By TERRY PFEIFER

Special to The Hays Daily News

JETMORE (Aug. 1) -- The Inaugural United Rebel Sprint Series Speedweek kicked off its five-race swing at the Jetmore Motorplex on Friday night as thirty-five cars pulled through the gate to do battle. Fans were treated to a night of exciting and close racing, with races decided with last lap passes. When the checkers flew, C.J. Johnson picked up his sixth A feature win of the 2008 season.

Jetmore's Randy Washburn led the field to the green flag, but it was Fowler's Ritchie Dewell who grabbed the lead with Washburn, Ty Williams, Darrren Bowman and Taylor Velasquez rounding out the top five. Williams took the second spot from Washburn on lap three and brought Velasquez with him to the third position. Lap five saw Brian Herbert take the fourth spot from Washburn, with Johnson taking the fifth position.

Johnson made his move on Herbert to take over the fourth position on lap eight and set his sights on Velasquez. Up front, Dewell stretched out his lead as Williams held the runner-up spot. Johnson and Velasquez battled for several laps for the third spot, with Johnson finally taking the position on lap 15. Twelfth-starter Tanner Mullens quietly had made his way through the field, and on lap 16 took the fifth spot from Herbert. Mullens set his sights on Velasquez, with Herbert and Kirby Hagans on his bumper with Herbert taking the fifth back on lap 19.

Up front, Dewell held the lead for the entire race, at times holding close to a straightaway lead. The battle was behind him for the second spot as Williams and Johnson were dicing their way through lapped traffic and closing the gap on Dewell. Lap 22 saw Johnson make the pass on Williams for the runner-up spot. Johnson closed the gap and starting turning up the pressure on Dewell. Dewell was running the same line Johnson was running to make his way to the front. But on lap 24, Dewell drifted up a little in turn one, and Johnson dove beneath him for the position.

Johnson never looked back as he took the checkers with Dewell, Williams, Velasquez and Herbert rounding out the top five.

The Weld Racing Wheels "Hard Charger Award" went to Taylor Milton, who came from his 20th starting position to finish seventh.

The Keizer Aluminum Wheels B-Main Award went to Tanner Mullens for his sixth-place finish.

Heat Race winners were C.J. Johnson, Ritchie Dewell, Brian Herbert, Taylor Velasquez and Darren Bowman.

A-Main: 1-C.J. Johnson (45X), 2-Ritchie Dewell (112), 3-Ty Williams (1), 4-Taylor Velasquez (21), 5-Brian Herbert (97), 6-Tanner Mullens (02), 7-Taylor Milton (91X), 8-Kirby Hagans (4), 9-Ray Seemann (72), 10-Jon Johnson (86), 11-Darren Bowman (9B), 12-Tyler Knight (11K), 13-Kris Miller (33), 14-Keefe Hemel (11), 15-Kris Moore (49), 16-Randy Washburn (0T), 17-Jeff Radcliffe (21R), 18-Cody Salem (23), 19-Ken Lutters (79), Smokey Fairbank (2)

Non-Qualifiers #1: 1-Tyler Knight, 2-Kirby Hagans, 3-Jeff Radcliffe, 4-Kris Moore, 5-Smokey Fairbank, 6-Darren Berry, 7-Bill Hays, 8-Josh Fairbank, 9-Shawn Radcliffe, 10-Tom Belsky, 11-Jason Stephens, 12-Michael Williams, 13-Lance Davis

Non-Qualifiers #2: 1-Tanner Mullens, 2-Ray Seemann, 3-Keefe Hemel, 4-Ken Lutters, 5-Taylor Milton, 6-Willie Wynn, 7-Reed Bernbeck, 8-Brian May, 9-John Colbert, 10-Randy Bantam, 11-Craig Jecha, 12-Van Kuhn