Who’s your Driver? Night
Post Race Recap 9-16-17
By Mark Rogers Jr
It was the, “Who’s your Driver?, Night at the Races” at Larry King Law’s Langley Speedway and championships were on the line. After a season long campaign, the Taylor Waste Services Late Model division was back in their season ending finale. Track Championships were also on the line from the Trip Anderson Realtor Winged Champ Karts, Pepsi Grand Stocks and the Carroll’s Automotive UCAR’s. Also in race action were the Larry King Law Modified’s, the Harris Truck Shop Super Trucks and the Bojangles Enduros. With track championship’s all on the line and the call to get er done, here’s the recap of the evening exciting race action.
Taylor Waste Services Late Models Twin 66’s: Greg Edwards championship hopes were that much better by posting the fast lap in qualifying with a lap set at 16.041 seconds. Points leader Matt Waltz would start on row one with Connor Hall, Mark Wertz and Brenden Queen the five best in qualifying. Green flag was displayed to the field and pole sitter Greg Edwards would show the grid into turn one. Once out of two and the lead secured for Edwards, a brief battle for second between Waltz and Hall but it was Waltz who maintained the spot. Greg Edwards in the early goings would mount up a four car length lead and by the halfway, enjoyed a twelve car length lead. Matt Waltz was clearly giving chase but obviously forced to conserve as Greg Edwards was dominate. Mark Wertz would work his way to third with Queen showing fourth, Cameron Bowen made his way into the top five as the race entered its latter stages. But back up front in his bid for a sixth track championship, Greg Edwards would not be denied victory as he wins his sixth of the season. Edwards from Victory Lane,” Yeah, this car is a great car”, claimed the race winner. “It’s probably the oldest car in the field built back in 2008 so I don’t think anybody would dream of driving it. It’s a really fast race car, the inversions here help make the competition better but it also puts you in a better position for a crash. We’re here to win and have fun, that’s what we’re trying to do”.
In the nightcap, the mandatory invert placed the championship contenders Edwards eighth and Waltz starting seventh. Alex Brock would get the race pole and show the field to the green. With the green displayed, Brock would spin the tires giving the lap one race lead to Lee Pulliam. Cameron Bowen, Mark Wertz and Connor Hall were all the early movers making their way to the front in the race. Several laps in, Hall would catch Pulliam to take the race lead before the races first caution and most notably, the exit of Greg Edwards due to an expired race engine. Back to the green, Connor Hall continued to lead but failed to get going bringing out the caution involving points leader Matt Waltz. Fortunately, Matt Waltz would survive his spin and continue to race. Back to the green, Lee Pulliam would take over the lead with Brenden Queen in tow and keeping pace with Pulliam. Laps later saw Connor Hall on the move who would run down Queen for second then turned his sights on race leader Pulliam. Then shortly after, a change up front as Connor Hall regains the race lead and would go on to win his first race of the season. Hall had this to say from Victory Lane, “I really don’t know what to say, it’s definitely not how I wanted to get my first one”, explained Hall. “I just got to thank all my guys, I was just sitting in a lawn chair thinking what just happened. Got to thank my crew, everyone at Town Bank. Mark Wertz, it’s kind of a weird deal but he’s my crew chief and I race against him. I just so glad that I could finally go out and get them one and it’s a great cap to the season”. Matt Waltz was successful in winning the Late Model track championship and had this say about his season. “Yeah, luckily, we were able to keep it in one piece on the spin and didn’t hit anything to hard”, said the track champion. “But I just got to thank everybody, the crews and the guys coming out here every weekend. It’s been a great team effort here at the race track, it’s like my first win!”
