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Mike Leone
ELKINS, WV. (August 8) - The FASTRAK Northeast Late Model Touring Series headed south to West Virginia and away from the rain on Saturday night making their first ever stop at the Elkins Speedway as part of their R.H. Memorial event with the UFO Super Late Models. A field of 28 cars gathered from all over West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Maryland for race #10 of 17 on the 2009 slate.
David Scott has finally got things figured out in his first season with the FASTRAK Late Models. Fresh off Weekly Series wins at Tri-City Speedway last Sunday and his second straight a win at McKean County Raceway on Thursday, Scott finally put it all together to capture his career first Northeast Touring Series victory, which propelled him into the point lead for the first time. Scott put on one of the most dominating performances seen in recent memory capturing the 25-lap, $1,500 to-win feature.
"This is just wonderful tonight," exclaimed the happy Garland, Pa. racer after jumping off his roof in celebration. "John and Janet Powell build these cars. We won some local races, but haven't been able to win one of these- this is great! This was a lot of fun. I was here in 1998 and ran well, but not as good as tonight. I moved to the top and used the momentum and it worked."
Butch Lambert led the field to green, but it was West Virginia's own Shane Hitt using the outside to take the lead. Another West Virginia racer, Gary Knollinger who has been following the Touring Series, made a nice move to pass both Chad Hughes and Daniel Hill on lap four for fourth.
Scott then made his move as he went to the top of the track and drove around Lambert off turn four for second on lap five and used the identical move one lap later to steal the lead from Hitt. A caution for a spin by Cody Hardesty slowed action with eight laps completed, and then on the restart several cars got bunched together ensuing an eight-car melee on the frontstretch.
That caution would be the final one of the event as the last 17 clicked off without a hitch on the smooth and slick high-banked track. It wasn't long until Scott quickly distanced himself from the field, while the battle was on for second and on back. Lambert pulled alongside of Hitt on numerous occasions and the two actually ran side-by-side from laps 11-14, but Hitt was able to maintain the advantage.
Scott opened up to a straightaway lead on lap 18 and then finally caught traffic on lap 20. Scott had no problems whatsoever in traffic as he could put the Bullitt Chassis house car anywhere he wanted it. When the checkered flags waved, Scott had a near one-half lap margin of victory over Hitt, who barely edged out Lambert for runner-up. Knollinger recorded his fourth top four Touring Series finish of the season in fourth with track regular Dusty Hamrick fifth in his first ever Touring Series start.
Max Blair, who entered the night with the point lead, finished sixth and now trails Scott by a mere point. Carl McKinney was seventh. Aaron Barley was eighth in his inaugural Touring Series start, but that doesn't tell the real story of his night. Barley came from ninth in his heat to finish second to make the top 12 redraw, but was light at the scales forcing him to start last (10th) in the B main. Barley worked his way through the field to win the last chance race on the last lap, which earned him the 19th starting spot in the feature, where he would again by the hard charger passing 11 cars. Dan Hill and FASTRAK National Weekly Series point leader, Mike Pegher, Jr., were ninth and tenth respectively. Topping the heat races were Lambert, Bobby Powell, and Knollinger.
FASTRAK Northeast Late Model Touring Series Race #10 (25 laps $1,500 to-win): 1. DAVID SCOTT (Powell 100) 2. Shane Hitt (2H) 3. Butch Lambert (27) 4. Gary Knollinger (38K) 5. Dusty Hamrick (X) 6. Max Blair (111) 7. Carl McKinney (6M) 8. Aaron Barley (28) 9. Daniel Hill (8) 10. Mike Pegher, Jr. (Geisler 1c) 11. Bud Watson (2) 12. Steven Adkins, Jr. (18) 13. Cody Hardesty (32) 14. Shawn Jett (1J) 15. Garrett Mott (43x) 16. Derek Doll (87) 17. Dan Angelicchio (14) 18. Troy Shields (11) 19. Tom Copeland (98) 20. Tate Hughes (22C) 21. Joel Prosser (77) 22. Bobby Powell (Bidwell B1D) 23. Tommy Schirnhofer, Jr. (8s) 24. Kyle Thomas (57) DNQ: Dereck Rogers (23), Andy Spooner (3), Greg Tressler (5), Dave Gorrell (32).
Lap leaders: Hitt (1-5), Scott (6-25)
Heat winners: Butch Lambert, Bobby Powell, Gary Knollinger
B main winner: Aaron Barley
Car count: 28
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