Sam Stoecklin
ULMA Media Relations
August 9, 2011
Bob King returned to Crawdad’s Classics Gourmet Hot Sauce ULMA victory lane over the weekend with his second victory of the year at Central Missouri Speedway (CMS) in Warrensburg, Missouri. The Independence, Missouri driver last competed in the spring, shortly after going to victory lane on May 7th; however, he left no doubt that the competitive fire was still there as he rolled to victory on the high banks of CMS. Not only did King take the win, he also stopped the five-race win streak of Steve Clancy, who finished second last Saturday night to King in the main event. King drives a Rocket Chassis sponsored by McDonald’s of Independence, he has several wins over the years at CMS in late model competition and kept a strong field of drivers behind him to claim his latest victory at the track.
With multiple-grooved racing being the norm at CMS last weekend, Clancy searched for a way around King but came away one spot short of pulling off six wins in a row. Jason Bodenhamer had an up and down night as he had an off-track excursion in turns three and four while racing hard early in the 20-lap main event. ‘Bodee’ was able to rebound to run a solid third in the event by mastering the high side of the speedway to pass cars from his tailback restart position. Bob Test of Jefferson City, now in a GRT car, has put together a nice string of finishes recently and backed it up with another good finish at CMS by finishing fourth. Chad Clancy started from the pole and ran solidly inside the top five all race long as he continues to be impressive in his late model rookie year. Finishing out the top ten were Jon Binning, long-distance traveler Chris Hawkins who showed he wasn’t afraid to mix it up with the Warrensburg boys in seventh, Brett Wood eighth, Trace Westling ninth, and James Stafford rounding out the top ten. There were 15 ULMA member drivers present of 16 total competitors on hand. CMS returns to normal start times this weekend and plays host to its annual kids’ night at the races. Several ULMA drivers have made donations to the activities as has ULMA. Things get underway Saturday, August 13th with pits opening at 4:30, grandstands at 5; driver’s meeting at 6:30, hot laps at 7, and racing at 7:30. Visit www.centralmissourispeedway.net for complete information and event remaining event details.
With Clancy’s second-place showing at CMS, he discarded a sixth-place finish. The Odessa, Missouri driver’s remaining low finishes are two sixth-place runs, after these finishes he will discard fourth-place finishes as his low marks. Jason Bodenhamer finished third at CMS and was unable to replace a lower finish. Of his fifteen finishes counting towards the championship, he has six third-place runs to his credit, which means he must finish first or second in order to discard the third-place finishes. Current point leader Jake Griffin of Quincy, Illinois recorded a third-place finish at Scotland County Speedway last Saturday to replace a fifth-place finish. He still has a fifth- and fourth-place finish to discard to get down to top-three finishes. Over the next few weeks, the point standings may bounce back and forth as the top three in the standings work their best to improve on their season finishes. The championship is still very much wide open and should come right down to the wire.
Last Saturday at Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri, non-member and veteran racer Tommy Elston of Keokuk, Iowa raced his way to victory on a challenging race track ahead of last year’s ULMA Champion, Vance Wilson, who made his first appearance in ULMA competition this season with a solid second place showing. Griffin was third, with rookie Kelly Smith of Kirksville fifth, Danny Lorton in sixth, with Ashlee Lancaster present as well. The track returns to action again this Saturday night with pits opening at 4, admissions at 5, hot laps at 6:30, and racing at 7. The track may be found on the internet by logging onto www.scotlandcountyspeedway.com.
Callaway Raceway in Fulton, Missouri did not race last Friday night due to another rained out event night; however, the track will try once again this Friday, August 12th to host another night of racing. Be sure to visit the track’s official website for standings, general information and directions to the track by going to www.callawayraceways.com. Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri did not contest ULMA late model races last week due to a special event. The track will host a USMTS race this weekend and will not be competing ULMA late models during the program. The next ULMA race at the speedway will take place on Saturday, August 20th. Visit the track’s official website at www.lucasoilspeedway.com for future race events and track information.
