Dusty Cone Holds Off Collins and Whitener at Waycross
By Jack Smith
The United Dirt Late Model Challenge Series made their only scheduled appearance at Waycross Motor Speedway Saturday night. Twenty-nine late models were on hand, and twenty-six took the green flag after 4 heat races were run.
It looked like Dusty Cone would have the fastest time with a 16.92 around the half-mile. Johnny Collins, winner of three UDLMCS events this year and current points leader produced a smile from Cone when he hit a blistering fast 16.68 to grab the Qualifying Award.
The heat races were dominated by top starting spots, wins going to Scott Johnson, Johnny Collins, Keith Tuton and Mark Whitener.
The ScotBuilt Homes Classic 50 lap event got started after the customary UDLMCS frisbee toss to the fans and Promoter Ken Kinney made the offer to the top four cars to start in the rear for a chance at an extra $2000 winners purse. There were no takers for the shot at five grand, and #07 of Keith Tuton started from the pole with Collins outside.
Things started off with a nearly disastrous pile up in turn one. Several miscommunications resulted in a faulty start to the race, the net result was a huge mess with a lengthy cleanup of cars and fluids. Many cars were involved with Justin Choquette, Micheal Murray, Jackie Nosbisch, Mike Carter, and Troy Walker all being knocked out of the race.
After the 22 remaining cars got going again, only two laps passed before more carnage occurred in turn four with the #57 of Bo James taken off on the hook and Adam Bedenbaugh gone as well.
The remaining 18 cars fired up and Collins roared to the front and seemed to have things well in hand with Mark Whitener trailing in second. As the 07 of Keith Tuton began to fade, Cone swiped the second spot from Whitener and by lap 28 had took the lead from Collins.
The remainder of the race was controlled by Cone, with Collins and Whitener right with him. Several times, as lapped traffic got involved Collins and Whitener closed the gap but Come made no mistakes. One scary moment for Evan Becton, the fifteen year old rookie on the UDLMCS tour, when he was surrounded by the three leaders, all much faster, but all were able to clear him without incident.
Several cautions in the last twenty laps gave Collins a chance and at one point he made a serious attempt to beat Cone to turn one on a restart but Cone was unmatched on this night, pulling away in the closing laps to take a solid win.
The next stop for the United Dirt Late Model Challenge Series in Saturday August 16 at Charlotte County Motorsports Park in South Florida, the only asphalt stop for the series this year. Points leader Johnny Collins will take a solid advantage into the "Battle on The Blacktop", though several Florida drivers including Patrick Williams have wins on the asphalt 3/8 mile in Punta Gorda, Fl.
The Series returns to Georgia on September 13th at Golden Isles Speedway, where Ivedent Lloyd took the win on June 28. There were over 50 cars for that event.
Results
Feature finishing order: 1. 17 Dusty Cone 2. 5C Johnny Collins 3. 5w Mark Whitener 4. 101 Keith Nosbisch 5. 12J Scott Johnson 6. 17ss Shan Smith 7. 11x Bum Nelson 8. 3T Andy Taylor 9. 32 Roger Crouse 10. 43S John Strickland 11. 7 Travis Grant 12. 51 Brandon Spradley 13. 21 Tom Jones, Jr 14. 31 James Bowen 15. 43C Scott Crews 16. 00 Russell Brown Jr. 17. 15 Evan Becton 18. 1N Jordie Nipper 19. 07 Keith Tuton 20. 26 Adam Bedenbaugh 21 57 Bo James 22. 95 Troy Walker 23. 2 Mark Carter 24. 22 Michael Murray 25. 12 Jackie Nosbisch 26. 97 Justin Choquette
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