It's good to be King. Just ask Dale McDowell.
Saturday night, April 3rd marked the 12th annual running of the prestigious James King Memorial race at Columbus Speedway in Columbus, MS. A Columbus exclusive tradition, the "King" has drawn plenty of regional and national talent in the past. This season, with $12,000 on the line, Columbus Speedway welcomed one of the most star-studded fields of Super Late Model stars to ever grace Johnny Stokes' high banks. With excitement at a fever pitch following Friday night's amazing heat race action, race fans could only wonder if Saturday night would live up to the hype. They would not be disappointed.
With the top 16 cars already locked into the talent-packed feature, the 24-car starting field was filled out through two B-Mains, with "The Pontotoc Pirate" Steve Russell taking the first win and "Fast" Frank Ingram grabbing the checkers in the second race. Other last-chance transfers were Duke Whiseant, the legendary "Mississippi Flyer" Jerry Inmon, Garrett Durrett, and young local talent Ronny Lee Hollingsworth. "The Southern Gentleman" Freddy Smith and James Cline would both use Past Champion provisionals to enter the big show. Festivities and fireworks are always the order of events before the start of the James King Memorial feature race, but the speedway truly came to life when Columbus Mayor Jeffrey Rupp gave the command for the field to start their engines.
The field would fire on the front stretch as the green flag waved, and polesitter "Mr. Smooth" Billy Moyer would swoop from the bottom to the top around "The Tarheel Tiger" Ray Cook to grab the lead. Cook immediately shot to the inside as the two blasted door-to-door down the backstretch. The lead pack would go 3, then 4 wide in turns 3 and 4, with Moyer using high-line momentum to grab the lead outright as Cook, "MacDaddy" Dale McDowell, Earl Pearson, Jr., and "The Real Deal" Don O'Neal fought all-out, 4-wide for second place. Cook would soon gain the advantage as McDowell and Pearson fell into battle behind the two leaders, McDowell starting the work the bottom line that he would use most of the night.
O'Neal would continually make his bid for 3rd also, running the rim of the track. As O'Neal crept up the trio would go three-wide while "The Batesville Bullet" Wendell Wallace eased up on the battling pack using the rim. Meanwhile, Moyer would close on traffic by lap 9, with Cook soon catching the famous #21 as McDowell began to make real strides on the hub. The first caution would then fall for Matt Miller, with Moyer, Cook, McDowell, O'Neal, and Wallace making up the top five.
Double file restarts were the order of the night for the James King Memorial feature, and after blasting through the first turn in 4-wide form, hub-hugging McDowell would snatch second with O'Neal in the opposite groove moving up to 3rd place as Moyer continued to hold on up front. Pearson quickly made his way back into the fray and made it a 3-way dance for second until McDowell tightened his claim and gave chase to Moyer with O'Neal claiming 3rd. Wallace would move in up high as Pearson and Cook settled into what would become a drawn-out top-and-bottom, side-by-side race for 4th place that would not soon end. Pearson, hooking up well on the low side all weekend, would challenge O'Neal on occasion but would spend most of his laps jockeying with Cook, neither driver holding a clear advantage over the other.
By this point, McDowell has his #17M rolling well on the hub and began making challenges for the lead on Moyer, now running with a damaged spoiler. The leaders would begin to race side-by-side in the turns and down the backstretch, Moyer always able to keep enough momentum up in turn 4 to hold onto a bit more of a lead on the front side. The pair would reach lapped traffic by the 19th circuit, and Pearson would take third place from O'Neal on the following lap with Cook driving to the inside of the #71 to make a bid for fourth, the two running joined at the doors as they worked around traffic. O'Neal would regain his hold on the spot on lap 22 and Pearson began to make bids for the top spot, deep-diving in the turns under McDowell as continued to run even with Moyer in the turns.
The pattern continued for several laps until Moyer once again gained a bit of breathing room and a rejuvenated O'Neal moved right back into contention on the top side, retaking the third spot. McDowell would waste little time going back to work on Moyer after falling back. This time "MacDaddy" finally closed the deal on lap 29 and took the lead, leaving Moyer to try and fight off Pearson and O'Neal before the second caution fell on lap 32 as a mishap saw Chupp and Whiseant find the turn 1 concrete wall. Whiseant would be able to continue. but Chupp would retire from the event with damage to the #114.
