HOT RACING AT CLARY'S SPEEDWAY SATURDAY Rusty Wells, Michael Wells, Larry Morgan, Buddy Isles Jr, Ryan Pearson racing to feature wins!
On a hot sultry Saturday night, the racing was fast and hot at the 3/10 Ring Of Fire in Brinkleyville, NC.
Leading off the action at the Halifax County oval on Saturday Night were the Pure Stock V8's with a 20 lap feature race. Setting fast time in qualifying of 17.440 seconds, pole sitter #41 Paul Elder of Roanoke Rapids and Northern Virginia's visiting driver Johnathan Edwards in his #61 Ford took the green with a hard charging field behind them. Going into turn one, Elder and Edwards raced side by side leaving the bottom lane open. Third starting Roanoke Rapids driver Rusty Wells driving his #55 Camaro seen the opening and made it three wide as they raced through turn two and down the back straight away into turn three! Wells took the lead coming off turn four leaving Elder and Edwards to battle for second on Wells rear bumper for the first five laps and joined by Emporia, VA Joey Seward in his #27jr Chevrolet making it a 4 car battle at the front of the pack! Wells was fighting them off for the first 5 laps until a caution appeared for a spin back in the pack. After the restart it was the same battle up front until Elder brought a caution with a flat tire. Back under green with Wells fighting off Edwards and a hard charging Seward, the racing was hot through the field with Elder working his way to the front, racing hard with Justin Barlow and Dylan Cooke, but it was all for not as he experienced another flat tire, bringing the field back under caution. On the restart it would be Wells continuing to lead the way with Seward racing him side by side through every turn all the way to the checkered flag with Rusty Wells taking a very popular flag to flag win by a car length over Seward! Great racing all the way through the field to open up the nights program!
Pure Stock V8 finish:
1. #55 Rusty Wells
2. #27jr Joey Seward Jr
3. #67 Johnathan Oliver
4. #2 Dylan Cooke
5. #18 Justin Barlow
6. #22 HT Boone
7. #33 Joey Lambert
8. #41 Paul Elder
9. #0 Sean Waters
10. #36 Dustin Bishop
11. #57 Michael Wells
With only three Limited Sportsman signed in, it would be all Roanoke Rapids drivers in a 10 lap dash for cash sprint to the checkered. Jimmy Gray set his #1 Chevrolet on pole, qualifying at 16.306 seconds, to his outside sat the #57 Chevrolet of Michael Wells with the #82 Chevrolet of Ricky Dickens starting third. At the drop of the green to the halfway flag, it would be side by side racing for the lead between Gray and Wells with neither giving a inch as they crossed under the flag stand dead even lap after lap with Ricky Dickens in their tire tracks waiting for them to slip, it did not happen. Wells took the lead on the outside on lap 6 and never looked back as he won by eight car lengths over Gray followed by Dickens.
Limited Sportsman finishing order:
1. #57 Michael Wells
2. #1 Jimmy Gray
3. #82 Ricky Dickens
The Super Stock/Pure Stock 4 Cylinders had only two competitors as Larry Morgan in his #12 Ford Mustang turned in the quick qualifying time of 18.866 seconds for the pole with the #8 Ford of Blake House to his outside coming to the green flag. It would be all Hardie, leading all 10 laps of the dash with House following him to the checkered flag.
The main event Late Models rolled onto the track with Littleton's #11jr Chevrolet of Buddy Isles Jr sitting on the pole qualifying at 14.863 seconds and the #1 Chevrolet of Roanoke Rapids Danny Hudson to his outside. Taking the green coming off turn four to start the 25 lap race, Isles charged into the lead with Danny Hudson and the K&B Chevrolet of Delaware's Kerry King, the #89 of Brodnax, VA JC Clary, the #5 Chevrolet of Oxford, NC John Eller, the #8 Chevrolet of Roanoke Rapids Mason Price locked in a battle for 2nd to 5th, King and Clary worked past Hudson leaving Hudson and Eller racing side by side for 4th coming through turn two, they made contact on the back straight forcing both to retire for the night with steering damage. Back under green it would be Isles pulling away with Clary passing King for second and Price moving in on King for a fight for third. Suffolk, VA Brad Rigdon in his #09 Chevrolet charged into 5th and set in Price tire tracks for the remainder of the race as Price and King raced two wide for position through the turns with King never relenting to his pressure throughout the race. After another caution, it would be Isles out front with Clary applying pressure on the restart, but Isles had the field covered and lead every lap to take home the win!
