WHEATLAND, MO. (April 22, 2022) - Johnny Scott’s early season roll in the Lucas Oil MLRA Series continued Friday night as he kicked off the 9th annual Pitts Homes MLRA Spring Nationals with a wire-to-wire win.

Scott, of Las Cruces, New Mexico, set fast qualifying time, won his heat race, started on the pole and led all 30 laps to capture his second MLRA feature win in three outings in 2022.

The caution-free 30-lap feature clicked off in only 9 minutes, 1 second.

“We kind of hit on some stuff over in Wichita (81 Speedway) and kind of have been sticking with that," Scott said. "I have to thank my brother (Stormy). Without him I wouldn't be here. He keeps me in the loop and tells me what I probably should run.

"Just everybody on the car that helps us go up and down the road, I definitely appreciate it. Everybody knows how expensive this stuff is. Without the sponsors, none of this would be possible. We're on a little hot streak and hopefully we can keep it up."

Scott, who earned $5,000 for the feature win, prevailed by 1.3 seconds over fast-closing Jason Papich with Stormy Scott finishing third, Chris Simpson fourth and Cole Wells fifth.

Meanwhile, the Night Two portion of the 9th annual Pitts Homes MLRA Spring Nationals will start one hour earlier than scheduled Saturday due to the threat of thunderstorms moving into the area late in the evening.

Pit and spectator gates will now open at open at 3 p.m. on Saturday with hot laps at 5:30 and opening ceremonies at 6:05.

Johnny Scott opened a five-second lead by lap 20 of the main event and held on from there as Papich, after moving into second, mounted a late charge to cut into the final margin.

"I knew he was coming," Scott said of Papich. "I was kind of bottled up. There were probably six cars right there in a bunch and there was nowhere I could go. I was just trying to hit my marks and it worked out for us."

Papich said getting into second past Kolby Vandenberg was a key.

"But by the time we got to him, we were out of laps," Papich said of running down the leader.

Vandenbergh ran second until lap 20 when he slid high in lapped traffic and fell back to sixth, with Papich moving into second and Stormy Scott to third.

Johnny Scott set fast qualifying time with a circuit of 15.248 seconds. Vandenbergh had fast time in Group 2 at 15.550.

McCowan leads all the way in USRA Modifieds: The reigning Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modified track champion blew away the field in his opening Lucas Oil Speedway event of 2022, leading all 20 laps for the feature win.

McCowan, of Urbana, finished 5.5 seconds in front of runner-up Matt Johnson with Jason Pursley finishing third, Dustin Hodges fourth and Kevin Blackburn fifth.

"The track was amazing tonight," McCowan said. It's one of the best tracks we've on all year. We've been on a lot of tracks, down south and out in New Mexico earlier in January. This is what I like to race on. This is perfect tonight."

McCowan, who picked up $750 for the win, started outside of the front row and quickly sprinted to the lead. Johnson and Pursley swapped the runner-up spot the first half of the race before Johnson settled into second to stay on lap 11.

Timmerman earns Show-Me Vintage Racers win: Donnie Timmerman of El Dorado Springs passed Andy Wiles after a restart with five laps to go, capturing the Show-Me Vintage Racers feature win.

"I ran Late Models for years and haven't drove the last five or six years," Timmerman said. "Rodney Ashworth gave me the opportunity to drive this and it was a lot of fun. All the people who used to come and watch me came tonight and it was a lot of fun."

Timmerman started 13th and worked his way into position as Wiles led most of the race. Wiles, who started eighth, took over the lead on lap three and had built a 1.8-second lead over Daniel Schmidt before a caution three laps later slowed the action.

By lap 10, Wiles had pushed his lead back to two seconds over Clevenger before the second caution bunched the field.

Timmerman took advantage, slipping past Wiles on lap 11 and going on to capture the win from there. Tom Charles wound up third, coming from 21st and tailback at the start.