After another 4-wide blast through the first set of turns on the restart, O'Neal emerged as the second place car and immediately began to wind up the #71 machine on the rim and start dogging the #17M of McDowell for the lead. Cook, Pearson, and Moyer would battle for third place, but the infamous #0 machine of Scott Bloomquist began to move into the picture, taking fifth place as his own in short order after starting 11th. All eyes would be glued on the leaders though, as McDowell and O'Neal would swap lines at each end of the track - McDowell up top and O'Neal on the bottom in turns 1 and 2, and O'Neal taking the rim with McDowell on the hub in 3 & 4. This "seesaw" action continued for several laps in a wild battle for the lead, as Pearson and Cook once again battled together for position ahead of Bloomquist and Moyer, in a classic side-by-side duel of their own.
Contact almost spelled trouble for the leaders as McDowell and O'Neal both tried the low side in turn 1 on about lap 42, but both would stand on their accelerators and come out of the turn, blasting down the backstretch door-to-door and resuming their impressive fight for first place. McDowell then began to gain a bit of cushion on O'Neal, with Cook and Pearson, Bloomquist and Moyer, and now Wallace and "The Kosciusko Kamikaze" Anthony Rushing all waging door-to-door war for positions behind them. Caution would fall for debris on lap 51 with McDowell, O'Neal, Cook, Pearson, and Moyer holding the top five, and another final caution would wave one lap later, also for debris.
O'Neal would try the low side again and Pearson would now take the high road to try and make a move for 2nd place as McDowell continued out front after the restart. Pearson would fall to the bottom when O'Neal moved back to the top and the two battled for second place side-by-side until O'Neal's momentum built up on the top. The #71 then began to once again reel in the #17M machine, leaving Pearson to battle Moyer, who had moved around Cook with Bloomquist in tow. Pearson would leave Moyer to battle Bloomquist for 4th while O'Neal continued to inch up on McDowell's right flank, coming very near to taking the lead on the frontstretch as the laps quickly wound to a close. McDowell would scratch and claw on the bottom that had worked for him all night and ride to the win, with O'Neal, Pearson, Moyer, and Bloomquist taking top five honors. Cook, Rushing, Wallace, Mike Boland, and Whiseant would round out the top ten.
McDowell would be crowned "King" in victory lane, receiving $12,000 for the win in his Larry Shaw chassis, Hoosier-shod machine. Bloomquist was awarded the $500 Hard Charger Award by Custom Racing Graphics, coming from 11th place to take 5th in the star-studded field (award winner was selected by Custom Racing Graphics and was not based on which driver passed the most cars). McDowell would add his name to James King Memorial lore, becoming the 11th driver in 12 events to claim the title, Freddy Smith remaining the only repeat winner of the "King".
Open-wheel modified action once again started out with a series of wrecks and false starts, but racing was excellent once underway. William Wells would lead early as the field raced in unusual fashion mostly near the bottom of the track. Shay Knight would move up and give challenge to Wells, taking the lead away on lap 9 with Tony Gray soon following around on the outside. Knight would move out on the field but would soon be run down by Gray, and as the checkered flag fell, Gray would pull up and take the win by a matter of feet. Knight, Lee Ray, Wells, and Matt Price would earn top five honors.
Mike Langford make light work of the Pro Street field in the division's feature event, starting on the pole and setting sail as Chad Nickoles, Billy Cook, Brad Tomlinson, and Johnny Swink filled out the top five. In "24 Hours of LeMans" fashion, the small field of Late Model stocks onhand ran in the same feature as Pro Streets but were scored separately, with Billy Franklin, Johnny Smith, Tim Turner, and Jeff Smith finishing in that order.
"Big Money" David Honeycutt seemed to have another big-event Street Stock feature wrapped up until a midrace caution brought hard-charging Friday night feature winner Scott Stripling up on his bumper. Stripling would have the lead by lap 12, with TK King working his way up to chase Honeycutt, until a lap 18 caution fell with Stripling getting into a lapped car in heavy traffic as he and Honeycutt tried to drive around the top and bottom of the pack. Honeycutt would win the two-lap dash to the finish, with King, Mike Barton, Trey Bright, and Tony Shelton completing the top five.
