Springfield,Mo.-Before a packed house, Officials honored their top drivers from the Springfield Raceway for the outstanding 2011 Racing season along with several other awards and a host of giveaways.
The evening started with another outstanding slide show from Ryan Gilmore Photos while dinner was served.Co-Owner Jerry Hoffman thanked the endless crew from the Speedway along with the top flight Sponsors of 2011.Race Director Ron Williams recapped what SpringfieldRaceway really meant by going over the different fund raisers,the outstanding action week in and week out along with the togetherness of the Race group and the loss of 2 track supporters and the ceremonies involved to say their farewell to Rob Burgess and “Granny” along with another Gilmore slide show.
An outstanding 265 raceteams competed at the Quick-Quarter Transport Graphics Championship Chase and over 450 teams checked into the pits for the action in 2011 total.The Track ran USRA modifieds,Reliable Chevrolet B-Mods,Casey’s General Stores Midwest Modz,Wheeler Metals PureStocks,Missouri Legends and Pepsi StreetStocks and hosted Special events featuring MLRA/MARS Latemodels,Power I Midgets and 600 CC Micros,Lucas Oil ASCS Regional winged Sprint Cars along with Show-Me Racin Series LateModels
Ken Walker of Transport Graphics who sponsored the weekly racing series thanked many different track workers as unsung Heros.
Co-Owner Jerry Hoffman and Williams both handled the awards presentations as drivers who finished 6th-10th were given a chance to thank those who helped them out for the season while the top 5 drivers in each weekly class recieved Hardware.
An outstanding amout of drivers and reps from the teams in the top 10 were on hand as 39 out of 52 were present.
Jackie Dalton took home his 5th USRA Modified track Championship in the Budweiser RHS A-Mods and accepted his point fund check and Jacket along with his son Jett.Dalton was very appreciative to his crew members and sponsors along with his family.Transport Graphics had giant Championship type winners checks made for the Champions and Gilmore Photos provided champions photos.Also receiving hardware were Erik Maggard,2010 champion Mitch Keeter,Jody Tillman and Brian Green.The top 10 recieved their USRA track point fund money
Bobby Maggard Jr grabbed the top honors in the Reliable Chevrolet GM Performance B-Mods and thanked his wife for getting him back into the seat again after a little time off the previous season and was thankful for his family effort they put together while thanking the fellow racers and Larry Tindle.
Points runner-up JC Morton thanked Maggard for the clean racing all season long as these 2 drivers normally started back in row 6 in the chase as only 3 markers separated the duo.Gary rodocker,Scott Drake and Don Luna also received hardware.Drake brought the crowd together as he discussed about having fun again in racing and reminded the drivers,follow the rules it is for us to survive and having fun.
4th generation driver Trevor Drake grabbed the top spot in the Casey’s General Stores Midwest Modz and mentioned how fun it was for this second year class to have an average car count of 20 per night and how everyone came together to make it fun for all.Sam Petty the series runner-up spoke on how he learned alot about making his car work and set-up in this affordable class.Gary Krebs,Rusty Forrest and veteran Randy Belk also received hardware as Petty won the drawing for the new fuel cell.
Veteran Dave Comer received an outstanding applause as the “leader”of the Legends division accepted his championship awards.”I’m glad to see our car count up towards 18-20 per night,it makes if fun for everyone as they also discussed the new Young Lions Legend Class for kids 12-16 years of age.Justin Comer,veteran Wayne Johnston,Tyler Horton and Park Jones also received Hardware as Johnston was truly thankful for the class and car owner Gary Hockman of Rolla.”He put me in a top car and this group is great to race with.I’ve had several changes in the last 2 years in my life and this allowed me to compete again.
PureStock Champion Jack Hamer of Ava was very happy with his championship thanking his crew for all the hard work and the other drivers in the class.”I’m glad I got an early jump in the points because everyone was so tight in the packs in the middle and end of the season.”Wayne Morris was making the long haul from Miami,Okla weekly and only missed 2 events captured the runner-up spot and made sure we told on how much fun he was having especially with the wins late in the season.James Redus,Jeremy Thulin and Bret Testerman also took home hardware as the Miami,Okla table was in full force with Morris,Thulin and Testerman along with others.
Bryan Tillman’s brother Jody accepted his championship honors for the StreetStock Class as Tim Petty took home second place.The class only honored these 2 drivers for their 100% support until the class was dropped.
Rookie of the year awards went to Billy Dalton(USRA Modifieds),Kaleb Copher(B-Mods)Rusty Forrest(Midwest Modz)Jim McDugle(Legends) and Young Bret Testerman(Purestocks)
Ryan Gilmore photos sponsored the best apperaing car award and those were Bobby Pearish(USRA Modifieds),Andy Beauchamp(B-Mods),Forrest(Midwest Modz)Justin Comer(Legends) and James Redus(PureStocks). Bobby Maggard Jr won the Sportsmanship award from Gilmore Photos.
Officials announced another outstanding 2012 schedule starting with the rained-out Turkey Classic and March Madness.The Weekly points chase will start around April and will feature A-Mods,B-Mods,Midwest Modz,Legends,Purestocks,StreetStocks(Bombers) and the new Young Guns for Legends with drives 12-16 years of age only.The Speedway will also hold their Final 4 season ending specials
For more information visit WWW.SpringfieldRaceway.Com for more information