"I was just waiting for the opportunity to get a clean pass of him, and as well as he ran, I wasn’t sure he was going to give me the opportunity. He really held his ground," said the elated, but exhausted winner Claycomb. Rounding out the top five were Scott Smith, Scott James, and surprise visitor Jimmy Mars.

At the start of the feature, Casebolt quickly put his orange and white Rayburn out front from his outside front row starting spot. Kevin Claycomb stuck right to his bumper in his Prestige Auto Sales/ Tri State Racing Equipment/ Xtreme Grafix/ AFCO/ K-Motion Racing Engine/GRT, and pulled up next to the leader several times coming off the fourth corner. Claycomb, of Vincennes Indiana, actually passed Casebolt at one point on lap 7 only to have a caution flag negate the move.

As the lead pack of 5 began to pull away, 13th place starter Don O’Neal was making a charge, passing cars very quickly. After a quick pass on Jimmy Mars, O’Neal had his Indiana Department of Tourism/ O’Neal Wood Products/ Rayburn into the top five. As the race began to wind down, O’Neal kept moving passed cars, getting around Scott James, and Scott Smith, while working his way up. With seven laps to go, O’Neal made an aggressive move to the inside of Kevin Claycomb in turn three, but pushed up the track, causing O’Neal to spin, and make minor contact with the car of Claycomb, while also collecting the car of Mike Jewell.

Jewell who had spun to avoid the stopped car of O’Neal would suffer no damage, and continued on to finish in the 9th place. Following the incident, O’Neal would retire to the pits for the evening. After the restart, Claycomb began intense pressure on the Richmond Indiana resident, Casebolt, and with three laps to go, got underneath Casebolt in turns three and four, and as the two slightly bumped, Claycomb went on around, and pulled off to his 6th Career Northern All-Star win.

Casebolt would hold on to his second place finish in the Charlie Watson Ford/ Tom Raper RV/ Rayburn. " I got a little nervous having Claycomb back there, because I know how tough he is. Plus right at the start the steering wheel coupler bent, which meant I had to push on the steering wheel the whole feature to keep it on the shaft, which didn’t help me any either. We had a good race, but Kevin was just a little better, and we learned a bunch tonight." Said the personable Casebolt.

Scott Smith, Scott James, and Jimmy Mars in the ParkerStores/ Rocket rounded out the top five. Fifth through tenth went to Steve Barnett, Doug McCammon, Richie Hedrick, Mike Jewell, and Bob Pierce.

On a windy and sunny afternoon, 58 late models filled the pits at the fast 1/3-mile speedway in southeast Illinois. Don O’Neal set quick time with a time of 18.434. Due to the large quantity of cars, 6 heat races were run, with Kevin Claycomb, Scott James, Scott Smith, Mike Jewell, Jimmy Mars, and Steve Casebolt Jr., taking the wins. The semi-features were won Jay Mobley, and Joe Ross Jr.

Following the finish of the semi-features, several drivers that did not transfer included Dan Schleiper, Steve Hillard, Kevin Weaver, John Gill, Terry Eaglin, Jeep VanWoermer, and many other talented drivers.

Thanks to the scheduled raced at Brownstown that was cancelled due to rain; fans at the track were treated with large car counts in late models, and modifieds, which had 80 cars in the pits.

In addition to the car count, many drivers made long hauls to the facility to participate in the season opener for the Osgood Indiana, based group. Drivers such as Jeff Wildung of Nassau MN, Craig Scott of Cannon Falls MN, and Jimmy Mars, were just part of the northern contingent that made the journey.

First Heat: Kevin Claycomb, Ed Dixon, Don O’Neal, Darrell Hoffman, Terry Eaglin

Second Heat: Scott James, Steve Barnett, Jeff Wildung, Jay Mobley, Billy Faust

Third Heat: Scott Smith, Doug McCammon, Richie Hedrick, Mark Faust, John Gill

Fourth Heat: Mike Jewell, Steve Godsey, Brad Barrow, Cale Kern, Dan Schleiper

Fifth Heat: Jimmy Mars, Bob Pierce, Craig Scott, Joe Ross Jr., Brian Wolfemeier

Sixth Heat: Steve Casebolt Jr., B.J. McCammon, Jeff Martin, Steve Hillard, T.J. Dolhun

Semi-Feature #1: Jay Mobley, Darrell Hoffman, John Gill, Terry Eaglin, Mark Faust

Semi-Feature #2: Joe Ross Jr., Cale Kern, Steve Hillard, Dan Schleiper, Mike Munson

Feature Finish:

Kevin Claycomb, Steve Casebolt Jr., Scott Smith, Scott James, Jimmy Mars, Steve Barnett, Doug McCammon, Richie Hedrick, Mike Jewell, Bob Pierce, Ed Dixon, Steve Godsey, Craig Scott, Brad Barrow, Joe Ross Jr., Darrell Hoffman, B.J. McCammon, Jeff Wildung, Jeff Martin, Cale Kern, Jay Mobley, Don O’Neal