Scott Gable would take the initial Mini Stock lead, with Michael Pendley battling his way up and taking the spot away at about mid-race. Mike Minor would charge through the field and take the runner-up spot late, but was unable to rundown Pendley, who took the checkers ahead of Minor, Robert Sanders, Keith McCool, and Marty Oliver. Pendley was disqualified after inspection, giving Minor the official win and giving Stanley Busbin the final spot in the top five group.
Columbus Speedway, the King family, and race sponsors Rinehart Trucking, Jay Dickens Racing Engines, and Larry Clark Chevrolet thanks all of the drivers and especially the fans in attendance, helping to make the 12th Annual James King Memorial a huge success and one of the finest weekends of racing Columbus Speedway has ever seen.
NEXT WEEKEND - Columbus Speedway will be CLOSED. Action resumes on April 17 with a full weekly racing program. SATURDAY, MAY 1ST - 1st ANNUAL RICHARD UNDERWOOD MEMORIAL: Mississippi State Championship Super Late Models $3,000 to win plus local divisions. Come out and help Columbus celebrate the life of one of Mississippi and South's the most beloved promoters/supporters of racing, taken from us too soon but leaving us with a legacy that lives on at Columbus Speedway - "The Baddest Bullring in the South"!
Full results, schedule, and other information can be found at the Columbus Speedway Official Website located at www.MidsouthRacing.com/columbusindex.htm
*********************************************
13TH ANNUAL JAMES KING MEMORIAL
SUPER LATE MODELS - 65 LAPS - $12,000-TO-WIN
Official finishing order
Pos. - Car# - Driver - Starting Pos.
1ST 17M DALE MCDOWELL (4)
2ND 71 DON O'NEAL (5)
3RD 1 EARL PEARSON, JR (3)
4TH 21 BILLY MOYER (1)
5TH 0 SCOTT BLOOMQUIST (11)
6TH 53 RAY COOK (2)
7TH 70 1/2 ANTHONY RUSHING (10)
8TH 88 WENDELL WALLACE (8)
9TH 222 MIKE BOLAND (12)
10TH A1 DUKE WHISEANT (19)
11TH F9 FRANK INGRAM (18)
12TH 2 MARK STOKES (9)
13TH S9 DAN SCHLIEPER (15)
14TH 00 FREDDY SMITH (23)
15TH 7 MATT MILLER (14)
16TH 211 SCOTT SHEPHERD (13)
17TH 72 STEVE RUSSELL (17)
18TH D7 JERRY INMON (20)
19TH 2 JAMES CLINE (24)
20TH 58 GARRETT DURRETT (21))
21ST 16 JAMES DEAN (6)
22ND 114 RANDLE CHUPP (7)
23RD 55 TERRANCE NOWELL (16)
24TH 18 RONNY LEE HOLLINGSWORTH (22)
Open Wheel Modified - Top 5
1ST 35 TONY GRAY
2ND 3 SHAY KNIGHT
3RD 2 LEE RAY
4TH 71 WILLIAMS WELLS
5TH 17 MATT PRICE
Pro Street - Top 5
1ST 22 MIKE LANGFORD
2ND 11 CHAD NICKOLES
3RD B2 BILLY COOK
4TH 99 BRAD TOMLINSON
5TH 60 JOHNNY SWINK
Street Stock - Top 5
1ST 15 DAVID HONEYCUTT
2ND 6 T.K. KING
3RD 27 MIKE BARTON
4TH 82 TREY BRIGHT
5TH 18 TONY SHELTON
Mini Stock - Top 5
1ST 2 MIKE MINOR
2ND 22 ROBERT SANDERS
3RD 527 KEITH MCCOOL
4TH 07 MARTY OLIVER
5TH 6 STANLEY BUSBIN
Two-Person Cruiser - Top 5
1ST 69 JEREMY ROBERTSON & ALLEN HALL
2ND K6 BENJI JONES & CURT SMITH
3RD 24 JEREMY GLASGOW & BUDDY GLOVER
4TH 22 JOHN BEARD & TERRY ATKINS
5TH 888 MIKE PEARSON & TODD GLUSENKAMP
Late Model Stock - 4 Entries (ran concurrently with Pro Street)
1ST 1M BILLY FRANKLIN
2ND 69 JOHNNY SMITH
3RD 11 TIM TURNER
4TH 92 JEFF SMITH
Saturday night, April 3rd marked the 12th annual running of the prestigious James King Memorial race at Columbus Speedway in Columbus, MS. A Columbus exclusive tradition, the "King" has drawn plenty of regional and national talent in the past. This season, with $12,000 on the line, Columbus Speedway welcomed one of the most star-studded fields of Super Late Model stars to ever grace Johnny Stokes' high banks. With excitement at a fever pitch following Friday night's amazing heat race action, race fans could only wonder if Saturday night would live up to the hype. They would not be disappointed.
