October 3, 2012 Mooresville, NC (August 30th, 2012) – As the Southern National Motorsports Park brought the 2012 racing season to a close with its final race of the year, some of the best Super Late Model drivers from the east coast converged to the high banked oval located in Kenly, North Carolina for a night filled with close racing and plenty of on track action. The track hosted a grand finale event featuring twin 75 lap races with a large race purse on the line.
The most recent winner of the Super Series at SNMP, driver Jordan Anderson was back looking to repeat the success he found just a month ago when he led all 150 laps en route to his first victory at the speedway in his first visit. As the fans began to fill the grandstands for the night’s events, the drivers lined up along the front stretch in preparation for qualifying. Practice, which had taken place earlier in the day, was paced by both Anderson, and Preston Peltier. As a pill draw determined the qualifying order of the drivers, the tension built quickly in the pit area as the two fastest drivers from practice drew on opposite spectrums of the lineup for qualifying. Peltier was set to go out first and Anderson last. Peltier set the standard high with a trip around the track in 14.840 seconds; a time that would stand 1st until Anderson, the young driver from Forest Acres, South Carolina, laid down a blistering fast lap of 14.795 seconds putting him on the Pole for the nights first race.
With the field set, the pre race activities began and a beautiful Carolina sunset greeted those in attendance. With the nice weather that had come into the area on Sunday, fan attendance was strong as the grandstands were full, and trackside parking left no spots empty.
As the pace laps began to wind down and the drivers were given the 1 to go signal, the fans rose to their feet. The green flag fell over the field of drivers and they were off. Peltier jumped out to an early lead over Anderson and brought 3rd place driver Bradley McCaskill with him. On lap 10 Anderson showed the strength of his #19 ride as he muscled his way back into the lead passing both drivers on the inside. The drivers continued to battle for the top spot as Anderson held off their challenges. A caution flag on lap 50 bunched the field back together and setup what was to be a 25 lap shootout to the finish. With the double file choose restart system that the track uses, restarts always provide plenty of action for both the fans and drivers. Bobby Measmer Jr, and Gus Dean who had moved through the field put pressure on Anderson on the ensuing green flag laps but Anderson proved too strong and outlasted their duels, pulling away to a straightaway lead at the drop of the checkered flag and bringing home the win.
For race two, line up was based on an invert, and a seven was drawn, meaning that the top seven would flip starting positions based on their finishes in race 1. All eyes were going to be on Anderson as he predicted in victory lane after his race #1 win, that he felt he had the car to beat – even with the 7th place starting position he was given. When the green flag flew over the field for the start of the second race of the night, Anderson began his charge to front. By lap 10 he had worked his way up to 5th, and then during the next 10 laps methodically worked his way past the four drivers in front of him and took the lead on lap 20. Aside from a quick caution on lap 25, the race ran green flag the entire distance. Anderson lived up to the expectations he had for himself and paced the field the rest of the race and brought home his second win of the night and 3rd straight at the speedway.
In Victory Lane an enthused Anderson was very emotional. “These wins tonight just mean so much. The amount of hard work that myself and Jeff Fultz put into this car the past week getting it back together, and all the late nights at the shop – it all pays off when you have a night like this. I have no doubt that the Lord blesses you when you stay focused and devote all you have to something, and it’s an incredible blessing to see the rewards come from the hard work” said Anderson. “With all the support I’ve had this year from Forest Acres, Dick Dyer Toyota, Impact Racing Products, FK Rod Ends, Moore Sports Medicine, JAR19.com and all my other partners, my fans – to get three wins in a row here at Southern National is almost unbelievable. I had Philippians 4:6-7 with me on the dash tonight and it epitomizes everything that has happened here lately. It says ‘Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.’ This was my 13th win this year between the oval car and the road course car, so I’m really excited to see what the future holds moving forward.”
As I pointed out in my post about Southern national and Concord at Stock Car RacersReunion this week http://stockcar.racersreunion.com/forum/topics/another-local-track-biting-dust-weekly-racing-gone-from-local it was quite disturbing to me that these two feature Super late Model twin events at Southern national had ONLY 13 cars and that the eight feature races in 7 divisions that night averaged only 11 cars.
Too many racing divisions and too few cars = total fan disinterest.
I have added complete race coverage with the color photos of the Southern National Motorsports Park event on September 30 to my Stock Car RacersReunion post at this link:
http://stockcar.racersreunion.com/forum/topics/another-local-track-biting-dust-weekly-racing-gone-from-local
Dave, if your negativity about the speedway weren’t so blinding you would see that this race was actually postponed one day due to rain. The Super Late Models and limited cars had 20+ cars in their most recent race but rain out are always a loss. I commend the speedway for sticking to thei guns, and albeit a loss on car count the grandstands an track side parking was full. As far as the racing, to hell with 10 cars that run in the back that fill the field. The top 5 Super Late Model guys in the country were here and had 11 lead changes in the final race of the night. Maybe you need to spend more time promoting the positives of short track racing instead of tearing it down with biased uniformed statements.
Jim
I want the track to be successful. Everyone is entitled to an opinion. Mine remains that too many divisions with too few cars result in the loss of fans. I appreciate your response.
Let me tell you a little something about field fillers while I’m at it. One of the most amazing sights to ever behold on a short track any time, anyplace was watching the late, great Ray Hendrick thread his way through lapped traffic. That doesn’t happen when you don’t have those 10 cars running in the back of the pack that you put down.
Here’s what Richard Petty had to say on that subject in the early 70s when he was cleaning house:
“We need slower cars because we’re not fast unless we’re passing somebody.”
Don’t ever discount the value of those drivers and cars that might not compete for the win, but help make the show what it is. That, to me, is a very UNINFORMED statement.
Dave,
I agree…those back-markers and independents made racing successful. I honestly do not believe NASCAR could have grown with only 7 car fields.