Cody Salem Takes URSS Win At RPM Speedway
The United Rebel Sprint Series made its first of four appearances of the 2010 Season at Rolling Plains Motor Speedway with 30 teams making the trek to Hays. Mother Nature gave the Rebels a racy surface Friday night as the 3/8’s oval proved to be lightening fast. When the checkers fell it was St. Joseph Missouri’s Cody Salem taking his first URSS Feature win of the new season with a thrilling wire to wire victory.
Cody Salem and Corey Lutters led the field to the green with Salem jumping out to the lead Ray Seemann, Keefe Hemel, Brian Herbert and Ty Williams rounding out the top five at the end of lap one. Herbert turned up the heat on Hemel and on lap three made the pass for the third spot. Up front Salem continued to hold the point as Seemann and Herbert gave chase. Lap six saw Darren Bowman and Ken Lutters make contact in turn four sending Lutters upside down to bring out the first caution of the race. Both Bowman and Lutters cars were damaged to badly to continue.
On the restart, Salem once again jumped out to lead with Seemann and Herbert in his tracks. Lap seven saw Williams make the pass for the fourth position as Hemel fell to fifth. Back in the pack Barry Crane had made his way to the sixth position and was looking to take the fifth spot way from Hemel. Joining the fray was Kirby Hagans as trio fought their way through lapped traffic for several laps with Crane finally made the pass for the fifth spot on lap fourteen pushing Hemel to sixth. The caution waved once again on lap fifteen when Don Steiben came to a stop off of turn two.
On the restart Salem once again jumped out to the lead, with Herbert, Williams, Seemann and Crane in tow. The battle for the sixth spot heated up as Corey Lutters, Hemel and Hagans all diced for the position. Lutters held off numerous challenges as they drove through traffic. Up front Salem was working lapped traffic to his advantage as Herbert, Williams and Seemann were trying to find the line to gain ground on the leader.
The best battle on the track was Williams and Seemann as the pair seemed to be locked together. Seemann tried just about every line to get the advantage on Williams, as the white flag was displayed Seemann made the pass on the backstretch and held it through three and four to grab the spot. As the checkered flag fell it was Cody Salem taking his first win of the season with Brian Herbert, Ray Seemann, Ty Williams and Berry Crane rounding out the top five.
The Keizer Aluminum Wheels “Hard Charger Award” went to Josh Fairbank who made the most of his eighteenth starting spot to finish in the tenth position.
Heat #1
1-Cole Wood, 2-Ray Seemann, 3-Barry Crane, 4-Bill Hays, 5-Don Stieben, 6-Chad Salem, 7-Kaden Taylor
Heat #2
1-Brian Herbert, 2-Corey Lutters, 3-Cody Salem, 4-Smokey Fairbank, 5-Ken Lutters, 6-Tyler Kraus,
7-Shelby Stapel
Heat #3
1-Kirby Hagans, 2-Mike Spear, 3-Jared Kern, 4-Willie Wynn, 5-Zach Blurton, 6-Reed Bernbeck Won Heat didn't go to scales, CJ Johnson - DNS
Heat #4
1-Ty Williams, 2-Keefe Hemel, 3-Craig Jecha, 4-Darren Bowman, 5-Michael Williams, 6-Josh Fairbank,
7-Garth Griffith, 8-Jeff Radcliffe, 9-Tobby Shield
B-Mains - Top Five to A-Main
B #1
1-Reed Bernbeck (C3), 2-Craig Jecha (17X), 3-Tyler Kraus (12), 4-Don Stieben (6), 5-Zach Blurton (2J), 6-Bill Hays (2H), 7-Willie Wynn (36W) DNF, 8-Tobby Shield (007, 9-Kaden Taylor (16K), 10-Jeff Radcliffe (21R)
B #2
1-Darren Bowman (9B), 2-Smokey Fairbank (2), 3-Ken Lutters (79), 4-Josh Fairbank (51), 5-Michael Williams (77W), 6-Chad Salem (17), 7-Garth Griffith (17G), 8-Shelby Stapel (7), 9-Jared Kern (007K) DNS
A-Main
1-Cody Salem (22), 2-Brian Herbert (97), 3-Ray Seemann (72), 4-Ty Williams (1), 5-Barry Crane (30C), 6-Keefe Hemel (11), 7-Kirby Hagans (4), 8-Reed Bernbeck (C3), 9-Smokey Fairbank (20, 10-Josh Fairbank (51), 11-Don Stieben (6), 12-Michael Williams (77W), 13-Zach Blurton (2J), 14-Mike Spear (54), 15-Craig Jecha (17X), 16-Cole Wood (17W), 17-Darren Bowman (9B), 18-Ken Lutters (79), 19-Tyler Kraus (12), 20-Corey Lutters (07) Finished 6th did not go to scales
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