The Pro
All Stars Series (PASS) South Super
Late Models traveled to Virginia's
South Boston Speedway on Saturday
night and after 150 green flag laps
Andy Loden drove to victory lane to
earn his first win of the 2011
racing season.
24 drivers hit
the track under the sunny skies and
Preston Peltier made it two fast
times in a row with a 15.049-second
lap. Cale Gale, Loden, Philip
Morris, Daniel Hemric, Jody
Lavender, Justin Wakefield, Stephen
Nasse, Ryan Blaney and David
Quackenbush rounded out the top-10
qualifiers.
After the redraw
Wakefield and Morris started on the
front row. Wakefield got a good jump
on the start to lead lap one with
Morris settling in behind in second.
Lavender, Blaney and Quackenbush ran
in the top-five positions early.
Debris from two cars making
contact while avoiding Hemric’s
slowing car brought out the first
caution at lap seven. Hemric was
able to get his car to pit road, but
was out for the event.
On the
restart Wakefield held the point as
Lavender tried to make a bid for
second, but had to settle for the
third position. A few laps later
Morris made his move, taking the
lead from Wakefield. During the
first third of the race Blaney,
Quackenbush and Nasse moved their
way into the top five.
Prior
to the halfway mark the yellow flag
flew several times for incidents
involving Ryan Reed, Quackenbush,
Scott Saunders, Steve Legendre,
Spencer Wauters, and others. At the
crossed flags Morris held the top
spot over Wakefield, Mitchell, Loden
and Nasse.
On a restart just
a few laps past halfway Wakefield
dropped his machine in front of
Morris to take the lead but a few
corners later contact sent
Wakefield’s sideways and almost in
the wall in turn four. He was able
to hold on but lost a few positions
as Morris regained the lead.
After a caution involving Saunders
and Weller, Trey Mitchell started on
the outside of Morris, edging his
way to the lead just before the
yellow flag flew again as Alex
Fleming’s car came to a stop in turn
one after contact with another
driver.
With Mitchell on the
inside and Morris on the outside,
Morris took the lead back with
Mitchell dropping back through the
field, moving Nasse and Wakefield up
to the second and third positions. A
few laps later, Mitchell brought his
car to pit road to the service of
his crew.
At lap 100, Morris
led Nasse, Wakefield, Loden, Blaney,
Peltier, Gale, Gaulding, Lavender
and Hindman.
Loden was the
driver on the move over the last 50
laps , using the high line to move
into third around Wakefield, then
drove to the high side once again to
take second from Nasse with just 30
laps to go. When Loden got to the
bumper of Morris, he dove low and
made the winning move with less than
22 laps remaining.
At lap 141
the yellow flag flew for Gale’s car
going around in turn four, setting
up a dash to the checkered flag. On
the restart with Loden and Morris
side by side, Morris tried
everything he could to get the lead,
but Loden held the top spot while
Peltier hit the “go button” trying
to work his way to the front.
With a few laps to go Peltier
worked his way to second, and on the
white-flag lap he put a nose under
Loden in turn one but the defending
series champion wasn’t able to hold
it on the bottom. Loden crossed the
finish-line first, taking the
victory, the fifth-different winner
in PASS South 2011 competition.
“The car was really good,” said
Loden. “We can say we beat Philip
Morris here. That was a good race
with Philip. He drove me clean.
There was a little bumping and
grinding, but that was fine.
“I am happy to finally get some luck
and have things go our way. It feels
good to finally get here.”
Most of the passes made throughout
the race were made on the low side,
but Loden used the high side to move
towards the front..
“Running
down on the bottom, it got a little
free there. So I moved up to see
what it would do, and it stuck. So I
decided to stay up there. We ran a
clean race and came home with the
win.”
With three second-place
finishes in the first four races,
Peltier was looking for a victory,
but fell one position short at the
end.
“Andy had struggled a
little bit at the beginning of the
season, but they are back on their
game,” said Peltier. “To lose to
them is really not that big of a
deal. The guys gave me a great car.
“Man, there is one thing for
sure. If it comes down to the end of
the race and I am in the top three I
am going to put on a show. I tried
to steal a win, but came up just a
little short.”
Morris, who
was making his debut in the PASS
South Series, tried to be the third
first-time winner in a row this
season, but wasn’t able to pull off
the win finishing third.
“The
car was a lot better than I was
probably showing,” said Morris.
“This thing has a ton of horsepower
and it is so easy to spin the tires,
so I was just trying to keep the
back end underneath me and keep it
going straight. It started coughing
out water there at the end and I
couldn’t hold onto it anymore.
“We didn’t have a transmission
for the restarts here at this track.
We were off on that. I am thankful
to get to race with these guys. I
have a lot of respect for them and
what they go through. It is
definitely tire management,
something we don’t do in Late
Models.”
Nasse and Blaney
rounded out the top five.
PASS South will be back in action at
Motor Mile Speedway (VA) on
Saturday, May 28th, which is also
round two Of the 2011 PASS National
Championship series.
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