Night Three Win of URSS Speedweek Goes to C J Johnson

Sprint Car Racing returned to the Five State Fair in Liberal Kansas for the first time in five years last night as the United Rebel Sprint Series made its debut at the historic oval for night number three of the Inaugural Speedweeks for 2008. The fans in attendance did not walk away disappointed as the racing action was fast and furious with a photo finish for the win. When the checkered flag dropped it was C J Johnson taking his third consecutive win of Speedweek by the smallest of margins.

Edison Nebraska’s Bill Hays led the field to the green, but Norton Kansas’s Randy bantam jumped out to the lead with Liberal’s Ty Williams in hot pursuit with Hays, Johnson and Keefe Hemel rounding out the top five. Lap two saw Taylor Milton take over the fifth spot from Hemel. Sixteenth starter Taylor Velasquez began making his presence known as he quickly made his way to the sixth by lap five.

Lap six saw Bantam still out front with Johnson in his tire tracks in second. Williams maintained the third spot with Milton being pressured by Velasquez for the fourth position. Bantam held the preferred line as Johnson continually dogged him for the top spot, and on lap nine Johnson made the pass for the lead. Richie Dewell joined the dogfight for the fourth through sixth spots on lap eleven as he took the fifth spot from Velasquez. Dewell made quick work of Milton as he claimed the fourth position on lap twelve.

Lap sixteen saw Dewell, Velasquez and Brian Herbert make a charge to take positions three, for and five. Velasquez took the third spot from Dewell on lap seventeen and set his sights on second place Williams. The pair battled it out until Velasquez to the spot on lap nineteen.

The next seven laps were a dogfight as Velasquez slowly reeled the leader in as the pair diced their way through lapped traffic. Williams and Dewell were locked in their own tug of war for the third and fourth spot. Velasquez caught up to Johnson and turned up the heat. Velasquez was gaining ground on Johnson coming off of turn four and as the white flag was shown to the leaders, Velasquez was trying to make his move on the low side. As the pair flew down the backstretch, Velasquez made his move and it was a classic drag race to the finish as the pair raced towards the checker flag. Velasquez gave it his all as the pair hit the finish line only to come up a foot short as Johnson edged out the young driver. Ty Williams held on to the third spot with Dewell and Milton rounding out the top five.

The Weld Racing Wheels “Hard Charger” of the race went to Taylor Velasquez who came from his sixteenth starting position to grab the runner up spot.

The Keizer Aluminum Wheels B-Main Award went the Brian Herbert for finishing sixth in the Feature.

Heat Race winners were Bill Hays, Kris Miller, Ty Williams and Michael Williams.

A-Main: 1-CJ Johnson (45X), 2-Taylor Velasquez (21), 3- Ty Williams (1), 4-Richis Dewell (112), 5-Taylor Milton (91X), 6-Brian Herbert (97), 7-Randy Bantam (5R), 8-Tanner Mullens (02), 9-Ray Seemann (72), 10-Jeff Radcliffe (21R), 11-Kris Miller (33), 12-Smokey Fairbank, 13-Josh Fairbank (51), 14-Bill Hays (2H), 15-Jerry Caldwell (80), 16-Cody Caldwell (77),  17-Kevin Smith (62K), 18-Keefe Hemel (11), 19-Michael Williams (77W), 20-Steven Richardson (72R)

Non-Qualifier #1

1-Brian Herbert, 2-Jeff Radcliffe, 3-Cody Caldwell, 4-Kevin Smith, 5-Jerry Caldwell, 6-Reed Bernbeck, 7-Barry Crane, 8-Van Kuhn 

Non-Qualifier #2

1-Smokey Fairbank, 2-Ray Seemann, 3-Taylor Velasquez, 4-Steven Richardson, 5-Josh Fairbank. 6-Kris Moore, 7-Johns Colbert