---

Jeff Johns, Matt Mevert, Trey Harris, Danny Ems & Jacob Rexing take wins at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55

Jeff Johns Matt Mevert Trey Harris Danny Ems Jacob Rexing CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM FEDERATED AUTO PARTS RACEWAY AT I-55 Pevely, MO (April 21st, 2012) - A big field of 130 racecars filled the pit area to compete on the high banks of Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 on what would turn out to be a very chilly evening. Competitors and fans were also able to keep up with the action on the new scoreboard that was just installed at the track as it let everyone know the lap count and the top five running order. The UMP DIRTcar Late Model division provided some of the most exciting racing of the evening and saw Jeff Johns earn his first feature win in 13 years. Johns, who has been a staple at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 for many years, has finished in the runner-up spot on countless occasions over that timeframe. Johns even won the track championship last year without winning a feature event. Johns jumped out to the lead at the drop of the green flag from his front row outside starting spot and paced the field for all twenty-five laps. Johns used the very middle of the track through the corners to power his way to a comfortable lead. Meanwhile, Brandon Sheppard worked his way up into the second spot as the laps were winding down. A caution with just three laps remaining wasn't what Johns wanted to see as it setup a restart with Sheppard right on his rear bumper. Johns would get a good restart and open up a small lead on Sheppard, however the caution would fly again with just two laps remaining. On this restart, Sheppard would mount a serious challenge for the lead. Sheppard would pull along side Johns as they took the white flag. Johns would get through turns one and two cleanly and get a small lead down the back stretch. Sheppard would again pull along side JOhns through turns three and four on the low side, but his car wouldn't hold it's line under Johns and as it pushed he would have to get out the throttle to avoid running into the side of Johns. This allowed Johns to power down the front stretch to victory. Sheppard would settle for a very close second. Craig Smith would finish in the third spot with Scott Weber getting fourth. Bobby Pierce rounded out the top five. Matt Mevert made his first visit in 2012 in the UMP DIRTcar Modified division and put on a dominating performance to earn the win. Mevert led all twenty laps and for the most part went un-challenged for the win. Tim Hancock moved up to second from his sixth starting spot and tried to track down Mevert in heavy lapped traffic, but Mevert worked the lapped cars flawlessly enroute to the win. Hancock would settle for second. Timmy Hill, also making his first start of 2012, had a great run as well and would finish in the third spot. Rusty Griffaw, who had won both main events this season, would bring home a fourth place finish while Paul Bauman rounded out the top five. Trey Harris picked up his first UMP DIRTcar/AARA Sportsman feature win of 2012 in a photo finish over Chris Soutiea. Harris had battled with Danny Ems and Troy Medley for the lead for most of the event, but Soutiea would work his way past Ems and Medley