121 Cy Conditt

7 5 Chase Barrett

8 98 Troy Cave

9 6 Robert Wright

10 55 Ivan Hutchinson

Heat winners were Fletcher, Ricky Smith and 13 year old, Conditt

 

Chris Pickering and Troy Cave ran side by side for a couple laps at the start of the 19 car Street Stock main, until Pickering got the advantage. Cave got around after a restart, as he and Pickering ran door to door again until Cave broke and pulled off.

 

Jimmy Criswell took up the challenge after the restart, with Robert Burrows getting into the battle as well. Pickering got held up by a slow car giving Burrows the lead. But Burrows slipped up in turns three-four allowing Pickering to get back by. Pickering then held off Burrows to take the checkers.

Top ten finishers

1 23 Chris Pickering

2 27 Robert Burrows

3 56 Jimmy Criswell

4 80 Chris Denhart

5 10 Robbie Harrison

6 11 Bill Lund

7 55 Chris Carter

8 75 John Baldwin

9 79 Anthony Combs

10 54 Jeff Martinez

Heat race honors went to Pickering, Cave and Carter

 

Brent Bullard led the 12 car Bomber feature from flag to flag to take the win and scoring the daily double after taking his heat race as well. Larry Copeland took the other heat.

Top ten finishers

1 72 Brent Bullard

2 3 Eddie Phillips

3 88 Chris Greggs

4 115 Lanny Copeland

5 157 Don Campbell

6 81 Morris McCallister

7 177 Josh Letson

8 4 Doug Phillips

9 13 JD Uhrick

10 99 Daniel Payne

 

In the Jr. Mini main, Nick Clickenbeard looked to be the easy winner until he jumped tires with the lap car of Shea Crawford and slammed the turn four wall. David Ferguson, Tyler Ray and Josh Brooks battled for the win in the final laps with Ferguson taking the trophy.

1 64 David Ferguson

2 105 Tyler Ray

3 05 Josh Brooks

4 01 Jared Jasso

5 12

6 02 Shea Crawford

7 Nick Clickenbeard