The opening round of the WMRA-IMRA Challenge was held Saturday night on the fast Tri Cities Raceway tri-oval with John Starks taking the lead on lap thirteen in route to his first WMRA feature win of the season. The Starks Logging, Wholesale Truck Parts Starks-Gaerte ran flawlessly as Starks took the checkered about three seconds ahead of Ken Ferris aboard the Allied Custom Draperies, MAC Towing Beast-Gaerte, with Rick Kraft in the Normet USA, Carco Industries Callahan-Fontana a car length back in third.

With rain threatening, Dave Bean and Duane Westby paced the field for the 25 lap feature but outside second row starter Rory Price was able to utilize the high line through the second turn to lead the opening lap.  Ferris, who started sixth, followed Price around the front row starters with Kraft, Starks and Rick Moss rounding out the top five after the first lap.  The top positions remained constant for the next few laps, until Kraft slid a little high exiting turn three allowing both Starks and Moss to take third and fourth on lap four.  On lap six, as Stuart Birkenbine was exiting due to overheating, Ferris was able to take the lead from Price and one lap later, Starks and Moss were able to get under Price exiting turn one.  The top three raced under a blanket until lap thirteen when Starks made the pass for the lead exiting turn one.  On the next lap, Moss got around Ferris exiting turn one but as he entered turn two, he caught the inside berm and spun.  Price slowed to avoid hitting the spinning Moss but was tapped from behind by Brad Curtis as Kraft barely missed Moss.  For the restart the running order was Starks, Ferris, Kraft, Curtis and Steve Spoor.  The remainder of the race was run caution free as Starks was able to slowly pull away from Ferris and Kraft who were dicing for second.  Both Moss and Price were making rapid charges through the field but Price's race ended a few laps from the checkered.  Over the final five laps, the race for fourth between Curtis and Spoor was the best on the track as

Spoor tried everything possible to get around Curtis but time ran out as Starks took the checkered for his first WMRA feature of the year.

Moss set fast time at 17.607, just missing the old track record.  Starks and Jeff Bird were victorious in the dashes as both led wire to wire.  In the first heat, Dave Hemry got out of shape exiting turn two hitting the outside barrier resulting in severe damage to both ends of his racer.  Scott Hampe's night ended  the same lap  when when a rock punctured his oil tank.  The heat was won by Jeff Bird with a lap six pass of Glen Guiles.  In the fast heat, Kraft led all eight laps to win his second straight heat over Moss and Starks.

The WMRA will take the next few weeks off and will return to action on June 30 at Spanaway Speedway.

Results:

Fast Qualifier:  Rick Moss 17.607

B Dash:  Jeff Bird, Dave Hemry, Dave Bean, Stuart Birkenbine

A Dash:  John Starks, Rick Moss, Ken Ferris, Darren Linder

Heat 1:  Bird, Glen Guiles, Mel Kemper, Birkenbine, Brad Curtis, Bean, Dave Hoene, Hemry, Scott Hampe.

Heat 2:  Rick Kraft, Moss, Starks, Rory Price, Ferris, Steve Spoor, Linder, Duane Westby.

Main:  Starks, Ferris, Kraft, Curtis, Spoor, Moss, Linder, Bird, Westby, Kemper, Guiles, Bean, Price, Hoene, Birkenbine.

Point Standings:

                Rick Kraft            201                    Mel Kemper            112

                Darren Linder        151                    Duane Westby        111

                Brad Curtis            130                    Glen Guiles            86

                Ken Ferris            127                    Travis Johnson         85

                John Starks            115                Rick Moss                73