By TERRY PFEIFER

Special to The Hays Daily News

LIBERAL (Aug. 6) -- The Inaugural United Rebel Sprint Series Speedweek came to a close as the Winged Warriors closed out the racing portion of the Five State Fair at Liberal Fairgrounds Speedway Wednesday night. Mother nature provided a beautiful evening for racing to make up for the one she spoiled one night earlier. Quinter Kansas racer C J Johnson made it a clean sweep of Speedweek as he picked up his fifth win of the week and the Speedweek Point Championship.

Hugoton Kansas" Barry Crane led the field to green but it was short lived as Kris Moore brought out the red flag has he tagged the front stretch wall sending him flipping in turn four. On the restart Crane jumped out to the lead followed by Smokey Fairbank, Tanner Mullens, C J Johnson and Kevin Smith to round out the top five. Mullens grabbed the top spot on lap two sending Crane to second with Fairbank on his tail. Johnson grabbed the third spot on lap three and started pressuring Crane for the runner up spot with Johnson gaining the position on lap seven.

Johnson set his sights on Mullens as the pair ran nose to tail until Johnson took the spot for good on lap eleven. Back in the pack, Taylor Milton and Brian Herbert were dicing their way through traffic as they battled for the fourth and fifth spots. Milton took the third spot on lap fourteen with Herbert and Smokey Fairbank close on hand. Lap twenty saw Milton on Mullens back bumper trying to find a way around for the second position. The pair each used lap traffic to try and make their move with Milton finally making the pass stick on lap twenty-four.

As the checkers flew it Johnson picking up the win with Milton, Mullens, Barry Crane, and Brian Herbert rounding out the top five.

The Weld Racing Wheels "Hard Charger Award" went to C J Johnson who came from his tenth place starting spot to claim the victory.

A-Main: 1-C J Johnson (45X), 2-Taylor Milton (91X), 3-Tanner Mullens (02), 4-Barry Crane (30C), 5-Brian Herbert (97), 6-Ty Williams (1), 7-Smokey Fairbank (2), 8-Richie Dewell (112), 9-Steven Richardson (0M), 10-Josh Fairbank (51), 11-Kevin Smith (62K), 12-Randy Bantam (5R), 13-Reed Bernbeck (C3), 14-John Colbert (79C), 15-Michael Williams (77W), 16-Taylor Velasquez (21), 17- Kris Moore (49)

Five State Championship: 1-C J Johnson (750), 2-Taylor Milton (698), 3-Brian Herbert (694), 4-Tanner Mullens (692), 5- Taylor Velasquez (678)