By Bob Coney
JEFFERSON, S.D. (June 26) – Raceway Park hit the halfway point of its 2016 IMCA racing season with the KPTH Fox 44 mid-season championships Sunday night.
The KISS 107 FM IMCA Sport Compact division saw a tangle at the initial start that took point leader Ramsey Meyer out of contention for the remainder of the evening. On the restart, Lewis Maine took control of the lead from his front row starting spot and held off a challenge from Luke Jackson with two laps remaining to take his first feature win. Behind Maine and Jackson, Andrew Harris and Tracy Raml rounded out the top four.
The CarQuest IMCA Hobby Stock division also saw a first-time winner when Steven Pierce made perseverance pay by holding off most of the field from his front row starting position. He picked up his first career win when the first car under the checkered flag failed post race inspection.
Behind Pierce, Aaron Shearn finished second followed by Tony Fetterman and Matt Baker.
In the MOPAR IMCA Northern SportMod division, Karl Brewer jumped to the early lead in the feature only to be chased down and passed by Rusty Montagne on the fourth lap. Montagne held on for the win followed by Brewer, Keith Sanders and Arie Schuten.
Todd Gereau jumped out front in the early going of the Casey’s General Stores IMCA Stock Car feature only to be chased down by Chris Mills at the end of the fourth circuit. Mills held off Gereau for the remainder of the feature followed by Jason Ward and Aaron Cain.
The Total Motors IMCA Modified feature saw Jason Schneiders take control of the lead off the start, being chased closely by Bob Moore. While most of the field was fighting for the moist inside groove, Chris Abelson put his Mod to the far outside berm, eating up traffic lap by lap.
Coming out of the fourth turn with nine laps remaining, Abelson split the lead duo, jumping from third to the lead that he would extend to the checkered flag. Schneiders and Moore finished second and third followed by Jim Thies.
The crowd enjoyed a great fireworks display from Thunder Fireworks at the conclusion of racing.