June 17, 2024 | By Dean Reichel

Garrett Benson wins Father's Day Special at Double-X Speedway

CALIFORNIA, Mo. — The Father's Day Special at Double X Speedway provided a lot of excitement and enjoyment for those in attendance at the quarter mile oval Sunday Night. The crowd was full of familiar faces as the evening is a tradition for many race fans and their families. The excitement at the end of the evening was 14 year old Garrett Benson of Concordia picking up his first feature win in a 360 powered winged sprint car. After the feature was delayed going green due to separate mishaps involving Gunner Ramey and Jack Wagner, taking both drivers out of contention, the event got underway with Tucker Daly and Miles Paulus moving into the top two positions. After one lap was complete another caution bunched the field single file behind the leader Daly. On the return to green flag racing as Daly and Paulus were jockeying for the top spot, Samuel Wagner saw a groove around the outside and passed both the first and second place cars to take over the top spot. For the next 22 laps the gray #73 held the point as positions were shuffling behind him. Lapped traffic started to provide a challenging track for the leader and allowed Garrett Benson to move into second place close behind the leader. On lap 23 Benson took the lead coming out of turn two only to see Wagner move back in front in turns 3 & 4. Benson once again passed Wagner on lap 24 and was able to record his first ever feature victory in the 360 Winged Sprint Car Division. Sanuel Wagner posted a strong second place showing with Ben Brown finishing third after starting ninth, Miles Paulus crossed the stripe in fourth and Tyler Ellliott placed a solid fifth in his first night out with a 360 powerplant under the hood in quite a while. Benson took home $1936 for his victory courtesy of DirtXIndustries of Australia. Skylar Daly, Jack Wagner and Miles Paulus won the sprint car heat races.

The Super Stock Feature was not without its share of mishaps either as the track proved to be a bit technical for some of the drivers. Through a series of cautions, long time competitor Clayton Campbell of Otterville was able to avenge his mechanical troubles of two weeks ago and take home the winners trophy. Following Campbell under the checkers were Jody Romig taking second with a last lap pass, Zack Smith finished third in his first time out at Double X this year, Ryan Shikles finished fourth overcoming some spins earlier in the race and Eddie Keeran finished fifth with a couple of battle scars on his #87 stock car. Shikles and Campbell won the heat races in the class.

The Pure Stock class was light on cars but the racing for second place was exciting to say the least. Congratulations to Darin Porter on picking up the victory and the $500 winner's share provided by 4D Farms and M&C Fencing. This was Porter's third win for the weekend. The most exciting racing in the class was between Chris Messerli and Harold Fox for the number two spot. Fox, a veteran of Central Missouri Racing, tried everything he could to overtake Messerli as the two raced nose to tail and door to door over the last ten laps of the event. At the checkers it was Messerli by a car length over Fox. Curt Turpin was fourth and Shayne Healea was fifth, Porter also won the heat race.

Next Sunday June 23, the B Modifieds will be returning along with the Winged Sprint Cars and the Super Stocks. June 30 will see the return of the 305 Sprint Cars and July 7 will be the annual "Race for Riley" Riley Hudson Memorial Race which is always a special night for the driver and the young race fans in attendance. Be sure to follow the Double X Speedway Fan Page on Facebook or go to www.doublexspeedway.com for important information.


Double X Speedway Results
June 16, 2024

360 Winged Sprint Cars
Feature- 1. 2B-Garrett Benson, Concordia; 2. 73-Samuel Wagner, Lone Jack; 3. 7B-Ben Brown, Marshall; 4. 0-Miles Paulus, Marshall; 5 49-Tyler Elliott, California; 6. 9C-Josh Fisher, Jefferson City; 7. 52D-Skylar Daly, Columbia; 8. 32D-Darren Langford, Kearney; 9. 9S-Aubrey Smith, Houstonia; 10. 99D-Tucker Daly, Hallsville; 11. 61A-Doug Fry, Wheatland (DNF); 12. 7-Paul Solomon, Riddles Creek, Australia (DNF); 13. 77-Jack Wagner, Lone Jack (DNF);14.  21-Gunner Ramey, Sedalia (DNF); 15. 52-Blake Bowers, Knob Noster (DNF); 16. 75 Tyler Blank, California (DNS); 17. 93- Taylor Walton, Odessa (DNS)

Heat 1- 1. S. Daly; 2. Bowers; 3. Langford; 4. Fry; 5. Fisher (DNF); 6. Walton (DNF)
Heat 2- J. Wagner; 2. Benson; 3. Solomon; 4. T. Daly; 5. Smith; 6. Blank (DNF)
Heat 3- 1. Paulus; 2. Ramey; 3. Brown; 4. S. Wagner; 5. Elliott

Super Stocks
Feature- 1. 30C-Clayton Campbell, Otterville; 2. 12-Jody Romig, Syracuse; 3. 116-Zack Smith, Centertown; 4. 409-Ryan Shikles, Enon; 5. 87-Eddie Keeran, California; 6. 8H-Adam Halley, New Haven; 7. 10-Steve Beach Eldon (DNF); 8. 44-James Nishwonger, Osawotamie, KS (DNF); 9. 05-Dale Berry, Tuscumbia (DNF)

Heat 1- 1. Shikles; 2. Romig; 3. Nishwonger; 4. Keeran; 5. Halley
Heat 2- 1. Campbell; 2. Beach; 3. Smith; 4. Berry

Pure Stocks
Feature- 1. 21-Darin Porter, California; 2. 88-Chris Messerli, Latham; 3. 70-Harold Fox, Mexico; 4. 15-Curt Turpin, Eldon (DNF); 5. 17-Shayne Healea, California (DNF)

Heat - 1 Porter; 2. Healea; 3. Turpin; 4. Messerli; 5. Fox