Larry King Law Championship Night Race Results | October 5, 2019

Hampton, VA (10-5-19) It was championship week at Larry King Law’s Langley Speedway and five of the eleven respected race divisions were to be crowned on the evening. Though the Larry King Law Modified championship has been decided, the thousand dollar Balluzzo Bounty was still up for grabs to anyone that could keep Shawn Balluzzo out of Victory Lane. Also, on hand were the ERA Real Estate Champ Karts, Cycle City Corp Bandoleros and Legends series. Coming down to the final race to decide the championship, the Pepsi Grand Stocks were back in action. Tim Wilson comes into the evenings racing just one point better then series rival Paul Lubno where both drivers could clinch with a win. So how did it all go down? Here’s your recap of the racing and who was crowned champion.

 

ERA Real Estate Champ Kart 20 Laps: Chris Bechtel continued to show strength nabbing up another Champ Kart series pole. His lap set at 23.188 seconds kept Jeffrey Johnson from the pole but worthy of the second place starting spot. Mattisen Morrill, Scott Allen and Hunter Waltrip were the five quickest in qualifying. Green flag would wave to start the evenings racing and coming around to lead lap one would be the pole sitter Chris Bechtel. Just behind him was Mattisen Morrill, Hunter Waltrip, Tim Waltrip and Jeremiah Strandberg in a five car tandem. Trouble with the leaders when fourth place Tim Waltrip goes around to bring out the caution in the early laps. Back to the green, Bechtel continues to lead as Morrill continued to cling to the rear bumper of the leader. Coming through the grid was Matthew Leach and Jacob Harberts now in the top five. At the halfway, there’s a new race leader as Matthew Leach continued to motor to the front. Just before the new leader could get into his groove, another race caution for debris. Green flag waved and race leader Matthew Leach gets the hot restart as Jacob Harberts is attached to his bumper. Just behind in the three car tandem was Aaron Leach but the outside line formed with Chris Bechtel at the helm. Laps later, Bechtel regains the lead as the final laps approached. Last lap, its Matthew Leach getting position for the race win by 0.074 seconds, Leach in Victory Lane. “Actually, it’s one of those things we tested in practice figuring out what was the best line was for our kart set up. My brother and I qualified one and two but our teammate had issues in qualifying and we couldn’t leave him hanging. It’s a bit emotional cause it ties me with the most victories in the series with his father who unfortunately passed away. Truth be told, had that late race caution not come out, we would have parked the seventy eight right here in Victory Lane”. Aaron Leach was the 2019 ERA Real Estate Champ Kart Champion at Larry King Law’s Langley Speedway.

 

Race Results:

1. #51 Matthew Leach; 20
2. #78 Jacob Harberts; 20
3. #45 Aaron Leach; 20
4. #3 Jeremiah Strandberg; 20
5. #39 Mattisen Morrill; 20
6. #67 Chris Bechtel; 20
7. #28 Garry Osborne; 20
8. #29 Scott Allen; 20
9. #30 Jeffrey Johnson; 20
10. #97 Tim Waltrip; 20
11. #16 Davey Millard; 20
12. #26 Robert Pellek; 20
13. #10 Danny Millard; 20
14. #17 Hunter Waltrip; 20
15. #23S Cheyanne Strandberg; 20
16. #8 Curtis Martin; 20
17. #59 Charlie Ray Lorah; 20
18. #06 Steven Griggs; 20
19. #12 Adam Hopper; 20

 

Cycle City Corp Bandoleros 15 Laps: Cody Bryant Jr took the pole in Bando series action sporting his 20.843 second lap. Just missing the pole by twenty eight thousandths was series points leader Ryley Music as Aiden Milette, Jacob Derrick and Aaliyah Paynter were showing speed as the top five in qualifying. Green flag waved to the grid and into turn one did pole sitter Cody Bryant Jr show the field. Leading the first lap would be the pole sitter Cody Bryant Jr but Ryley Music would take the leader side by side in a bid for the lead. Next lap, the pole sitter fared much better as the point was secured and all alone. But then a scary crash for Aaliyah Paynter who hit the turn four wall to bring out the first caution. Reported during the cleanup, race leader Cody Bryant Jr would retire from competition citing brake failure. As a result, Ryley Music would inherit the race lead when the green flag waved. Racing resumed as Music with Jacob Derrick chasing would break away from the rest of the field. Connor Wendell would show third as Kenton Case and Aiden Milette rounded the early top five. At the halfway, Ryley Music pulled away from second spot Jacob Derrick and from there, would go on to win the race by 3.188 seconds. Music with these words from Victory Lane, “It was a perfect night for us, everything worked out perfect. First race of the season I knew this car would be dominate, second race we didn’t come back as strong but from there we came back with the best stuff I could ever ask for”. Ryley Music is the 2019, Bandolero series Champion at Larry King Laws Langley Speedway.

