For the Republican



Scott Knepley of Greensboro continued to stay on top of the Motion Motors Late Models with a dominating performance in the 30-lap feature event at the Mt. Lawn Speedway Saturday night.

Eighteen cars started the feature event with Tom Nixon of Daleville leading Lap 1 from his pole position starting spot. Joe Woodring of Muncie, who has made good improvement over the season, took the lead on Lap 2 and led the next 10 laps followed closely by Brandon Mefford of Knightstown and Knepley.

Knepley finally got around Mefford on Lap 10 and then passed Woodring for the lead on Lap 11. On Lap 13, LJ Lines of Lewisville got by Woodring for second and set his sights on Knepley. Lines got under Knepley in the short turn on Lap 18 but could not come out of the turn fast enough to overtake Knepley.

Another serious challenge came on the double file restart of the race on Lap 22 after Creston Johnson II of New Castle had spun in turn one. Lines had thoughts of his previous week drag race against Eric Evans of Greenfield when he out gunned Evans to take the lead of the race on a restart, but his teammate Knepley had other ideas. As the two came down to take the green flag, Knepley slid up the track coming out of the short turn pinching Lines close to the wall disallowing Lines the chance to make a run.

Lines then settled for second followed by Evans who nudged out Jeff Marcum of Morristown for third. Terry Cater of New Castle finished fifth with Miles Sexton of New Castle, Brandon Mefford, Eddie Claborn of Cambridge City, Wm. Mefford of Knightstown and Nixon to round out the top 10.

The remainder of the finishers were Kent Carson of Richmond, Johnson, Johnny Fugate of Cambridge City, Woodring who dropped out on Lap 22 while running fourth, Jason Atkinson of New Castle who left the race on Lap 16 running seventh, Kevin Claborn of Cambridge City who departed after one lap with a flat tire, Bill Pierce of New Castle and Randy Anderson of Knightstown.

Evans set fast time at 16.531. Lines won the Razzles Dash for Cash while Wm. Mefford and Eddie Claborn won the heats.

After a week of major repair work on his heavily damaged race car and a quick recovery of a wiring fire inside his car in prerace practice, Ryan Amonett of New Castle picked up his third feature win of 2009 in the Dependable Drywall Thunder Car feature.

Tony Stewart of Straughn took the lead on Lap 1 and lead the first seven laps when Amonett took over for good on Lap 8. Jameson Owens of Greenfield finished second followed by Cody Walker of Sulphur Springs, Frankie Oakes of Cambridge City, Jason Walker of Sulphur Springs, Jim Walker of Cambridge City, Stewart who was black flagged on Lap 23 for an oil leak and Ed Knott of Muncie who dropped out of the race on Lap 15.

Amonett set fast time at 18.687, won the Dependable Drywall Dash for Cash and made it a clean sweep for the evening by winning the first heat. The second heat went to Oakes.

Immediately after the Thunder Car feature the fans were treated to a giant fireworks display that was enjoyed by all.

Brian Reynolds of Mooreland appeared to win the MC Auto Repair Hornet feature but on post race tech inspection was disqualified for a rules violation. The Reynolds disqualification gave the win to Keith Morris of Mt. Summit driving the Long John Silvers Chevrolet owned by Lenny Tungate of New Castle.

Jerry Small of Arcadia finished second followed by Kyle Evans of Greenfield, Freddie Marlow of New Castle, Joyce Dyer of Greenfield, John Massengale of New Castle, Brian Lewis of Indianapolis, Chase Lane of Knightstown and Jonathon Pitts of Anderson.

Evans set fast time in qualifications at 19.594, won the MC Auto Repair Dash for Cash with Morris and Josh White of New Castle winning the heats.

In Mini Cup action, Charles Colbert of Noblesville beat Patrick Morris and Troy Morris of Arcadia and Geoff Gerline of Carmel.

The Indy FastKarts feature went once again to Josh McQueary of Middletown followed by Rex Timmens of Avon, John Ferrina of Indianapolis, Ron Taylor of Beech Grove, Ethan Gabhart of New Castle, Josh Sutter of Brownsburg, Keith Sutphin of Indianapolis, Ryan Fredrick of Indianapolis, the 7 car, Larry Keene of Brownsburg and Daniel Pierce of New Castle.

A large field of Motion Motors Late Models is expected next Saturday for the 39th running of the Raintree 100, a 100-lap event paying $2,000 to the winner. Also on the program will be the Dependable Drywall Thunder Cars and the MC Auto Repair Hornets.