Racing heats up at Lincoln Raceway Saturday night

NORTH PLATTE -- Less rain during the week made for a racier track at Lincoln County Raceway in North Platte on May 17.

Promoters Brien and Amy Black helped make four youngsters faster in the neighborhoods as they gave away four bicycles during intermission.

Ronnie Wallace and Todd Chrisman of North Platte, Gary Long of Valentine, Larry Pollmann of McCook and Rick Putnam of Gothenburg were plenty fast and won the night's A Features.

The 21-car IMCA Modified A Feature started a little slow, with two cautions in the last four laps, but once they got by that, it went caution-free.

Don Hagan Jr. of Culbertson showed the field the way around the track once he got Troy Bayne of North Platte in his rear view mirror.

Ronnie Wallace moved from row five to challenge co-heat winner Bayne for the second spot.

Once he got by Bayne, he was able to work on Hagan, the other heat winner. Hagan was able to hold Wallace for a few laps, but once Wallace got good grip on the high side of corner three, he was able to get by and drive on for a big victory.

Bayne caught up with Hagan and got by him late for second place. Tyler Reagle of Valentine, unbeknownst to him, finished in fourth place. Andrew Dillenburg of North Platte finished fifth.

The IMCA Stock Car A Feature had a terrible time getting started, as the first seven of fifteen laps were slowed by seven caution periods.

It was a hair pulling experience for promoters, officials, fans, and drivers alike.

Rookie Todd Chrisman was in the front spot from the start, and had to be wondering what has happening amongst the other 15 starters.

The last eight laps was much cleaner, and Shane Stout of North Platte and Kelly Aden of Gothenburg were able to apply some pressure on Chrisman.

They were also applying pressure on each other, and it took Stout too much time to clear Aden to make a good run on Chrisman. Chrisman had a good clean run of his own and got himself his first A Feature win in less than five starts.

Aden held onto third place, ahead of heat winners Dustin Small of North Platte and Bryan Hagan of Culbertson. McCook driver Bill Matson took the other IMCA Stock Car win. Gary Long had to smile all the way home on the trip back to Valentine. He won the Late Model heat race, and started outside of Shane Lewis of North Platte in the A Feature.

The two put on a good battle in their heat race, then started out with a good battle on the opening lap of the main event. Long had things hooked up well, and once he got by Lewis, he ran away and hid.

A late caution brought Lewis and the rest of the field on his back bumper, but he was able to keep sufficient distance behind him for the win.

Lewis kept progressive Jim Mlady of North Platte from gaining any more spots with his runner-up finish, while Luke Frosh of Ogallala and Mike Danielski of Valentine rounded out the top five.

The Classic Modified class had a caution-free A Feature, which could have benefited pole sitter Matt Fletcher of North Platte.

He got ahead of Jeremy Halouska of North Platte and had a small lead over Halouska and a group of cars.

Larry Pollman was using the low and high lines to work his way to second, then drove down Fletcher and got by him on lap four.

He went on to win healthily over heat race winners Karl Wickizer of Palisade and Charlie Morland of North Platte. Steve Fear of North Platte brought his car home in fourth position, ahead of Fletcher.

The Mini-Sprint A Feature had a slow start, but even it was not enough to slow down Rick Putnam.

Putnam started on row two and had the lead early in the 15-lap event.

Before he could enjoy a victory, he had to battle Arden Myers of McCook and Bob DeRouchey of Ft. Collins, Colo.

The two battled each other, which slowed them down a little. DeRouchey got by Myers for the second spot and came up short in denying Rick Putnam the win.

Jeremy Herbst of North Platte came from the fifth row to finish in fourth place, snatching that from Jamey Kenicutt of Gothenburg on the last lap.

Rob Henry of McCook was the B Feature winner.

Jeff Wignall of Alliance, Meddie Cote of Cozad, Steve Aitken of Gothenburg and Herbst won the Mini-Sprint heat races.

The next night of races will be 7 p.m. Saturday.

Results:

IMCA Modified

Heat 1

94H-Don Hagan Jr.

Heat 2

3RW-Ronnie Wallace

Heat 3

2-Troy Bayne

A Feature

3RW-Ronnie Wallace

2-Troy Bayne

94H-Don Hagan, Jr.

21-Tyler Reagle

71-Andrew Dillenburg

29T-T. J. Cohn

12J-Jay Steffens

2B-Bob Aspenleiter

24M-Jeremy Mentzer

55-Tony Schultz

20-Gary Herbst

31-Dan Carl

41J-Dave Jeffres

24U-Tom Baumgardner

8EZ-Brice Riley

81-Jarod Hilker

3-Anthony Hernandez

06-Ed Milne

9-R. C. Heil

(DNS)1-Kenny McCarty

(DNS)69-Brad Turner

Late Model

Heat 1

3-Gary Long

A Feature

3-Gary Long

21D-Shane Lewis

19J-Jim Mlady

11F-Luke Frosh

5-Mike Danielski

05-Gary Frosh

10-Steve Demilt

03-Rodger Frosh

90-Steve Kempt

IMCA Stock Car

Heat 1

24S-Dustin Small

Heat 2

25H-Bryan Hagan

Heat 3

2M-Bill Matson

A Feature

11-Todd Chrisman

5S-Shane Stout

48-Kelly Aden

24S-Dustin Small

25H-Bryan Hagan

26-Brad Kohler

2M-Bill Matson

72H-Jim Hagan

72D-Justin Gentry

12J-Kerry Jones

27-Jim Marquardt

28-Alex Silos

5B-Buddy Brown

45-Mike Dancer

4C-Charley Brown

Classic Modified

Heat

6-Charlie Morland

Heat 2

K2-Karl Wickizer

A Feature

413-Larry Pollmann

K2-Karl Wickizer

6-Charlie Morland

3-Steve Fear

44-Matt Fletcher

34U-Tommy Baumgardner

4U-Sandy Baumgardner

66-Jeremy Halouska

99-Josh Barnes

Mini-Sprint

Heat 1

4-Jeff Wignall

Heat 2

20-Jeremy Herbst

Heat 3

1-Meddie Cote

Heat 4

71-Steve Aitken

B Feature

81-Rob Henry

19-Larry Refior

20J-Jeremy McCarter

23S-Josh Sabin

A Feature

3-Rick Putnam

18-Bob DeRouchey

42-Arden Myers

20-Jeremy Herbst

15-Jamey Kennicutt

1-Meddie Cote

66-Greg Billings

81-Rob Henry

71-Steve Aitken

21-Matt Welch

23P-Matt Fuehrer

28-J. R. Way

19-Larry Refior

4-Jeff Wignall

(DNS)20J-Jeremy McCarter

(DNS)23S-Josh Sabin