CJ Johnson Takes Preliminary Win AT URSS Wheatshocker Nationals

The Second Annual Wheatshocker Nationals got off to a hot start as Mother Nature provided a hot and steamy weather to kick of the 2009 Ellis County Fair. Thirty-six teams came to the RPM Speedway to try and lock themselves into the top ten for Sunday’s $2,000.00 to win, $300.00 to start field. When it was all said and done, CJ Johnson took the opening night honors using a caution to survey the track and find a new line to race his way to victory.

Russell Kansas’s Justin Schwien lead the field to the green flag of the twenty-five lap Feature and jumped out to the lead, with Ty Williams, Lance Davis, Barry Crane and CJ Johnson rounding out the top five after lap one. Johnson quickly made his way to the fourth position with Patrick Bourke tucked behind him in fifth. Soon Ray Seemann and Jason Martin would catch the duo and the battle for positions four through sixth began.

Schwien continued to show the way as Williams and Crane where locked in a battle for the runner up spot. Crane looked high and low to find the grip he needed to make the pass, meanwhile Johnson made his way to Crane’s rear bumper on lap seven. Johnson made the pass for the third spot on lap eight and set his sights on Williams. Crane soon had his hands full as Bourke soon turned up the heat and took the third position away on eleven.

The battle for the fourth spot heated up as Seemann and Martin soon caught up with Crane. Seemann made the pass for the spot on lap sixteen with Martin continuing to dog Crane. A caution for a spinning Smokey Fairbank in turn one bunched the field up. During the caution, Johnson had time to survey the racing surface looking for the elusive moisture and a new racing line. During the first half of the race the bottom of the track was still slightly muddy but as the laps wore on, the racers had worked the low line at the same throwing a layer of moist tacky dirt to the cushion.

On the restart, Schwien jumped back to the bottom as Johnson took to the top side and used the cushion to power by Schwien in turns one and two to grab the point and never looked back. Back in the pack, Martin Crane and the “Kansas Tornado” Jon Johnson were locked in a battle for the sixth position. Martin held the spot, but crane and Johnson where hot in his tracks to grab the spot if he slipped up. The pair battled their way through traffic until lap twenty-two when Jon Johnson slipped in three allowing Brian Herbert to take over the eighth spot.

Up front CJ Johnson built up a slight lead as the leaders encountered lap traffic, but nobody could use it to their advantage as Johnson cruised to victory with Justin Schwien, Patrick Bourke edging out Ty Williams for the third position and Ray Seemann rounding out the top five.  However, Schwien was disqualified for failing to pass post race tech inspection.

The Keizer Aluminum Wheels “Hard Charger Award” went to Turpin, Oklahoma racer Taylor Velasquez. Velasquez raced his way from his eighteenth place starting spot to finish in the Ninth position.

Heat race winners were: #1-Justin Schwien, #2-Patrick Bourke, #3-Jason Martin, #4-Lance Davis, and #5-Cody Salem.

A-Main: Top Ten Locked Into Sundays A-Feature

1-CJ Johnson (45X), 2-Patrick Bourke (27), 3-Ty Williams (1), 4-Ray Seemann (72), 5-Jason Martin (36), 6-Barry Crane (30C), 7-Brian Herbert (97), 8-Jon Johnson (86), 9-Taylor Velasquez (21), 10-Darren Bowman (9B), 11-Tyler Knight (11K), 12-Cody Salem (22), 13-Lance Davis (9D), 14-Taylor Milton (91X), 15-Smokey Fairbank (2), 16-Cody Keiswetter (38), 17-Jeff Radcliffe (21R), 18-Bill Hays (2H), Josh Fairbank (51) DNS, Justin Schwien (76J) DQ

Non-Qualifier #1:  Top Five to A-Feature

1-Ray Seemann, , 2-Tyler Knight , 3-Bill Hays, 4-Cody Keiswetter, 5- Jeff Radcliffe, 6-Willie Wynn, 7-Keefe Hemel, 8-Blake Bogenhagen, 9-Chad Salem. 10-Shawn Radcliffe, 11-Don Stieben, Kirby Hagan DNS, Randy Bantam DQ

Non-Qualifier #2:  Top Five to A-Feature

1-Brian Herbert, 2-Darren Bowman, 3-Smokey Fairbank, 4-Taylor Velasquez, 5-Taylor Milton, 6-Corey Lutters, 7-Reed Bernbeck, 8-Craig Jecha, 9-Troy Edwards, 10-Justin Pack, 11-Ken Lutters, 12-Tyler Kraus, Darren Berry DNS