4/7/2013
County Line Raceway
CLR Officially Kicks Off Its 25th Anniversary Season
After several months of planning and waiting, beautiful weather was on tap for County Line Raceway’s annual Car Show & the Weasel Town 100. PlayTyme Concessions bounce houses were set up for the kids, Middlesex Family Dental gave away prizes, Sign-O-Rama held a 50/50 raffle, Weasel Town’s Fat Steve emceed and Weasel Town sold their world famous BBQ. The track and it’s drivers were locked and loaded to officially kick off the 25th Anniversary year in astounding fashion. To the delight of both young and old, County Line Raceway debuted it’s official mascot, Roary the County Lion. With 5 divisions of racing on tap, including the first of the Fast Five Barnes Equipment Late Models, it was sure to be a hot night!
After heats and qualifying, drivers from all divisions scoured the stands with helmets in hand along with Roary the County Lion and Turbo from the Sims based Pure Country Pulling Team to take donations for Aiden Erwin, 4 year old nephew of Russell Erwin. Aiden was diagnosed with a brain tumor a couple of weeks ago, and the Racing Family at County Line pulled together to help with medical expenses. Thank you very much for the outpouring of support. The track collected over $1,200 for the Erwin family to help off-set medical cost incurred by the family.
At 8:30pm it was time for the first of 5 divisions of racing action. The first event of the night, the Middlesex Family Dental Super Stock 4 cylinders saw Eric Hill & James Manning on the front row. Hill would take command of the lead and never look back! This stout 16 car field would see hard side by side racing throughout the field. 2012 points champion John Proctor would start outside the top 5, but after a few laps would power his way into the top 5. After running in the top 5 for most of the feature event, Austin Holcombe & Bill Winstead, would drop out due to mechanical issues. Eric Hill would sail to his first win in convincing fashion leading every lap of the 20 lap feature. After 20 laps of hard side by side racing 2nd thru 4th was finally decided with John Proctor clawing his way to second, William Carroll with a strong run coming home 3rd. Rounding out the top 5 were Jason Horne 4th & James Manning 5th.
The second feature of the evening welcomed the super competitive PL Woodard Pure Stock V8 division. “Mr. Smooth� Jerry Williams would set fast time in qualifying and start on the pole with Wade Ferrell to his outside for the 15 lap feature. At the drop of the green, Ferrell would take his #42 topside and win the drag race off of 2 and set sail down the back stretch with Williams tracking in 2 nd. Williams & Ferrell would battle for the lead for the duration of the feature with Williams changing lines searching for a faster way around the 3/8ths mile clay oval. While 1 and 2 battled, 2nd thru 5th was being contested by a host of drivers. Ronnie Owens, Roy Hall, Carly Fulghum & Amanda Liles would fight for position for several laps until Fulghum and Liles would get together in turn 2 and bring out the caution. Back up front it was all Wade Ferrell as he would go to win by a car length over Williams. Coming home in 3 rd was Ronnie Owens with Roy Hall, 4th and Kevin Beard rounding out the top 5.
Out next, The Barnes Equipment Late Model Division rolled onto the raceway for its 30 lap feature. After breaking a track record held by Greensboro’s Ray Tucker with a 14.676, Russell Erwin would lead the field to the green flag with C9 of Christian Joyner to his outside. Erwin would get the jump as flagman Glenn Upchurch displayed the green flag. Christian Joyner would stay on erwins bumper and challenge for the lead while Roger Lucas, Travis Hair and Bobby Bottoms battled for 2 nd 3rd and 4th. The first caution of the event would fly on lap 2 for #20 of Carlton Toney. After a quick clean up by the County Line Raceway staff we were back racing with Erwin holding off Joyner to maintain the lead. The Rouse racing engines power plant in the C9 proved strong as the C9 kept pace taking several looks to the inside for the lead. While working lap 3, the 32 C&R Racing machine would suffer right front suspension damage going into turn 1 sending him into the turn 1 wall. Russell would be ok but the #32 machine was unable to finish. Christian Joyner took over the top spot, followed by Roger Lucas, Travis Hair a hard charging Bobby Bottoms & Neal Sykes. JP Cascell would bring out the third caution with a spin in turn 2. No change in the top 5 as we went back green. Lap 17 would see our 4th caution when Dykes Maynard slowed at the top of turn 2. JP Cascell, after an earlier spin, would get around Travis Hair for 5th spot as Spencer Liggon and Michael Batten fought for 6th spot. Batten had it, but Liggon wanted it. With 5 to go, Joyner was setting a blistering pace as he continued to hold a commanding lead over Roger Lucas. After a quick check of the top 3 cars, Christian Joyner was declared your winner of the first Barnes Equipment Fast Five Shootout followed by Roger Lucas, Bobby Bottoms, Neal Sykes and JP Cascell.
The ARCO Restoration Thunder & Lightning division lined up with Brad Hamm, who set a new track record with a 16.496, and Skeeter Liles on the front row. The first caution would come quickly as a couple of cars got together out of turn 4. Everyone was ok, and the track was quickly cleared by our Sign-O-Rama safety vehicles. Lap 3 would see another caution for a single car spin but again we were quickly back green. Brad Hamm continued to lead Skeeter Liles, Lane Proctor, Luke Owens and Joey Cascell. Lap 11 would see us under the yellow flag again for a solo spin in turn 2 by 5th spot Joey Cascell. Back green would see Brad Hamm & Skeeter Liles fighting hard for the lead with Liles getting around Hamm. After several laps of Side by side racing, Hamm fell back in line. Going into turn 3, contact was made sending Liles around as he entered turn 4. Liles would have to be pushed to the pit area as Hamm was relegated to the tail of the field. Coming to the green flag, Lane Proctor would lead Luke Owens, Matthew Bissette, Mark Boykin and Chris Radford. Brad Hamm would work his way back through the field to take over 4th spot from Boykin as we came to 2 to go. Lane Proctor would bring home his first win followed by Luke Owens, Matthew Bissette, Brad Hamm & Mark Boykin.
Our final feature, the PlayTyme Concessions Pure Stock Four Cylinders, would see Brent Atkinson & Thomas Holbrook on the front row. Brent would take command of this feature followed by Holbrook, Cody Keith, Jeffery Patterson & Michael Wall. Atkinson would maintain the lead as a couple of cautions would slow this 19 car field. Atkinson would see a challenge from Cody Keith, but would shut the door and put distance between them. Jeremy Benson held down 3rd spot, Thomas Holbrook 4th and Damien Bryant 5th. Brent Atkinson would bring home the win followed by Cody Keith, Jeremy Benson, Thomas Holbrook & Jeffery Patterson, who had to drive through the field to take home 5th spot.
County Line Raceway is back in action next Saturday with 5 divisions of racing action. Pit gates open at 4pm, spectator gates at 5pm. Cars hit the track at 6:30! For more information on County Line Raceway,visit our website at www.countylineracewaync.com/
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