Race Results Race #1:
1. #97 Greg Edwards; 66
2. #2 Matt Waltz; 66
3. #55 Mark Wertz; 66
4. #03 Brenden Queen; 66
5. #19 Cameron Bowen; 65
6. #63 Chris Throckmorton; 65
7. #5 Lee Pulliam; 65
8. #9 Alex Brock; 65
9. #94 Cody Carlton; 65
10. #88 Thomas Marks; 55
11. #4 Duane Shreeves; 47
12. #77 Connor Hall; 26
13. #71w Travis Wall; 9
Race Results Race #2:
1. #77 Connor Hall; 66
2. #5 Lee Pulliam; 66
3. #03 Brenden Queen; 66
4. #2 Matt Waltz; 66
5. #63 Chris Throckmorton; 66
6. #4 Duane Shreeves; 66
7. #94 Cody Carlton; 65
8. #9 Alex Brock; 64
9. #88 Thomas Marks; 29
10. #97 Greg Edwards; 22
11. #55 Mark Wertz; 22
12. #19 Cameron Bowen; 22
13. #71w Travis Wall; 20
Larry King Law’s Modified’s 50 Laps: Matt Carter picked up his third pole on the season with a lap at 16.795 seconds. Shawn Balluzzo’s lap was certainly deserving of a share of the front row with Andrew Fortin, Bobby Gery and Chris Flowers as the five best in Modified qualifying. Green flag waved and Matt Carter showed the twelve car field into turn one. Balluzzo would give it thought early but settled in and mirrored the leaders line in second. Several laps into the run saw Balluzzo measuring up the race leader and soon after, Shawn Balluzzo took over the race lead. But just after the halfway, back would come Carter with the race lead but the caution waved before he could complete the lap. Restart ensued with Shawn Balluzzo as the leader and the battle for the race lead would begin. The battle continued before contact brought out the caution spinning race leader Balluzzo and sending Carter to the rear for rough driving. Assuming the race lead would be Andrew Fortin who quickly mounted up a four car length lead with now Jamie Sample in tow. Sample however could not run down the leader and its Andrew Fortin finding Victory Lane. Fortin had this to say, “After smacking that wall last race, me and my dad had this car down to the bear frame straightening this rear end out”, shared Fortin. “I aint feeling to good, think I’m pretty sick, this might be even better”.
Race Results:
1. #5 Andrew Fortin; 50
2. #28 Jamie Sample; 50
3. #51f Chris Flowers; 50
4. #1 Donnie Holston; 50
5. #60 Bobby Gery; 50
6. #78 Matt Carter; 50
7. #70 Curtis Hughes; 50
8. #63 Derek Roberts; 50
9. #16 Eric McPherson; 50
10. #48 Shawn Balluzzo; 45
11. #95 Danny Harrell; 20
Trip Anderson Realtor Winged Champ Karts 20 Laps: Tillman Heuer nabbed up his third pole on the season boasting a lap at 23.356 seconds. Tyler Stallings would start shotgun in the field with strong qualifying laps from Aaron Leach, Chris Bechtel and Matthew Leach as the top five. Green flag would wave and the pole sitter Heuer would lead lap one before the first caution would occur. After the lengthy caution, Heuer would once again take the green as the race leader but soon would surrender the lead to Aaron Leach with help from Matthew Leach. In a four car tandem with laps counting down, Aaron Leach continued his assault but back would come Tillman Heuer to challenge for the race lead. On the last lap, Heuer would take a look but Aaron Leach would have none of it and go on to win. Heuer from Victory Lane,” Yeah, I’m not sure what all happened and I’m not sure what happened with the red flag. I was trying to keep my brother with me. Honestly, I was trying to get him a win, he’s the last one out the trailer without a win. I was hoping to have him get one, but it just didn’t work out, just gotta thank Tillman for running me clean”. Brandon Lorah was declared the 2017 division track championship.
Race Results:
1. #45 Aaron Leach; 20
2. #14 Tillman Heuer; 20
3. #51 Matthew Leach; 20
4. #49 Brandon Lorah; 20
5. #73 Harry Leach; 20
6. #59 Charlie Ray Lorah; 20
7. #29 Scott Allen; 20
8. #10 Danny Millard; 20
9. #26 Robert Pellek; 20
10. #67 Chris Bechtel; 20
11. #23 Bradley Gower; 20
12. #24 Vaughan Crittenden; 19
13. #01 Jesse Call; 19
14. #39m Davis Millard; 1
15. #77 Maddy Bearden; 1
16. #28 Garry Osbourne; 1
17. #81 Tyler Jackson; 1
18. #34 Tony Spechio III;
19. #6 Tyler Stallings: DQ
Pepsi Grand Stocks 40 Laps: Carl Livingston would start on pole for the first time this year in Grand Stock qualifying. His lap set at 18.321 was faster than the efforts of Rodney Boyd but worthy of the second starting spot on the grid. Paul Lubno, Tommy Sweeney and Tim Wilson were all the five best as the Grand Stock division championship was on the line. Green flag race action would take place as the pole sitter Livingston showed the field into turn one. But soon after, Rodney Boyd would come around to lead lap one. Several laps in, Boyd would surrender the race lead to the charging Paul Lubno who by the halfway mounted up a half a straightaway lead. Latter stages of the feature saw Rodney Boyd keep pace but never got the caution and another shot at Lubno. Paul Lubno would easily cruise to victory and had this to say in Victory Lane. “I don’t even know where to start, we had so much help from so many people”, explained Lubno. “It’s my 33rd year racing here, we were only going to run a couple of races this year but the crew wanted to keep going so”. Tommy Sweeney would be awarded the Grand Stock Division Championship who had this to say about his year. “I can’t thank Bill and Chuck enough for giving us a place to race”, shared Sweeney, “We weren’t going to come back this year, we had unfortunate events happen while we were out. A real big guy on our crew Kenny Alves passed away so I said we were going to come back and do this for him. His son Kevin spots for me, we set out to do it and we did it.
