Ransom man takes win at URSS ‘Steve King Memorial Classic’

    The city of Jetmore came alive Saturday as the community came together to remember the legacy of Steve King with a golf tournament, a car show, a hamburger feed and a night of what Steve loved, sprint car racing. The URSS Sprint Cars went “old school” by taking the wings off and when the checkered flag fell, Ransom’s Smokey Fairbank took the win.
    Ransom’s Ken Lutters led the field to the green and jumped out to the lead as Fairbank, Keefe Hemel, Bill Hays and Kris Moore rounded out the top five after lap one.
    Lutters held the lead as Hemel took over the second spot on lap two and started to work on Lutters. Hemel grabbed the top spot on lap six. Fairbank battled Lutters until lap nine, when he grabbed the runner-up position. Nick King made his way up to the fourth spot and on lap 10, he made the pass on Lutters to move to third, bringing Brian Herbert with him to fourth.                 Caution waved on lap nine, when fifth driver Taylor Milton made contact with Bill Hays as they fought for the fourth spot. Milton ended the night with front-end damage.
    Hemel held the lead until lap 12, when he rolled to a stop in turn three. On the restart, King challenged Fairbank for the top spot, followed by Herbert, Darren Berry and Mike Woodruff. Woodruff had quietly made his way from his 13th starting position to break into the top five. Woodruff passed Berry for the fourth spot and set his sights on Herbert. The pair was joined by Cody Salem, who had worked his way back through the field to the fifth position after suffering a flat earlier in the race.
    Woodruff made the pass on Herbert for the third spot on lap 18, but no one could make up any ground on Fairbank, as he took the checkers to claim his first URSS feature of 2008. Nick King took the runner-up spot, followed by Woodruff, Herbert and Salem to round out the top five.
    The Weld Racing Wheels “Hard Charger Award” went to Mike Woodruff, who came from his 13th starting position to finish third. The “Keizer Aluminum Wheels B-Main” was won by Cody Salem. Heat race winners were Taylor Milton, Jon Johnson and Kris Moore.