Michael Wilson

Ty Williams Finally Grabs URSS Win at the Great American Dirt Track

Ty Williams had come so close to Victory Lane at the Great American Dirt Track in the United Rebel Sprint Series last two appearances. Williams had held the lead in the race held at the high-banked 3/8’s only to lose the spot in a drag race to the flag stand. Williams finally got off of the snide as he picked off his fifth United Rebel Sprint Series feature win of the year by hammering down on the lighting fast high banked oval at the Great American Dirt Track at the Jetmore Motorplex. Williams blasts out of the Fourth of July Holiday weekend as the national point leader for Rick Salem’s Rebels after notching his seventh career tour win.

Even though Hurricane Alex had dissipated, gale force winds swept across the Great American Dirt Track over the Fourth of July weekend, but it wasn’t a tropical storm that greeted fans at the super fast high banked oval, instead it was the United Rebel Sprint Series storming into the southwest. Ken Lutters of Ransom, Kansas, led the field to the green flag but an early caution slowed the field for a flipping Reed Bernbeck in turn four. The attempted restart saw pole sitter Lutters get caught up with Brian Herbert. Lutters would be unable to continue and Herbert would be relegated to the rear.

The twenty five lap shootout would finally go green and would see Ty Williams take the early lead with C.J. Johnson, Kirby Hagans, Keefe Hemel, and Ray Seemann the top five. Seemann would slip by Hemel in the early going moving into third.

Just as the field began to see the tail tanks of the back markers, caution would wave for Great Bend’s Jared Kern. A single file restart tightened the field and put the 2009 URSS National champion squarely on Williams’ backside. As the green flag dropped the duo of Williams and Johnson would rocket away from the pack. Johnson would close on Williams going into the corners but Williams would out pull the Quinter driver onto the straights.

The field was content to ride where they were with Williams and Johnson the front runners and Seemann, Hemel, and Hagans the top five. With the leaders into the lapped traffic Johnson would slowly start to reel in the leader. Lap eighteen would see the duo side by side in turns one and two. Onto the back chute Williams would fall off of the topside as Johnson gained the advantage. Williams would gather it up in turn three and shoot back onto the surface resulting in a three wide traffic jam. Johnson found himself in the middle of the shakedown with lapper Cody Caldwell on the bottom and Williams roaring around the top. The trio would touch and Williams would lose momentum in the marbles. Johnson would take the show position with Williams falling to second.

Just as the URSS reigning national champion looked to check out, disaster would strike as a puff of smoke billowed from the 45X. A broken crank would end a possible run to victory lane for Johnson.

With Johnson in the garage, Williams would inherit the lead with a familiar foe in his mirror, ‘The Rainman” Ray Seemann would climb to second as Keefe Hemel would ride in third, with Kirby Hagans, and Darren Bowman the top five. With eighteen laps in the books it set up a seven-lap sprint to determine the winner. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, Brian Herbert and Nick Haygood would use the restart to catch the field napping and blast into the top five. Meanwhile, Seemann would dive under Williams in turns one and two. A side-by-side battle for first would follow.

Just as the finish was in sight, Bowman would catch the berm in turn two and pick up some frequent flyer miles at the Great American Dirt Track. An open red would allow track officials to check drivers and their mounts before a green, white, checkered finish was turned loose.

With the green flag waving Seemann would try to get underneath of Williams one more time but there would be no last lap heroics on this night as Williams would lock down the bottom and steal the victory. Seemann would wear the runner up slipper with Haygood, Hemel, and Herbert rounding out the top five.

The Keizer Aluminum Wheels “Hard Charger Award” was picked up by Jordan Randles who raced his way from his nineteenth starting spot to finish in the sixth position!

Heat Race Winners: Craig Jecha, Ty Williams, Keefe Hemel, and Nick Haygood

B Feature: 1-Darren Bowman, 2-Reed Bernbeck, 3-Zach Blurton, 4-Cody Caldwell, 5-Jared Kern, 6-Smokey Fairbank, 7-Kris Moore, 8-Jeff Radcliffe, 9-Jordan Randles, 10-Shelby Staple, 11-Kory Lira (18), 12-83 Nick King (83), 13-Shawn Radcliffe (3), 14-Lance Davis (9D), DNS-Steve Dalton (12D), DNS Josh Fairbank (51)

A-Feature:

1-Ty Williams (1), 2-Ray Seemann (72), 3-Nick Haygood (1N), 4-Keefe Hemel (11), 5-Brian Herbert (97), 6-Jordan Randles (007), 7-Kirby Hagans (4), 8-Smokey Fairbank (2), 9-Zach Blurton (2J). 10-Jeff Radcliffe (21R), 11-Shelby Staple (7), 12-Cody Caldwell (77), 13-Kris Moore (49), 14-Darren Bowman (9B), 15-C.J Johnson (45X), 16-Corey Lutters (07), 17-Jared Kern (007K), 18-Craig Jecha (17X), 19-Ken Lutters (79), 20-Reed Bernbeck (C3)