Race Results:

1. #47 Ryley Music; 15
2. #8 Jacob Derrick; 15
3. #8M Aiden Milette; 15
4. #87 Kenton Case; 15
5. #8W Connor Wendell; 15
6. #81 Julie Case; 14
7. #00 Cody Bryant Jr; 3
8. #14 Aaliyah Paynter; 3

 

Pepsi Grand Stocks 40 Laps:Tim Wilson took one step closer to a Grand Stock Championship by claiming the pole with a lap at 17.857 seconds. Hot on his trail would be Paul Lubno earning his spot on the front row with championship intentions of his own. The green flag waved and the Grand Stock field roared to life. Leading the first circuit would be Tim Wilson as Kevin Morgan with the rocket like start takes second. But Paul Lubno comes right back to take second from Morgan as Dale Nichols and JR Smith as the top five. Back to the leaders, Wilson would create a three car length lead over Lubno who was slowly inching his way to the leader. Just like everyone thought it was going to be, just like it should be, the top players battling for the championship were one and two. JR Smith would work his way around Nichols for fourth as action at the front began to pick up. Paul Lubno was within a car length of the leader Tim Wilson as the halfway drew near. Halfway lap goes on the board and the lead remains one car length. One lap, the leader Tim Wilson was faster, the next lap, Paul Lubno is faster. Still at this point, hard to gage how hard the leaders are running in the long forty lap feature. With ten laps to go, Wilson’s lead is now growing as Lubno’s right rear begins to burn up. But then a late race caution erases the lead and gives Lubno’s right rear a chance to cool back down. Restart to the feature and it may be now or never for Paul Lubno as only nine laps remained. Wilson is perfect on the restart but so was Lubno and Morgan. Lubno rides the quarter panel of Wilson who then surrenders the lead to Morgan. But back comes Tim Wilson after drifting sideways down the entire backstretch and retakes the lead. But just when Wilson thought he was going to drive away, another race caution. With four laps to go, the green flag waves and Tim Wilson is money but Kevin Morgan gets to the bumper and sends Wilson up the hill to take the lead. But back comes Wilson on the last lap as Morgan himself drives in too deep leaving an opening for Tim Wilson to go on to win the Grand Stock feature by 0.096 seconds. Tim Wilson in Victory Lane, “Gotta take off my hat to Paul, he’s a helluva racer, everybody knows that out here. We battled the whole year just me and him, I’m speechless. I thought o cut down a right rear on that last restart. I went in to turn and it wouldn’t turn. My spotter told me to keep it low and I was just trying to get it done”. Tim Wilson is the 2019, Pepsi Grand Stock Champion at Larry King Law’s Langley Speedway.

 

Race Results:

1. #17 Tim Wilson; 40
2. #1 Kevin Morgan; 40
3. #14 Paul Lubno; 40
4. #8 Dale Nichols; 39
5. #71 JR Smith; 34
6. #51 Amanda Satterly; 33

Cycle City Corp Legends 25 Laps: Ryan Center picked up the Legends series pole showcasing an 18.003 second lap. Series points leader Ryan Matthews would start second with Colby Flowers, Devon Courtney and Alek Andrecs as the five best in the afternoon time trials. With the green flag given, the Legend series hot rods blistered into turn one. But from the outside row one starting spot, Ryan Matthews leads lap one. Then its Ryan Center, Colby Flowers, Devon Courtney and Bradley Wilson the early top five. Laps later, Matthews would show off a six car length lead as Center and Flowers are driving hard to catch up. Battle for second heated up as the halfway point is near when Flowers poked a fender under Center for second. Centers would hold off the charge but the brief battle sent the leader off to a twelve car length lead as race traffic approached. Late stages of the race now and it’s been Ryan Matthews on a rail. His race lead continued to mount when on the last lap in search of the checkered flag, Matthews crosses first for the win by 2.989 seconds. Ryan Matthews on the win in Victory Lane, “Yeah, we had a good season, definitely didn’t expect our season to turn out this well. We got like 22 class wins in the Semi Pro’s and that’s pretty amazing. This is our third championship of the year, we got the Dominion raceway championship, the Virginia State Championship and now the Langley Championship. Now we’re just going for the National Championship in two weeks. Gotta thank Devon Courtney for the push to get around Ryan Center on the start. He definitely gave me a good push to get by and thanks to my spotter Aaron Leach”. Ryan Matthews is the 2019 Legend series track champion at Larry King Law’s Langley Speedway.

