Lebanon, Mo.- (July 4, 2017) – Cole Williams has been a strong performer for several seasons in a Pro Late Model, winning track championships in that class at both Lebanon I-44 Speedway and Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville, but Williams has now put himself in contention to be one of the top Pro Late Model drivers in the country with his win in the Short Track U.S. Nationals at Bristol Motor Speedway on May 21st and a dominating win in last night’s JE GS/CRA All-Stars Tour Presented by Chevrolet Performance Masters of the Pro’s” 144 at Lebanon I-44 Speedway.
“This is awesome, I’ve wanted to get the green jacket and a win in this event since it started,” remarked Williams in victory lane. “To get this win means a lot for our team, getting the win at Bristol was awesome, and then to follow it up with winning this race, this is unbelievable. I have a lot of fans at this track, it’s great to have their support. I couldn’t do it without this awesome team and the support of my sponsors and my family!”
Williams took advantage of his outside pole starting position after Fury Race Cars Fast Qualifier Michael Clancy Jr. drew a seven for the events invert. Williams powered around the outside of pole sitter Austin Kunert to grab the early lead. The win did not come easy, even though Williams led all 144 laps of the event, the first time anyone has ever done that.
Williams had to fight off challengers on seven different restarts through the event, drivers who battled hard with Williams for the lead included Chandler Smith, who briefly passed Williams, the only car to do so all night, but a yellow flag came out right after the pass before a lap was scored, giving the lead back to Williams.
Other challengers for the lead included series points leader Jack Dossey III, Cole Rouse and Stephen Nasse, who battled with Williams from the green flag after the lap 100 break until a flat tire ended Nasse’s charge and brought out a late yellow with six laps remaining. Williams then held off the late charge of Dossey III to get the win and the $8000 payoff and the coveted green jacket. Williams was awarded the AR Bodies Cool Move of the Race for holding off all challengers to get the win and the Earnest Performance Lap Leader Award.
“Those guys all raced me hard, but clean,” added Williams. “Nasse had a good car, but I kept him on the bottom so he couldn’t keep his momentum up. It was a tough 144 laps, the toughest I’ve ever ran!”
Dossey III would match his best series finish with his second straight second place finish to add to his series points lead and picked up his second straight FLUIDYNE Cool Under Pressure Award. Cole Rouse came from his 11th place starting position to finish in third place and earn a Great Lakes Tire/Hoosier Performance Award and the Racing Electronics Hardcharger Award. Smith hung on to get a fourth place finish. Austin Kunert came back from having to go to the tail twice during the event to get a fifth place finish and earned the Sweet Manufacturing Sweet Move of the Race Award.
Local racer Mandy Chick would come back from an early spin to finish in sixth, her all-time series best finish. With that finish she earned a Great Lakes Tire/Hoosier Performance Award and the VanDoorn Racing Development Rookie of the Race Award. Nasse would battle back from his late flat tire to finish in seventh. Local racer Kaleb Allison finished in eighth place. ARCA Racing Series veteran racer Joe Cooksey finished in ninth place. Rookie Thomas Hufferd finished in 10th place in his series debut, his pit crew picked up the PitBoxes.com Pit Crew of the Race Award for their hard work all weekend on Hufferd’s car in their first ever race at I-44.
In Support action, current NASCAR Modified point leader Ricky Icenhower took full advantage of his front row starting spot and led all 20 laps of The NASCAR Modified feature. Defending champion Tim Swearengin gave chase but couldn’t close the ground in the caution free feature as Joe Bunkers had a solid run holding off repeated challanges from Brian Lewis for the 3rd spot. Chris Johnson took the Qualifying heat while Icenhower grabbed the dash win over Swearengin. Swearengin set a blistering qualifying time of 15,535 almost erasing the current mark set on opening night by Icenhower of 15.430.
In NASCAR Street Stock Action, Lebanon’s Aaron Douglas crossed the line 1st in a dominationg win but issues in post race tech disqualified him from making it official as The Dodge Boys of Bridgeton’s Aaron Wilke and Springfield’s Nick Cherry ended-up with a 1-2 finish. For Wilke, it was is 1st win of the season and ended his streak of issues. Jimmy Fohn grabbed the opening lead with Robert Douglas following. Aaron Douglas overtook the top spot from Fohn on lap 3 and put it on cruise control. Fohn’s good early run ended on lap 7 after spinning in turn 2 while racing for position. Wilke had to hold back several attempts from Michael Juergensen and then tried to close-up on Douglas. Cherry made a late race surge on Juergensen and took the spot on the white flag lap to secure his best finish of the season. Jurgensen then had to hold back Indiana driver Tony Meier for the spot. Tony Johnson and Douglas captured the heats and Douglas set a new qualifying mark, but with the disqualification that time will be disallowed.
In NASCAR Charger Action, current point leader and defending champion Ronnie Taylor took control from leader Justin Blake on lap 5 to grab the win. Jerry Ellis set a quick pace in the opening laps but fell of the pace on lap 3 placing Blake in the top spot. After a spirited battle, Taylor grabbed the position and then had to hold back Blake and a charging Jesse Poindexter as Poindexter overtook Blake on the final lap for the runner-up spot. For Taylor it was his 4th win of the season. Taylor set fast time as his nephew Nik Tylor grabbed the heat race win.
I-44 will take off a couple of weeks and will return to Action on Saturday July 22nd with the Coaches Challange as Lebanon and Camdenton Head Football Coaches will battle it out on the racetrack in a fund raising event for both schools and a full NASCAR Whelen All-American Series show featuring NASCAR Pro Late Models, NASCAR Modifieds, NASCAR Street Stocks and NASCAR Chargers with Caddy Shack of The Camdenton area helping to support the night of family fun.
For more information visit the website at WWW.I44Speedway.Net and check us out on Facebook.
Results
Qualifying
NASCAR Modifieds
A Ft-1) Ricky Icenhower 2) Tim Swearengin 3) Joe Bunkers 4) Brian Lewis 5) Phil Harris 6) Chris Johnson 7) Wayne Lewis 8) Mark Riddle 9) Terry Taylor 10) Michael Jurgensen 11) Richard Lewis
NASCAR Street Stocks
A Ft-1) Aaron Wilke 2) Nick Cherry 3) Michael Jurgensen 4) Tony Meier 5) Tony Johnson 6) James Ellis 7) Robert Douglas 8) Jimmy Fohn 9) Les Mallard DQ-Aaron Douglas
NASCAR Chargers
A Ft-1) Ronnie Taylor 2) Jesse Poindexter 3) Justin Blake 4) Jerry Ellis 5) Nik Taylor 6) Parker Ellis 7) Breken Johnson DNS-Justin Gantt