in the closing laps and put serious pressure on Harris at the end. Soutiea pulled along side Harris coming out of turn four for the checkered flag and came up a fender short at the finish line. Medley would beat Ems across the line to finish third. Jon Ripperda would finish fifth behind Ems. Danny Ems would dominate the UMP DIRTcar/AARA Pure Stock main event. Fred Sparks would come home second with David Armstrong finishing third. Dustin McClintock would finish in the fourth spot while Stephen Fohne rounded out the top five. Jacob Rexing continued his domination in the UMP DIRTcar/AARA Pro 4 Stock division. Rexing, who started sixth, brought home his third straight win in the division. Jeremy Wellborn took home second while Andrew Wibbenmeyer took third. Philip Stuart was fourth and Mark Crady completed the top five. UMP DIRTcar Late Models - 26 EntriesHeat 1: Place No. Name Laps Last Time Fast Time Fast Lap 1 5b Brandon Sheppard 8 15.223 14.748 3 2  2x Nick Lyons 8 15.495 14.84 3 3 78 MARK MINER 8 15.469 15.211 1 4 95a ANDREW JOHNS 8 15.405 15.274 3 5 33f RICKY FRANKEL 8 15.557 15.318 3 6 0 DEWAYNE KIEFER 8 15.756 15.182 3 7 23 PAUL ROIDER 8 15.869 15.492 3 8 7 Rich Lawson 5 16.945 16.221 4 DNS 33 Tim Manville 0       Heat 2: Place No. Name Laps Last Time Fast Time Fast Lap 1 8 CRAIG SMITH 8 15.343 15.343 8 2 95 JEFF JOHNS 8 15.531 15.27 4 3 11 JEFF HERZOG 8 15.686 15.275 3 4 32 Bobby Pierce 8 15.691 15.332 6 5 2 DAVE JUMPER 8 15.684 15.594 4 6 96t RC Whitwell 8 15.99 15.719 3 7 23 DYLAN SHARP 8 15.884 15.499 1 8 33 Keith Pratt 8 16.028 10.026 1 9  7z MATT ZIMMERLY 8 16.208 15.937 6 Heat 3: Place No. Name Laps Last Time Fast Time Fast Lap 1 77 JASON MCBRIDE 8 15.498 15.153 6 2 0 SCOTT WEBER 8 15.792 15.441 6 3 82 BILLY LAYCOCK 8 15.806 15.567 7 4 92k Brant Kehrer 8 15.704 15.704 8 5 89 BOBBY BITTLE 8 15.723 15.663 7 6 7L Jerry Lierly 8 16.189 15.872 7 7  1hr RON MCQUERRY 8 16.121 15.764 3 8 26 Randy Estes 5 03:16.7 16.508 1 Feature: Place Start No. Name Laps Last Time Fast Time Fast Lap 1 2 95 JEFF JOHNS 25 15.027 14.726 18 2 6 5b Brandon Sheppard 25 15.165 14.875 19 3 1 8 CRAIG SMITH 25 15.246 15.111 22 4 7 0 SCOTT WEBER 25 15.272 14.995 21 5 8 32 Bobby Pierce 25 15.041 14.742 20 6 5 77 JASON MCBRIDE 25 15.053 14.573 22 7 4  2x Nick Lyons 25 15.531 14.974 20 8 10 82 BILLY LAYCOCK 25 15.668 14.658 22 9 3 11 JEFF HERZOG 25 15.694 14.994 22 10 14 0 DEWAYNE KIEFER 25 15.733 15.174 22 11 13 33f RICKY FRANKEL 25 15.828 15.432 19 12 18 96t RC Whitwell 25 15.54 15.358 19 13 9 78 MARK MINER 25 15.574 15.434 19 14 21  1hr RON MCQUERRY 25 15.68 14.985 21 15 22 33 Keith Pratt 25 15.713 15.286 21 16 23 7 Rich Lawson 24 15.44 15.44 24 17 19 23R PAUL ROIDER 24 15.843 15.302 16 18 16 89 BOBBY BITTLE 23 17.622 15.378 22 19 25  7z MATT ZIMMERLY 23 15.542 15.542 23 20 20 23 DYLAN SHARP 22 01:38.0 15.144 20 21 17 7L Jerry Lierly 22 05:24.4 14.874 20 22 15 2 DAVE JUMPER 15 04:49.3 16.023 5 23 12 92k Brant Kehrer 7 02:10.3 16.336 2 24 11 95a ANDREW JOHNS 3 16.966 16.066 2 25 24 26 Randy Estes 3 16:13.2 19.502 2 DNS 26 33 Tim Manville 0       UMP DIRTcar Modifieds - 38 EntriesHeat 1: Place No. Name Laps Last Time Fast Time Fast Lap 1 22 Matt Mevert 8 15.476 14.794 1 2  0n PAUL BAUMAN 8 15.693 15.284 1 3 56 Jake Draege 8 15.795 15.285 2 4 14 RICK CONOYER 8 15.451 15.451 7 5 22x DARRELL MOSER 8 15.978 