With the top 16 cars already locked into the talent-packed feature, the 24-car starting field was filled out through two B-Mains, with "The Pontotoc Pirate" Steve Russell taking the first win and "Fast" Frank Ingram grabbing the checkers in the second race. Other last-chance transfers were Duke Whiseant, the legendary "Mississippi Flyer" Jerry Inmon, Garrett Durrett, and young local talent Ronny Lee Hollingsworth. "The Southern Gentleman" Freddy Smith and James Cline would both use Past Champion provisionals to enter the big show. Festivities and fireworks are always the order of events before the start of the James King Memorial feature race, but the speedway truly came to life when Columbus Mayor Jeffrey Rupp gave the command for the field to start their engines.
The field would fire on the front stretch as the green flag waved, and polesitter "Mr. Smooth" Billy Moyer would swoop from the bottom to the top around "The Tarheel Tiger" Ray Cook to grab the lead. Cook immediately shot to the inside as the two blasted door-to-door down the backstretch. The lead pack would go 3, then 4 wide in turns 3 and 4, with Moyer using high-line momentum to grab the lead outright as Cook, "MacDaddy" Dale McDowell, Earl Pearson, Jr., and "The Real Deal" Don O'Neal fought all-out, 4-wide for second place. Cook would soon gain the advantage as McDowell and Pearson fell into battle behind the two leaders, McDowell starting the work the bottom line that he would use most of the night.
O'Neal would continually make his bid for 3rd also, running the rim of the track. As O'Neal crept up the trio would go three-wide while "The Batesville Bullet" Wendell Wallace eased up on the battling pack using the rim. Meanwhile, Moyer would close on traffic by lap 9, with Cook soon catching the famous #21 as McDowell began to make real strides on the hub. The first caution would then fall for Matt Miller, with Moyer, Cook, McDowell, O'Neal, and Wallace making up the top five.
Double file restarts were the order of the night for the James King Memorial feature, and after blasting through the first turn in 4-wide form, hub-hugging McDowell would snatch second with O'Neal in the opposite groove moving up to 3rd place as Moyer continued to hold on up front. Pearson quickly made his way back into the fray and made it a 3-way dance for second until McDowell tightened his claim and gave chase to Moyer with O'Neal claiming 3rd. Wallace would move in up high as Pearson and Cook settled into what would become a drawn-out top-and-bottom, side-by-side race for 4th place that would not soon end. Pearson, hooking up well on the low side all weekend, would challenge O'Neal on occasion but would spend most of his laps jockeying with Cook, neither driver holding a clear advantage over the other.
By this point, McDowell has his #17M rolling well on the hub and began making challenges for the lead on Moyer, now running with a damaged spoiler. The leaders would begin to race side-by-side in the turns and down the backstretch, Moyer always able to keep enough momentum up in turn 4 to hold onto a bit more of a lead on the front side. The pair would reach lapped traffic by the 19th circuit, and Pearson would take third place from O'Neal on the following lap with Cook driving to the inside of the #71 to make a bid for fourth, the two running joined at the doors as they worked around traffic. O'Neal would regain his hold on the spot on lap 22 and Pearson began to make bids for the top spot, deep-diving in the turns under McDowell as continued to run even with Moyer in the turns.
The pattern continued for several laps until Moyer once again gained a bit of breathing room and a rejuvenated O'Neal moved right back into contention on the top side, retaking the third spot. McDowell would waste little time going back to work on Moyer after falling back. This time "MacDaddy" finally closed the deal on lap 29 and took the lead, leaving Moyer to try and fight off Pearson and O'Neal before the second caution fell on lap 32 as a mishap saw Chupp and Whiseant find the turn 1 concrete wall. Whiseant would be able to continue. but Chupp would retire from the event with damage to the #114.