LUCAS OIL SPEEDWAY UNOFFICIAL RESULTS (April 22, 2022)
9th annual Pitts Homes MLRA Spring Nationals
Lucas Oil MLRA Late Models
A Feature - 1. 1ST-Johnny Scott[1]; 2. 91P-Jason Papich[3]; 3. 2S-Stormy Scott[5]; 4. 32S-Chris Simpson[6]; 5. 7-Cole Wells[9]; 6. 58-Garrett Alberson[14]; 7. 15L-Payton Looney[8]; 8. 36M-Logan Martin[13]; 9. 15V-Kolby Vandenbergh[2]; 10. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[17]; 11. 91S-Rusty Schlenk[11]; 12. 25-Chad Simpson[10]; 13. 04-Tad Pospisil[18]; 14. 75-Terry Phillips[22]; 15. 10-Jacob Magee[15]; 16. 11-Trevor Gundaker[20]; 17. 93-Mason Oberkramer[16]; 18. 50-Kaeden Cornell[12]; 19. T6-Tommy Sheppard Jr[19]; 20. 1X-Aaron Marrant[4]; 21. 14G-Joe Godsey[21]; 22. 30-Todd Cooney[25]; 23. 78S-Steve Stultz[26]; 24. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[23]; 25. 14W-Dustin Walker[24]; 26. (DNF) 18-Shannon Babb[7]
B Feature 1 - 1. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[1]; 2. T6-Tommy Sheppard Jr[2]; 3. 14G-Joe Godsey[4]; 4. 14R-Jeff Roth[7]; 5. 78S-Steve Stultz[5]; 6. 26-Glen Powell[8]; 7. 14M-Reid Millard[6]; 8. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[3]; 9. 15F-Jeremy Conaway[10]; 10. (DNS) B1-Dustin Bolster
B Feature 2 - 1. 04-Tad Pospisil[1]; 2. 11-Trevor Gundaker[4]; 3. 75-Terry Phillips[5]; 4. 76-Blair Nothdurft[2]; 5. 30-Todd Cooney[8]; 6. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[3]; 7. 96-Dalton Imhoff[6]; 8. 9391-Joe Duvall[9]; 9. 50C-Kayden Clatt[7]; 10. (DNS) 14W-Dustin Walker
Heat 1 - 1. 1ST-Johnny Scott[1]; 2. 2S-Stormy Scott[2]; 3. 7-Cole Wells[4]; 4. 36M-Logan Martin[7]; 5. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[9]; 6. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[5]; 7. 78S-Steve Stultz[8]; 8. 14R-Jeff Roth[6]; 9. (DNS) B1-Dustin Bolster
Heat 2 - 1. 91P-Jason Papich[1]; 2. 18-Shannon Babb[3]; 3. 91S-Rusty Schlenk[4]; 4. 10-Jacob Magee[2]; 5. T6-Tommy Sheppard Jr[5]; 6. 14G-Joe Godsey[6]; 7. 14M-Reid Millard[7]; 8. 26-Glen Powell[9]; 9. 15F-Jeremy Conaway[8]
Heat 3 - 1. 15V-Kolby Vandenbergh[1]; 2. 32S-Chris Simpson[2]; 3. 25-Chad Simpson[4]; 4. 58-Garrett Alberson[3]; 5. 04-Tad Pospisil[7]; 6. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[5]; 7. 75-Terry Phillips[6]; 8. 50C-Kayden Clatt[8]; 9. 9391-Joe Duvall[9]
Heat 4 - 1. 1X-Aaron Marrant[2]; 2. 15L-Payton Looney[4]; 3. 50-Kaeden Cornell[5]; 4. 93-Mason Oberkramer[6]; 5. 76-Blair Nothdurft[3]; 6. 11-Trevor Gundaker[7]; 7. 96-Dalton Imhoff[1]; 8. 30-Todd Cooney[9]; 9. (DNS) 14W-Dustin Walker

Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modifieds
A Feature - 1. 8-Dillon McCowan[2]; 2. 1X-Matt Johnson[1]; 3. 38C-Jason Pursley[3]; 4. 22H-Dustin Hodges[8]; 5. 16S-Kevin Blackburn[4]; 6. 73B-Shad Badder[9]; 7. 21-Johnny Fennewald[15]; 8. 21M-Ryan Middaugh[5]; 9. 96-Cody Brill[10]; 10. 14W-Dustin Walker[17]; 11. 88-Jimmy Dowell[11]; 12. 98R-Rusty Schlenk[7]; 13. 23-Lucas Dobbs[13]; 14. 24D-Donnie Fellers[12]; 15. 7-Daniel Franklin[14]; 16. 11C-Andy Chrisenberry[16]; 17. (DNS) 03-Chase Jones
Heat 1 - 1. 8-Dillon McCowan[2]; 2. 16S-Kevin Blackburn[3]; 3. 21M-Ryan Middaugh[5]; 4. 73B-Shad Badder[9]; 5. 98R-Rusty Schlenk[8]; 6. 24D-Donnie Fellers[4]; 7. 23-Lucas Dobbs[6]; 8. 21-Johnny Fennewald[7]; 9. 14W-Dustin Walker[1]
Heat 2 - 1. 38C-Jason Pursley[1]; 2. 1X-Matt Johnson[7]; 3. 03-Chase Jones[3]; 4. 22H-Dustin Hodges[4]; 5. 96-Cody Brill[5]; 6. 88-Jimmy Dowell[2]; 7. 7-Daniel Franklin[6]; 8. 11C-Andy Chrisenberry[8]

Show-Me Vintage Racers
A Feature - 1. 1-Donnie Timmerman[13]; 2. 151-Andy Wiles[8]; 3. 81-Tom Charles[21]; 4. 6-Damen Clevenger[6]; 5. 45-Daniel Schmidt[5]; 6. 5-Eddie Neil[14]; 7. 48-Kevin Anderson[12]; 8. 32W-Bob Werkmeister[10]; 9. 31-Steve Rock[16]; 10. 7-John Steenstry[15]; 11. 88-Brad Barlow[3]; 12. 24-Rodney Ashworth[9]; 13. 99B-Jim Barnes[1]; 14. 44-Terry Price[11]; 15. 51-Allen Guthrie[17]; 16. 8-Rocky Rhodes[2]; 17. 9-Gary Joslin[19]; 18. 34-Jeff Hensen[20]; 19. 42-Rob Brash[18]; 20. 54-Lawrence Waters[7]; 21. 08-Dan Schmidt[4]
Heat 1 - 1. 6-Damen Clevenger[7]; 2. 113-Jim Thorne[1]; 3. 8-Rocky Rhodes[3]; 4. 45-Daniel Schmidt[6]; 5. 88-Brad Barlow[4]; 6. 08-Dan Schmidt[5]; 7. 99B-Jim Barnes[2]
Heat 2 - 1. 151-Andy Wiles[2]; 2. 5-Eddie Neil[8]; 3. 54-Lawrence Waters[1]; 4. 48-Kevin Anderson[6]; 5. 32W-Bob Werkmeister[4]; 6. 24-Rodney Ashworth[3]; 7. 44-Terry Price[5]; 8. (DNS) 1-Donnie Timmerman
Heat 3 - 1. 31-Steve Rock[2]; 2. 7-John Steenstry[1]; 3. 51-Allen Guthrie[3]; 4. 9-Gary Joslin[5]; 5. 34-Jeff Hensen[6]; 6. 42-Rob Brash[4]; 7. 81-Tom Charles[7]

Joining the MLRA Late Models on Saturday's program will be the Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modifieds, along with the O'Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars and Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods. The USRA Modifieds will be chasing a $1,000-to-win payday with the USRA Stock Cars and the USRA B-Mods feature winners earning $750.

Fans unable to attend at the speedway can tune into the action all the live action, streaming on MAVTV Plus. For more information about all that MAVTV Plus has to offer or to see a list of live and on-demand events, go to MAVTVPlus.com.