Race Results:
1. #14 Paul Lubno; 40
2. #9 Rodney Boyd; 40
3. #11 Tommy Sweeney; 40
4. #1 Kevin Morgan; 40
5. #77 Carl Livingston; 40
6. #6 Shawn Scovel; 39
7. #18 Johnathan White; 27
8. #17 Tim Wilson; DQ
Harris Truck Shop Super Trucks 25 Laps: Dustin Mullins was the afternoons qualifying pole winner for the sixth time this season. The lap for the pole was 19.467 seconds with Chase McAdams starting second on the grid. Green flag race action would wave as the pole sitter Mullins lead would be brief as Chase McAdams quickly took the race lead. After a quick caution, McAdams continued to show the way in the early portions of the race. By the halfway, McAdams began to feel the pressure from now second place truck of Jacob Carr who was in pursuit of the leader. McAdams would let Carr get within two truck lengths but that was as close as the leader would allow. In a dominate performance, Chase McAdams would go on to win the Super Truck race feature. McAdams from Victory Lane, “Yeah, he kept sneaking up in the mirror, got myself back together and start pulling away a bit but I think he was running me down at the end”, claimed the race winner. “But it’s just great racing, on the start, you just can’t get a better start than that. It’s going to be interesting next week, it’s like five people within three points of each other”.
Race Results:
1. #62 Chase McAdams; 25
2. #88 Jacob Carr; 25
3. #80 Ronald Klein; 25
4. #31 Richard Quinn; 25
5. #26 Trever Battoia; 25
6. #19 Dustin Mullins; 6
7. #3h Ryan Huff; 5
Carroll’s Automotive UCAR 25 Laps: Michael Waters continued his 2017 race season dominance by picking up his sixth pole on the year. His lap at 19.211 seconds was slightly better than Tommy Gildea lap who would start second in the field. With the division championship still up for grabs, the green flag would wave and Waters showed the grid into turn one. While Waters was the early leader, Gildea would settle in second in search of a way around Waters. But as the halfway came and gone, Gildea championship hopes were getting further away as the leader had mounted up a five car length lead. Laps later, Tommy Gildea was beginning to chip away and with just five laps remaining, closed the lead down to a car length. Soon after, the battle began and Tommy Gildea was able to get by Waters for the race lead. From there, Gildea would motor on to victory knocking off Michael Waters ten race winning streak. Tommy Gildea from Victory Lane, “It feels good, it just took so long, it takes forever to figure these things out”, suggested race winner Gildea. “I just wish we had some more cars out here, I guess I kinda got lucky with that race, lead a bunch of laps, wore my tires out and here comes Michael on the outside. This time I just tried to hang with him, wait for him to mess up a bit. It’s been a great year, some good racing, this is great”. Michael Waters would seal up the UCAR Division track championship and had this to say, “It’s always great racing out here”, claims the UCAR track champion. “Glad we could get the ten wins and the championship, its actually pretty good when you got your family behind you. Everybody here at the track is your family, I’m just really glad there all here to support you.
Race Results:
1. #28 Tommy Gildea; 25
2. #36 Michael Waters; 25
3. #5 Jesse Jones IV; 25
4. #18 Brandon Wood; 25
5. #53 Zac Stongle; 25
6. #3 Eric Schaffer; 17
Bojangles Enduros 30 laps: Ray Haynes pulled the pole pill in the Enduro division series with Wendell White taking the two spot in row one. Green flag racing was in the air and the pole sitter did not get going. Taking advantage was Wendell White who by the halfway had at least a full straightaway over then second place runner Rodney Davis. But coming through the field was Alex Floroff who started thirteenth in the grid. After a brief battle with Tyler Baker for second, Floroff worked his way to the race leader. Last lap of the feature, Floroff was able to get by White for the race win.
Race Results;
1. #17 Alex Floroff; 30
2. #4 Wendell White; 30
3. #27 Tyler Baker; 30
4. #80 Ronald Klein; 30
5. #38 Rodney Davis; 30
6. #41 Richard Ellis; 29
7. #85 Robert Hiby; 29
8. #33 Mike Kanary; 27
9. #47l Nathan Lundin; 26
10. #26 Robert Pellek; 25
11. #3 Austin Davis; 22
12. #25c Jesse Call; 21
13. #47s Jeff Steele; 18
14. #28 Ray Haynes; 6
15. #31 Richard Quinn; 1