After another 4-wide blast through the first set of turns on the restart, O'Neal emerged as the second place car and immediately began to wind up the #71 machine on the rim and start dogging the #17M of McDowell for the lead. Cook, Pearson, and Moyer would battle for third place, but the infamous #0 machine of Scott Bloomquist began to move into the picture, taking fifth place as his own in short order after starting 11th. All eyes would be glued on the leaders though, as McDowell and O'Neal would swap lines at each end of the track - McDowell up top and O'Neal on the bottom in turns 1 and 2, and O'Neal taking the rim with McDowell on the hub in 3 & 4. This "seesaw" action continued for several laps in a wild battle for the lead, as Pearson and Cook once again battled together for position ahead of Bloomquist and Moyer, in a classic side-by-side duel of their own.
Contact almost spelled trouble for the leaders as McDowell and O'Neal both tried the low side in turn 1 on about lap 42, but both would stand on their accelerators and come out of the turn, blasting down the backstretch door-to-door and resuming their impressive fight for first place. McDowell then began to gain a bit of cushion on O'Neal, with Cook and Pearson, Bloomquist and Moyer, and now Wallace and "The Kosciusko Kamikaze" Anthony Rushing all waging door-to-door war for positions behind them. Caution would fall for debris on lap 51 with McDowell, O'Neal, Cook, Pearson, and Moyer holding the top five, and another final caution would wave one lap later, also for debris.
O'Neal would try the low side again and Pearson would now take the high road to try and make a move for 2nd place as McDowell continued out front after the restart. Pearson would fall to the bottom when O'Neal moved back to the top and the two battled for second place side-by-side until O'Neal's momentum built up on the top. The #71 then began to once again reel in the #17M machine, leaving Pearson to battle Moyer, who had moved around Cook with Bloomquist in tow. Pearson would leave Moyer to battle Bloomquist for 4th while O'Neal continued to inch up on McDowell's right flank, coming very near to taking the lead on the frontstretch as the laps quickly wound to a close. McDowell would scratch and claw on the bottom that had worked for him all night and ride to the win, with O'Neal, Pearson, Moyer, and Bloomquist taking top five honors. Cook, Rushing, Wallace, Mike Boland, and Whiseant would round out the top ten.
McDowell would be crowned "King" in victory lane, receiving $12,000 for the win in his Larry Shaw chassis, Hoosier-shod machine. Bloomquist was awarded the $500 Hard Charger Award by Custom Racing Graphics, coming from 11th place to take 5th in the star-studded field (award winner was selected by Custom Racing Graphics and was not based on which driver passed the most cars). McDowell would add his name to James King Memorial lore, becoming the 11th driver in 12 events to claim the title, Freddy Smith remaining the only repeat winner of the "King".
Open-wheel modified action once again started out with a series of wrecks and false starts, but racing was excellent once underway. William Wells would lead early as the field raced in unusual fashion mostly near the bottom of the track. Shay Knight would move up and give challenge to Wells, taking the lead away on lap 9 with Tony Gray soon following around on the outside. Knight would move out on the field but would soon be run down by Gray, and as the checkered flag fell, Gray would pull up and take the win by a matter of feet. Knight, Lee Ray, Wells, and Matt Price would earn top five honors.
Mike Langford make light work of the Pro Street field in the division's feature event, starting on the pole and setting sail as Chad Nickoles, Billy Cook, Brad Tomlinson, and Johnny Swink filled out the top five. In "24 Hours of LeMans" fashion, the small field of Late Model stocks onhand ran in the same feature as Pro Streets but were scored separately, with Billy Franklin, Johnny Smith, Tim Turner, and Jeff Smith finishing in that order.
"Big Money" David Honeycutt seemed to have another big-event Street Stock feature wrapped up until a midrace caution brought hard-charging Friday night feature winner Scott Stripling up on his bumper. Stripling would have the lead by lap 12, with TK King working his way up to chase Honeycutt, until a lap 18 caution fell with Stripling getting into a lapped car in heavy traffic as he and Honeycutt tried to drive around the top and bottom of the pack. Honeycutt would win the two-lap dash to the finish, with King, Mike Barton, Trey Bright, and Tony Shelton completing the top five.
