Mike Woodruff Claims Victory In 2008 URSS Season Opener

Despite cold temperatures, the fans that came out and braved the cold were treated to a classic old-fashioned shootout at the Jetmore Motorplex Saturday night as Mike Woodruff claimed the victory.  Twenty three teams pulled through the pit gate to start the Season long battle to determine both the Regional and National Titles, and if tonight’s race is any indication of how the 2008 URSS Season will be, you won’t want to miss a single race.

Lacrosse, Kansas’s Kirby Hagans and Jetmore’s Ray Seemann led the field do the green flag, but it was to be short lived as the caution flew for an incident in turn two which sent Keefe Hemel back to the pits on the hook. On the restart Seemann jumped to the lead, flowed closely by Hagans, Nick King, Kris Miller and Tyler Knight rounding out the top five. Tenth place starter, Brian Herbert started his charge to the front taking the fifth position from Knight on lap five.  King, Miller and Herbert battled for the runner up spot for several laps with Herbert taking the spot for good on lap nine.

Turpin Oklahoma’s Taylor Velasquez methodically moved his way through the field to grab the fourth spot away from Miller and set his sights on King only to suffer a spin in turn two. Seemann and Herbert would put on a show for the fans as they sliced and diced their way through traffic lap after lap as they battled for the lead. Lap thirteen, Herbert had something break on his car, which caused him to brush the front-stretch wall coming off of turn four and ended his night as he pulled off the track. Lap fourteen saw twelfth place starter, Satanta’s Mike Woodruff break into the top five and battle Kris Miller for the fourth spot.

Lap seventeen saw the battle for the fifth position heat up as Brooke Boyd worked her way up to battle Tyler Knight for the spot. Boyd took the spot and joined the fight for the third spot with Miller.  Seemann’s car worked well on the top side and Woodruff’s hugged the bottom as they wove their way through traffic followed closely by Miller, Boyd and Knight. Lap twenty-three saw Boyd take the third position away from Miller and Velasquez who had worked his back through the field take the fifth spot away from Knight. 

As the white flag flew, Seemann held his line on the cushion into turn one as Woodruff dove to the bottom and took the position coming off of turn two to take the victory, followed by Seemann, Boyd, Miller and Velasquez rounding out the top five. The victory was a vindication for Woodruff and his team, as the evening didn’t go quite as planned. Mike got upside down in his heat before reaching the flag stand, the damage was minimal and the team had the car repaired. Woodruff started last in the B-Main to race to a Second place finish.

The “Weld Racing Wheels Hard Charger Award” went to Mike Woodruff who came from his twelfth place starting position to pick up the win.

The “Keizer Aluminum Wheels B-Main” winner was Dodge City’s Kris Moore.

Heat Race winners were Brian Herbert, Brooke Boyd and Taylor Velasquez.

Results:

A-Main:

1) Mike Woodruff – 83X - 2) Ray Seemann – 72 - 3) Brooke Boyd – B2 - 4) Kris Miller – 33 - 5) Taylor Velasquez – 21 - 6) Tyler Knight – 11K - 7) Justin Chaffin – 69 - 8) Kris Moore – 49 - 9) Brian May – 8 - 10) Randy Bantam – 5R - 11) Nick King – 83 - 12) Brandon Fisher – 14 - 13) Craig Jecha – 17X - 14) John Colbert – 79C - 15) Brian Herbert – 97 - 16) Lance Davis – 9DJ - 17) Kirby Hagans – 1B - 18) Keefe Hemel – 11 - 19) Willie Wynn – 36W (DNS) - 20) Smokey Fairbank – 2 (DNS)

B-Main:

1) Kris Moore, 2) Mike Woodruff, 3) John Colbert, 4) Justin Chaffin, 5) Randy Bantam, 6) Brian May, 7) Craig Jecha, 8) Smokey Fairbank, 9) Willie Wynn, 10) Lance Davis, 11) Ken Lutters (DNS), Steve Dalton (DNS), Cody Salem (DNS)