Jake Griffin has a slim lead over Jason Bodenhamer and Steve Clancy in the new standings. Tommy Cordray and Brett Wood are still mathematically in the title hunt but will have to keep the leaders behind them wherever they race, last weekend Cordray sat idle while Wood finished eighth. If all goes as planned, there are drivers who do not compete weekly at Callaway Raceway with the intent of running there to try and come away with top-tier finishes in the battle for the ULMA Crawdad’s Classics Gourmet Hot Sauce championship crown. The ULMA point’s-earning season runs through October with the last two races taking place on Saturday, October 1st at CMS and Sunday, October 2nd at 24 Raceway in Moberly. There is a chance more races may be added to the 24 Raceway schedule, as soon as ULMA confirms this information one way or the other, the schedule will be updated accordingly and the announcement will be made available during a future ULMA press release.
Log onto www.ulmaracing.com for all information regarding the fifth-year ULMA association; to join the association’s email group, send request to unitedlatemodelassociation@hotmail.com. ULMA wishes to thank its 2011 business partners for their involvement. This year’s team consists of title sponsor Crawdad’s Classics Gourmet Hot Sauce, TCI® Automotive, Fast Shafts, Rod End Supply, SafeRacer.com, Kenny’s Tile, Racingjunk.com, Imhoff Construction, Kenny Johnson’s Race Replicas, D&L Motorsports, and InsuranceSpecialists.com. ULMA is a proud supporter of Homes for Our Troops. To join the team, contact ULMA at unitedlatemodelassociation@hotmail.com.
Crawdad’s Classics Gourmet Hot Sauce ULMA Top 15 Point Standings
POS CAR # NAME POINTS Starts
1st O8 Jake Griffin (R) 1466 21
2nd 88B Jason Bodenhamer 1462 23
3rd 12c Steve Clancy 1454 23
4th 5 Tommy Cordray 1448 18
5th 7 Brett Wood 1440 29
6th 22 Kevin Coyne 1416 25
7th 79 Robby Warner 1364 15
8th 65 Jon Binning 1358 24
9th 1 Bob Test 1348 29
10th 7W Trace Westling 1334 29
11th 60 Chris Hawkins (R) 1334 20
12th 1T Chris Cox 1318 23
13th 27 Danny Lorton 1294 17
14th O4 Chad Clancy (R) 1282 17
15th 20 Alan Westling (R) 1274 24
16th 98 James Stafford 1272 24
17th 23Z Zeke Langley 1260 23
18th 18L Rylan Long 1086 11
19th 22M Danny Monroe 1077 14
20th 0X Justin Russell (R) 1046 12
Upcoming Sanctioned Races
Friday August 12
*Callaway Raceway (Weekly Race)
Saturday August 13
*Central Missouri Speedway (Weekly Race)
*Scotland County Speedway (Weekly Race)
Friday August 19
*Callaway Raceway (Weekly Race)
Saturday August 20
*Central Missouri Speedway (Weekly Race)
*Lucas Oil Speedway (Weekly Race)
*Scotland County Speedway (Weekly Race)
Friday August 26
*Callaway Raceway (Callaway Track Points End, Weekly Race)
Saturday August 27
*Central Missouri Speedway (Weekly Race)
*Lucas Oil Speedway (Weekly Race)
*Scotland County Speedway (Weekly Race)
Friday September 2
*Callaway Raceway (Weekly Race)
Saturday September 3
*Central Missouri Speedway (Weekly Race)
*Lucas Oil Speedway (Weekly Race – Speedway Track Pts End – Final ULMA Pts Night at Lucas)
*Scotland County Speedway (Weekly Race)
Friday September 9
*Callaway Raceway (Weekly Race, No Track Points, ULMA Points Awarded)
Saturday September 10
*Central Missouri Speedway (CMS Track Pts End)
*Scotland County Speedway (Weekly Race)