Scott Gable would take the initial Mini Stock lead, with Michael Pendley battling his way up and taking the spot away at about mid-race. Mike Minor would charge through the field and take the runner-up spot late, but was unable to rundown Pendley, who took the checkers ahead of Minor, Robert Sanders, Keith McCool, and Marty Oliver. Pendley was disqualified after inspection, giving Minor the official win and giving Stanley Busbin the final spot in the top five group.
Columbus Speedway, the King family, and race sponsors Rinehart Trucking, Jay Dickens Racing Engines, and Larry Clark Chevrolet thanks all of the drivers and especially the fans in attendance, helping to make the 12th Annual James King Memorial a huge success and one of the finest weekends of racing Columbus Speedway has ever seen.
NEXT WEEKEND - Columbus Speedway will be CLOSED. Action resumes on April 17 with a full weekly racing program. SATURDAY, MAY 1ST - 1st ANNUAL RICHARD UNDERWOOD MEMORIAL: Mississippi State Championship Super Late Models $3,000 to win plus local divisions. Come out and help Columbus celebrate the life of one of Mississippi and South's the most beloved promoters/supporters of racing, taken from us too soon but leaving us with a legacy that lives on at Columbus Speedway - "The Baddest Bullring in the South"!
Full results, schedule, and other information can be found at the Columbus Speedway Official Website located at www.MidsouthRacing.com/columbusindex.htm
*********************************************
13TH ANNUAL JAMES KING MEMORIAL
SUPER LATE MODELS - 65 LAPS - $12,000-TO-WIN
Official finishing order
Pos. - Car# - Driver - Starting Pos.
1ST 17M DALE MCDOWELL (4)
2ND 71 DON O'NEAL (5)
3RD 1 EARL PEARSON, JR (3)
4TH 21 BILLY MOYER (1)
5TH 0 SCOTT BLOOMQUIST (11)
6TH 53 RAY COOK (2)
7TH 70 1/2 ANTHONY RUSHING (10)
8TH 88 WENDELL WALLACE (8)
9TH 222 MIKE BOLAND (12)
10TH A1 DUKE WHISEANT (19)
11TH F9 FRANK INGRAM (18)
12TH 2 MARK STOKES (9)
13TH S9 DAN SCHLIEPER (15)
14TH 00 FREDDY SMITH (23)
15TH 7 MATT MILLER (14)
16TH 211 SCOTT SHEPHERD (13)
17TH 72 STEVE RUSSELL (17)
18TH D7 JERRY INMON (20)
19TH 2 JAMES CLINE (24)
20TH 58 GARRETT DURRETT (21))
21ST 16 JAMES DEAN (6)
22ND 114 RANDLE CHUPP (7)
23RD 55 TERRANCE NOWELL (16)
24TH 18 RONNY LEE HOLLINGSWORTH (22)
Open Wheel Modified - Top 5
1ST 35 TONY GRAY
2ND 3 SHAY KNIGHT
3RD 2 LEE RAY
4TH 71 WILLIAMS WELLS
5TH 17 MATT PRICE
Pro Street - Top 5
1ST 22 MIKE LANGFORD
2ND 11 CHAD NICKOLES
3RD B2 BILLY COOK
4TH 99 BRAD TOMLINSON
5TH 60 JOHNNY SWINK
Street Stock - Top 5
1ST 15 DAVID HONEYCUTT
2ND 6 T.K. KING
3RD 27 MIKE BARTON
4TH 82 TREY BRIGHT
5TH 18 TONY SHELTON
Mini Stock - Top 5
1ST 2 MIKE MINOR
2ND 22 ROBERT SANDERS
3RD 527 KEITH MCCOOL
4TH 07 MARTY OLIVER
5TH 6 STANLEY BUSBIN
Two-Person Cruiser - Top 5
1ST 69 JEREMY ROBERTSON & ALLEN HALL
2ND K6 BENJI JONES & CURT SMITH
3RD 24 JEREMY GLASGOW & BUDDY GLOVER
4TH 22 JOHN BEARD & TERRY ATKINS
5TH 888 MIKE PEARSON & TODD GLUSENKAMP
Late Model Stock - 4 Entries (ran concurrently with Pro Street)
1ST 1M BILLY FRANKLIN
2ND 69 JOHNNY SMITH
3RD 11 TIM TURNER
4TH 92 JEFF SMITH