15.568 5 6 31 RICKY HORTON 8 15.73 15.73 7 7 18d MATT DICKERMAN 8 15.962 15.914 5 8 11 Derek Shipman 8 16.093 15.789 6 DNS 713 Steve Gorka, Jr. 0       DNS 1A Dillon Hamm 0       Heat 2: Place No. Name Laps Last Time Fast Time Fast Lap 1 16 RUSTY GRIFFAW 8 15.231 14.954 5 2 51 Timmy Hill 8 15.668 15.289 7 3 29 Chris Spalding 8 15.731 15.731 8 4 17 BRAD THURSTON 8 15.89 15.676 5 5 1 wild Ricky Hueber 8 16.319 16.034 1 6 17v Mike Vanderiet Jr. 8 16.347 16.071 5 7  3s DAN SCHLUP JR. 8 16.343 15.868 1 8 8 James Reed 8 16.489 16.191 5 9 2 Craig Roden 8 16.228 16.18 7 10 87z Zeb Moake 6 17.994 16.404 2 Heat 3: Place No. Name Laps Last Time Fast Time Fast Lap 1 1 TIM HANCOCK 8 15.846 15.183 6 2  1ad Aaron Draege 8 15.914 15.627 1 3 62k LEO KIEFER 8 16.11 15.698 4 4 21d DENNIS RICHARDS 8 16.167 16.001 2 5 44 Timmy Hancock Jr. 8 16.614 16.292 7 6 21 TOM RORABACHER 8 16.487 16.095 7 7 19 Joe Martin 5 19.337 17.039 4 8 66 DARRON FORREST 4 19.4 16.482 2 DNS 10jyd Jim Black 0       Heat 4: Place No. Name Laps Last Time Fast Time Fast Lap 1 7 MARK MINER 8 15.588 15.507 6 2 70 JOSH RUSSELL 8 15.951 15.692 2 3 36 CONRAD MINER 8 16.062 15.884 3 4 12r TYLER RATAJCZYK 8 16.519 15.822 3 5 69x Dave Chilton 8 16.673 16.164 7 6 76 ERIC GOETTER 8 16.615 16.277 3 7 27 Bobby DeSpain 8 17.156 16.647 6 8 28k DAVE KATHERINER 8 18.244 17.166 3 9 12s MIKE STUCKEY 3 20.018 20.018 3 Semi #1: Place No. Name Laps Last Time Fast Time Fast Lap 1 31 RICKY HORTON 8 16.511 16.027 2 2 21 TOM RORABACHER 8 16.592 16.309 3 3 44 Timmy Hancock Jr. 8 17.501 16.614 4 4 8 James Reed 8 17.687 16.58 4 5 87z Zeb Moake 8 17.919 16.753 5 6 18d MATT DICKERMAN 8 17.615 16.806 6 7  1a Dillon Hamm 8 17.952 17.341 4 8 19 Joe Martin 8 19.431 17.655 5 9 12s MIKE STUCKEY 8 45.148 16.432 7 10 66 DARRON FORREST 3 01:00.3 16.812 1 Semi #2: Place No. Name Laps Last Time Fast Time Fast Lap 1 17v Mike Vanderiet Jr. 8 16.663 16.432 5 2  3s DAN SCHLUP JR. 8 16.773 16.433 4 3 76 ERIC GOETTER 8 16.923 16.66 1 4 10jyd JIM BLACK 8 16.614 16.568 5 5 1 wild Ricky Huebner 8 17.129 16.563 1 6 2 Craig Roden 8 17.129 16.816 3 7 27 Bobby DeSpain 8 17.211 17.138 5 8 28k DAVE KATHERINER 8 18.954 17.133 4 9 11 Derek Shipman 7 16.899 16.634 1 DNS 713 Steve Gorka, Jr. 0       Feature: Place Start No. Name Laps Last Time Fast Time Fast Lap 1 2 22 Matt Mevert 20 16.252 14.935 13 2 6 1 TIM HANCOCK 20 15.425 14.996 14 3 1 51 Timmy Hill 20 15.436 15.223 18 4 5 16 RUSTY GRIFFAW 20 15.463 15.117 18 5 8  0n PAUL BAUMAN 20 14.594 14.594 20 6 3 7 MARK MINER 20 15.095 14.87 19 7 7 36 CONRAD MINER 20 14.893 14.883 19 8 9  1ad Aaron Draege 20 15.192 15.192 20 9 14 22x DARRELL MOSER 20 15.401 15.295 19 10 15 21d DENNIS RICHARDS 20 15.333 15.241 18 11 19 31 RICKY HORTON 20 15.075 14.938 18 12 17 17 BRAD THURSTON 20 16.175 15.592 19 13 13 62k LEO KIEFER 20 16.534 15.575 19 14 4 29 Chris Spalding 20 16.334 15.952 16 15 20 17v Mike Vanderiet Jr. 20 16.503 15.554 19 16 12 56 Jake Draege 19 15.305 15.305 19 17 24 76 ERIC GOETTER 18 17.75 16.775 4 18 25 10jyd JIM BLACK 12 0.063 0.063 8 19 10 70 JOSH RUSSELL 10 16.477 16.408 5 20 23 44 Timmy Hancock Jr. 6 17.119 17.11 5 21 11 14 RICK CONOYER 4 17.004 17.004 4 22 22  3s DAN SCHLUP JR. 3 17.887 17.641 1 23 18 12r TYLER RATAJCZYK 3 01:50.7 17.827 2 24 21 21 TOM RORABACHER 1 17.372 17.372 1 DNS 16 69X David Chilton 0      

Back to News