Taylor Velasquez Runs Away With URSS Win at Wakeeney

The United Rebel Sprint Series made its final appearance at the Wakeeney Speedway as part of the 99^th Annual Trego County Fair. Mother Nature and a broken water line once again tried their best to bring the night to a halt, but they couldn’t put a damper on the evenings racing as twenty-six teams made the trip to the 3/8’s mile oval. The crowd was treated to some exciting racing as Turpin Oklahoma’s Taylor Velasquez was on a rail as he lapped the field all the way up to the sixth position to take the win.

Tyler Kraus brought the field to the green and jumped out to the early lead with Velasquez, Smokey Fairbank, Ken Lutters and Jeff Radcliffe rounding out the top five at the end of lap one. Jon Johnson rocketed into the third spot on lap two as Velasquez looked to take the lead. Velasquez took the point on lap three with Johnson pressuring Kraus for the runner up spot. Kraus and Johnson battled for the next four laps with Johnson taking the position for good on lap eight.

Back in the pack the trio of Ray Seemann, Brian Herbert and Darren Bowman were steadily working their way to the front and by lap nine they had made their way into the top five behind the leaders. As the leaders started to work their way through lapped traffic, it seemed Velasquez’s lead would start to dwindle. Velasquez would pick and choose the line he would use to make the pass on the slower cars. A late caution would fly on lap eighteen to bunch up the field and set the stage for a great finish.

On the restart, Velasquez once again pulled out to a substantial lead with Jon Johnson in pursuit of the Turpin Oklahoma hot shoe. Behind the leaders, Seemann, Herbert, Bowman and Hemel were locked in a battle for the third through sixth positions, each searching for that break that would advance them a spot. In the closing laps Herbert would take over the third spot on lap twenty-two with Bowman following him into the fourth position on lap twenty-three.  

In the end nothing could stop Velasquez who had lapped the field up to the sixth position when the white flag was shown. Velasquez would take the checkered flag followed by Jon Johnson, Brian Herbert, Darren Bowman and Ray Seemann to round out the top five.

The Keizer Aluminum Wheels “Hard Charger Award” was picked up by Willie Wynn who came from his twenty-fourth place starting spot to finish the race in the eleventh position.

Heat Race Winners: #1-Jon Johnson, #2-Brian Herbert, #3-Ray Seemann, #4-Taylor Velasquez

A-Main: 1- Taylor Velasquez (21), 20-Jon Johnson (86), 3-Brian Herbert (97), 4-Darren Bowman (9B), 5-Ray Seemann (72), 6-Keefe Hemel (11), 7-Jeff Radcliffe (21R), 8-Josh Fairbank (51), 9-Ken Lutters (79), 10-Lance Davis (9D), 11-Willie Wynn (36W), 12-Tim Perkins (99), 13-Travis Decker (84T), 14-Blake Bogenhagen (27B), 15-Howard Van Dyke (74), 16-Cody Keiswetter (38), 17-Chad Salem (17), 18-Bill Hays (2H), 19-Michael Williams (77W), 20-Judd Sheaffer (56), 21-Smokey Fairbank (2), 22-Tyler Kraus (12), 23-Reed Bernbeck (C3), 24-Shawn Radcliffe (3R)

Heat #1: 1-Jon Johnson, 2-Tyler Kraus, 3-lance Davis, 4-Keefe Hemel, 5-Howard Van Dyke, 6-Cody Keiswetter, 7-CJ Johnson DNF

Heat #2 – 1-Brian Herbert, 2-Darren Bowman, 3-Jeff Radcliffe, 4-Smokey Fairbank, 5-Chad Salem, 6-Travis Decker, Willie Wynn DNS

Heat #3 – 1-Ray Seemann, 2-Bill Hays, 3-Reed Bernbeck, 4-Blake Bogenhagen, 5-Tim Perkins, 6-Judd Sheaffer

Heat #4 – 1-Taylor Velasquez, 2-Ken Lutters, 3-Michael Williams, 4-Josh Fairbank, 5-Shawn Radcliffe, 6- Craig Jecha