 

Race Results:

1. #51 Ryan Matthews; 25
2. #88 Ryan Center; 25
3. #33 Colby Flowers; 25
4. #17 Devon Courtney; 25
5. #51W Bradley Wilson; 25
6. #4A Alek Andrecs; 24
7. #4 Chris Hayes; 24
8. #27 Davis Steele; 24
9. #12A Braden Andrecs; 24

 

Larry King Law’s Modifieds 100 Laps: Shawn Balluzzo in a season of dominance picked up the pole with a lap at 16.277 seconds. Late Model stand out Mark Wertz earned the two spot in row one as Jamie Sample, Brad Adams and Paul Debolt who is making a rare Modified series return were the top five in Modified qualifying. Green flag was shown to the competitors and leading the first of one hundred circuits would be Shawn Balluzzo. After a brief battle for the lead, Mark Wertz rides second as Jamie Sample, Paul Debolt and Brad Adams were the early top five of the bunch. At the front, both Balluzzo and Wertz set sail with Wertz harassing the leader. Rick Gdovic would make his way to fifth as Jimmy Humblett and Mike Rudy were coming through the field sixth and seventh. But then the caution waves as Matt Morgan comes to a stop in turns one and two. Back to the green, Balluzzo gets the great restart leaving Wertz behind in second. But in this green flag run, Wertz wants to lead as he is all over Balluzzo for the spot. But then the second caution flag waves when Chris Humblett and Danny Harrell were involved in turn three. After quick clean up, the racing resumed as Balluzzo continues to show the way. Then its Wertz, Sample, Gdovic and now Rudy in fifth in his first race at Langley. Laps later, Rudy would go to fourth and coming along with him was Jimmy Humblett in fifth. Meanwhile at the front, Balluzzo and Wertz had left the pack. Wertz would choose every other lap to get to the bumper to let Balluzzo know he can but then Balluzzo would pull away to let Wertz know he can too. Battle for third would shape up as Mike Rudy caught Jamie Sample but back to the leaders as race traffic was next to negotiate. The lap forty controlled caution took to the speedway which allowed teams to take fuel only. Once completed, racing resumed with Balluzzo holding off Wertz coming out of turn two. But then Mike Rudy goes around to bring out the third race caution which meant caution laps began to count. Restart to the race saw Balluzzo with another great restart. Wertz was still in tow as was Sample, Jimmy Humblett and now Tyler Davis to join the top five. Halfway in the feature saw Wertz pressuring the race leader for the point. Wertz was good on entry, Balluzzo was better on exit and would hold off the charge from Mark Wertz for now. Latter laps of the race and the competitors were in the longest green flag run of the night. Shawn Balluzzo, who has had his way this season began to put distance on Wertz but then there was lap traffic. Mark Wertz would close in but just as the leader cleared the traffic, Balluzzo would pull away. The lap eighty controlled caution would slow the grid to a crawl bringing the cars to pit road. With the green waving once again, so did the caution when Mike Rudy, Jimmy Humblett went around on the back stretch. With caution laps counting, the green waved again and Shawn Balluzzo leads. After a series of cautions, six laps remained and Shawn Balluzzo continued to show the way. Jamie Sample would work by Mark Wertz for second but pulling away and getting the win would be Shawn Balluzzo by 0.620 seconds. Balluzzo from Victory Lane, “I was certainly worried about Mark, he was all over the place on me. It was a tough race believe it or not. We had a couple of people come on board with us, Southern National Motorsports Park and Michael Diaz, they’re gonna have a big race in November. Asset Auto Recovery, without those two sponsors, we would had not made it this weekend. With everything going on at home with Bryce it was to big of a chance for me to take. We already took the championship and I appreciate all the fans out there”.

 

Race Results:

1. #48 Shawn Balluzzo; 100
2. #28 Jamie Sample; 100
3. #19W Mark Wertz; 100
4. #7 Grant Blasingame; 100
5. #3 Brad Adams; 100
6. #95 Danny Harrell; 100
7. #8 Mike Rudy; 100
8. #51 Paul Debolt; 100
9. #16 Eric McPherson; 100
10. #64 Rick Gdovic; 100
11. #98 Matt Morgan; 100
12. #23 Peyton Ferree; 100
13. #49 Todd Whitesell; 96
14. #00 Tyler Davis; 88
15. #11 Jimmy Humblett; 82
16. #20 Chris Humblett; 74
17. #47C Matt Carter; 7