Butler Motor Speedway kicked off the 2012 season with the 60^th season opener on May 5^th.  Chad Blonde in Sprint Cars, Tommy Beezley in UMP Modifieds and Jake Rendel in Sportsman and Street Stocks all captured the feature wins.  With a stellar crowd on hand and a packed pit area, the night kicked off at 7:33 pm with the Boy Scouts presenting the colors.  With the pre-race ceremonies complete the first heat race of the 2012 season would roll out onto the 3/8 mile speed plant and see Steve "Airtime" Shellenberger capture the first win of the new season.

  The first feature event of the evening would be the UMP Modifieds and the combination of the full moon and the first race of the season would become the theme of the night.  Tommy Beezley and Josh Lolmaugh would lead the field to the green, only to see the yellow come out for a 3 car spin.  The field would see a complete restart and as the field came to the green, this time the red would fly as contact involving Jessi Sroufe, Jarret Rendel and Doug McLaclan would see Rendel sail off the top of the banking in turn 3.  The track officials decided to go to a single file start, and at the green Beezley would jump to the quick lead before a lap 6 yellow for a Jordan Bailey spin.  Back to green Beezley would lead with Ryan Ordway running 2^nd, Ryan Crandall in 3^rd , Tim Wilber running 4^th and a stellar run for Mark Pifer in 5^th.  A lap 7 yellow for Bailey spinning, collecting Sroufe would see Sroufe's night come to an end.  Beezley would continue to lead at the green, but now Wilber snuck around Pifer.  A lap 8 spin for Mark Pifer would bring the field back under caution.  A couple other spins would slow the event but at the checkers it was the 2010 UMP Modified champion Tommy Beezley, capturing the first feature win of 2012 ahead of 2011 Sportsman Champion Tim Wilber.  Ordway would finish 3^rd ahead of Jacob Bailey in 4^th and B-main winner Dillon Nusbaum in 5^th.  6^th thru 10^th would see Ryan Crandall in his new modified ahead of Marty French in 7^th.  David VanGuilder ran 8^th, Brian McFeeters 9^th and Mark Pifer would recover from an earlier spin to finish an impressive 10^th in his first ever race.  Heat race wins went to Steve Shellenberger, Tommy Beezley and Marty French while Dillon Nusbaum capture the 12 car B main.

  The Butler Sportsman class would roll out next with the Rendel brothers on the front row with 2011 Sportsman runner-up Jake Rendel setting the pace.  The yellow would fly on lap 2 for debris on the track.  With the green back in the air Jake Rendel jumped back to the lead only to see the red come out on lap 4 for Wes Bates who took a ride off from the top of turn two.  Bates did a great job of getting the car to slide to the dirt hill sideways and minimized the damage to just a nose wrinkle.  Bates was able to continue.  Back under green, with Rendel leading, 8^th starting and defending Sportsman Champion Tim Wilber began marching forward.  A lap 6 yellow for a Matt Bell spin would slow the field with Jake Rendel leading brother Jarrett Rendel, Jon Hadley in 3^rd and Wilber getting around Dwayne Feltner and sitting 4^th.  Back to green, Jake Rendel would go on to a comfortable win while Wilber would have to settle for 2^nd.  Dwayne Feltner got around Jon Hadley for 3^rd while Hadley ended up 4^th.  Rounding out the top 5 was Steve Billingsley, who earlier in the night captured his 2^nd ever heat race.  6^th thru 10^th saw Wes Bates recover from the earlier incident in 6^th, Steve Langdon 7^th, Fred VanEvey in 8^th, Matt Bell in 9^th and Jarrett Rendel  in 10^th.  Heat race wins went to Billingsley and Jake Rendel.

  The Winged Sprint car feature would roll out next and see Greg Wheeler and Ronnie Blair lead the field to green.  The field would come to a stop as the red would fly for Jared Hortsman as he went spinning on the backstretch before ending up upside down on his wing.  Jared was ok, and took the car to the pits for the night.  The field would go back to green with Blair leading over Wheeler, while 12^th place starting Chad Blonde was charging to the front.  Blair, Wheeler and Blonde would battle for the lead into lapped traffic when contact with a lapped car would cause a chain reaction contact between Blair and Blonde causing Blair to roll to a stop off the backstretch and become the lap 11 yellow and end his night.  Back to green and Wheeler would lead Blonde and as Chad made a strong move around Wheeler the yellow would fly for a Joe Geibe spin moving Wheeler back into the lead for the restart.  The restart would see Blonde waste little time and get around Wheeler on lap 16.  The yellow flew on lap 20 for a Len Robison spin off the top of turns 3 and 4.  The restart would see Blonde jump to the lead and have the yellow come back out for a single car spin.  At the Checkers, It was Blonde winning over Wheeler, Ryan Ruhl, Ken Mackey and Andy Chehowski rounding out the top5.  6^th thru 10^th went to Chad Wilson, Chris Jones, Nic Rogers, Ryan Kirkendall and Chuck Mohr.  Heat wins went to Mackey, Hortsman and Blair while Doug Zimmerman captured the B main.

  The Street Stock feature was the final feature race of the evening with Jake Rendel and Levi Collins leading the field to green.  A lap 3 caution for Zach Hiser spin would slow the field.  Back under green Jake Rendel would lead until a lap 6 yellow.  Rendel would lead at the restart with Dustin Hyliard running 2^nd, Levi Collins in 3^rd, Terry Milliman in 4^th and   8^th place starting Dallas Prater moving up to 5^th.  Back under green and 10^th place starting John Ruby was on the move bringing Chris Garrett and Jeff Hinkley with him.  A lap 11 yellow for Hiser coming to a stop on the frontstretch would end his night.  Back under green and Rendel would cruise to the win ahead of Prater, Ruby, Garrett and Hinkley rounding out the top 5.  6^th thru 10^th went to Bob Rendel, Sheryll Dishaw, Matt Rose, Terry Milliman and Hyliard.  Heat race wins went to Bob Rendel, Jake Rendel and Kevin Butters, while Sheryll Dishaw captured the B main.  For Jake Rendel it was his 4^th trip to victory lane on the evening, on his daughter's 5^th birthday.

  Promoters Bob and Karen Garrett would like to thank all the fans and drivers who came out to the 60^th anniversary season opener at Butler Motor Speedway.

  Upcoming events will see the full 4 in 1 program of Winged Sprint Cars, UMP Modifieds, Sportsman and Street Stocks on May 12^th.  Coming up on May19th the Speedway will have the first 5 in 1 event of the 2012 season when they add the Mini Sprints to the full 4 in 1 program.  Racing starts at 7:30 pm.