Always speedy Justin South finally found the winning combination Friday night  dominating the 100-lap Allen Turner Hyundai Pro Late Model season-opening race.

The Allen Turner Pro Late Model ace has scored victories at some of the toughest tracks in the region but Five Flags, arguably the most prestigious track in the Gulf Coast, has long eluded him. South has often been fast in qualifying, including setting fast time for the 2012 Snowflake 100, but faded as his tires wore out during the extra distance races.

No such story repeated itself on Friday night. Riley Thornton set fast time in qualifying, but a redraw of the top-eight qualifiers put South on the front row with rising Texas star Ryan Luza. Luza would pull out ahead on the initial jump and lead the first ten laps. But South scooted out ahead for good on a lap 11 restart and was never seriously challenged as the laps wore down.

Luza made one last charge with about 15 laps to go, but could only narrow the gap down to ten carlengths before running out of tires himself and fading from South’s mirror. Korey Ruble was a distant third while Thornton took the best battle of the final few laps, edging Junior Niedecken and Bret Holmes for fourth.

“I have to give a lot of credit to all of the guys and especially Augie Grill,� said South moments after climbing out in JEGS Victory Lane. “Everyone’s been working their tails off for the last couple of months. Augie’s come on these past couple races and it’s really made a huge difference. We’re learning all we can and I’m just blessed by this team effort.  Trust me, none of these guys are in it for the money. They work long hours. I’ve also got to thank Hamner Racing Engines for the horsepower and my sponsor, Alabama Brick.�

While South was content to finally have the Pensacola monkey off his back, the man who was most ecstatic in post-race was Luza. He struggled in last December’s Snowflake 100 but a renewed effort this season at Five Flags already paid dividends with a solid runner-up finish.

“We came here expecting to run well, but we always seem to have something come up� said Luza. “Finally we got a really good run in. We’re thrilled and we’ll definitely try to make all the races out here this year.�

In the support classes, former Snowball Derby champion Dave Mader III scored another victory in the Super Stock division with Shanna Ard claiming the Sportsman race and Robert Loper claiming the Bomber race.

1 43S Justin South 100

2 14L Ryan Luza 100

3 18 Korey Ruble 100

4 21T Riley Thornton 100

5 99 Junior Niedecken 100

6 H2 Bret Holmes 100

7 11 Johanna Long 100

8 33 Dustin Smith 99

9 05 Bayley Curry 99

10 51 Perry Patino 99

11 00 Anthony Cataldi 99

12 17 Kurt Guilott 98

13 55 Ronnie Osmer 97

14 89 Bobby Reuse 97

15 41G Troy Grisaffi 95

16 39 Friday Hassler, Jr. 91

17 4M Elliott Massey 46

18 96 Jake Kruger 34

19 01 Derek Scott, Jr. 18

20 20 Cole Rouse 10

21 30 Rusty Sanford 3

22 91 Madison Schneider 3