Late Model finishing order:
1. #11jr Buddy Isles Jr
2. #89 JC Clary
3. K&B Kerry King
4. #8 Mason Price
5. #09 Brad Rigdon
6. #28 Carl Vaughan
7. P47 Trevor Peoples
8. #1 Danny Hudson
9. #5 John Eller
The U-Car's closed out the program with a 15 lap night cap race, featuring a different twist on the starting order for the race. The U-Car drivers voted to invert the entire qualifying order to start the race. After the invert, the #00 of Roanoke Rapids Michaela Wallace was on the inside and the #42 of Roanoke Rapids Ryan Pearson sat to her outside to make up the front row. At the drop of the green it would be Pearson charging into the lead with the #00M Michael Wallace of Roanoke Rapids pressuring Pearson for the lead. Behind the leaders it was hot racing as the top qualifiers were charging to the front! The #53 of Roanoke Rapids Chris Lewis was the man on the move as he raced into fourth and had a three way fight for third as the #88 of Suffolk, VA David Schwarm was pressuring Lewis hard as Lewis was pressuring the #03 of Rafael Brown of Hollister to make the pass, someone had to give and it would be Brown spinning in turn four as Lewis went under him. Brown collected Schwarm in the spin bringing out the caution and retiring Schwarm for the night with radiator damage. On the restart it was Pearson out front with Michael Wallace applying heavy pressure for the lead, but not for long as Lewis worked underneath Wallace to take second and set his sights on Pearson, behind Wallace, Littleton's Buddy Isles Jr making a guest appearance in the #22 was on the move along with U-Car points leader Tommy Weese in his #11W. Isles worked his way around Wallace into third to set up a three lap battle for the win, the top three closed up on the following two laps and coming into turn three on the final lap, Lewis dove underneath leader Pearson making contact, this slowed their momentum enough to allow Isles to jump to their outside and make it 3 wide coming off turn four to the checkered flag. It would be Ryan Pearson winning by a half car length over Chris Lewis with Buddy Isles Jr on the outside of Pearson finishing in third by just a couple of feet! This was Ryan Pearson's first ever win and he did it in style leading all the way for a flag to flag win! Exciting racing and the top 3 finishers could truly have been covered with a blanket at the checkered flag, great racing by all the drivers!
U-Car finishing order:
1. #42 Ryan Pearson
2. #53 Chris Lewis
3. #22 Buddy Isles Jr
4. #00M Michael Wallace
5. #03 Rafael Brown
6. #11W Tommy Weese
7. #00 Michaela Wallace
8. #88 David Schwarm
Clary's Speedway invites all the great fans from Roanoke Rapids and the surrounding NC & VA counties to join come out and enjoy amazing racing by several of your Hometown Drivers, your Friends and family, and Star Drivers to everyone! Clary's Speedway will be off this Saturday, July 30th. Be sure to visit and support them at the next schedule racing event on Saturday evening, August 6th. Pit gate opens at 4pm, Grandstand gate/concession stand opens at 5pm. Clary's Speedway is a family friendly facility with racing completed by 11pm and great family admissions for each event. Family friendly grandstand admissions: $15-(19 & Up) Free-18 & Under (16-18 Present ID or $15) Small 6 pack coolers OK-No glass allowed. For official information visit www.ClarysSpeedway.com and like their Facebook page. Follow www.RRSpin.com for Clary's Speedway race information and race results.