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Moss Wins Number 72 Rick Moss drove the Kenworthy Motorsports Beast-Gaerte to a car length victory in the thirty-five lap WMRA feature at Spanaway Speedway. The win was Moss’ 72nd career victory in WMRA and moved him within two of all time feature winner Ken Petersen. Moss started inside row four and was able to take the lead on lap fifteen from Brad Curtis in the family owned, Sage Induction Beast-Gaerte as the pair exited turn two. Ken Ferris in the Hoene/Ferris Beast-Gaerte, trying for his third consecutive WMRA feature win, was a close third at the checkered. By virtue of his second fastest qualifying time, Moss started inside row four next to Ferris as Jeff Bird and Pete Bittrolf paced the field for the thirty-five lap feature. Bird was able to use the low groove to take the lead in the Voss Stanton-Turbo Kawasaki as Curtis followed to take second from Bittrolf. The running order after the first lap was Bird, Curtis, Bittrolf, Bobby Bird and Ferris. As the pack entered the first turn on lap two, Anthony Seidelman slowed dramatically causing several cars to take evasive action. One lap later, whatever mechanical problems Seidelman had, appeared to right itself as he began chasing the pack. Cam McLean, making only his second midget start, exited with throttle linkage problems on lap three while Carl Peter exited with an engine misfire one lap later. Moss was moving up fast and took fifth from Ferris on lap two and fourth on lap three as both Darren Linder and Moss overtook B. Bird. In the mean time, Curtis was all over J. Bird and took the lead as the pair exited turn four on lap four. At the same time, Moss was passing Linder for third. Over the next three laps, Curtis began to build his lead as Moss tried to take second from J. Bird. On lap seven, Moss got under Bird in turn three and began the task of closing on Curtis. The running order after seven laps was Curtis, Moss, J. Bird, Linder and Ferris. On lap eight, Linder was able to get by J. Bird with Ferris following the next circuit. On lap nine, Seidelman exited after being black-flagged with smoke visible from his VW. Ferris used the high line in three to take third from Linder on lap twelve but was a half straight behind the leaders. Moss had closed in on Curtis and on lap fifteen was able to get under Curtis exiting turn two and took the lead entering turn three. The running order after fifteen laps was Moss, Curtis, Ferris, Linder and J. Bird. For the next dozen laps, Moss slowly extended his lead over Curtis as Ferris closed on Curtis. With less than ten to go, Moss’ lead began to shrink as both Curtis and Ferris raced nose to tail. As the trio took the white flag, Ferris tried to get under Curtis entering turn one but ran out of race track. Curtis made one last run on Moss entering turn three but the veteran held his line and took the checkered a car length ahead of Curtis with Ferris a close third in the caution free feature. The victory was the first for the new Kenworthy Motorsports team. Ferris set fast time at 13.387. Jeff Bird and Darren Linder captured the dashes with Jeff besting father Bobby in the first heat. Nick Seidelman looked impressive in winning the fast heat over Curtis. The nights of Rick Kraft and Carl Peter came to early ends as Kraft lost a lifter in his heat and Westby lost oil pressure in practice. The next WMRA race is on Saturday night, June 1 at Stateline Speedway in Post Falls, Idaho. Summary: Qualifying: Ken Ferris 13.387, Rick Moss 13.733, Rick Kraft 13.772, Darren Linder 13.910, Nick Seidelman 14.068, Brad Curtis 14.115, Bobby Bird 14.407, Pete Bittrolf 14.719, Jeff Bird 15.081, Cam McLean 15.392, Anthony Seidelman 15.804, Carl Peter 15.837, Duane Westby NT. B. Dash: J. Bird, Bittrolf, B. Bird, McLean A. Dash: Linder, Moss, Kraft, Ferris Heat 1: J. Bird, B. Bird, Bittrolf, Peter, McLean Heat 2: N. Seidelman. Curtis, Ferris, Moss, Linder, Kraft Main: Moss, Curtis, Ferris, Linder, J. Bird, B. Bird, Bittrolf, N. Seidelman, A. Seidelman, Peter, McLean
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