Saturday night, March 11th, Boothill Speedway in Greenwood Louisiana hosted round two of the Comp Cams Super Series featuring the Ronnie Adams Memorial. The Late Models would be racing forty laps on this night for ten grand to win with support from the USRA Limited Modifieds and the Factory Stocks.
In a feature race that looked for all the world that Hall of Fame Late Model driver Billy Moyer Sr, was going to add to his glowing feature win totals, Garrett Alberson got up on the wheel after following Moyer Sr. for many laps, made an outside pass with five to go and then drove away for an exciting feature win.
The Late Model count was down just a bit from Friday night as there was much carnage with all the wrecks and rough driving and a few drivers cut their losses by heading for home, most notably Jonathan Davenport. However, Moyer Sr, who perhaps wisely just watched on Friday night, and Brett Frazier joined the field with both being impactful through the night as thirty four drivers would take time.
For the second straight night, Alberson was quick qualifier at 14.653 seconds as with one more day for the track to dry out an with a strong sun and wind blowing on it, the racing surface was considerably slicker and slower than on Friday while still retaining it's smooth racing surface.
Four heats and a pair of B Features would set the starting field for the Late Model feature which was run first to accommodate the crowd. However, it was noted that not very many people left after the Late Models were done, even though it was after 10 pm as this crowd seemed just as interested in the Limited Mods and Factory Stocks as they were in the Late Models.
Frazier earned the pole position for the forty lap main after soundly beating Alberson in the first heat race but Frazier discovered some serious mechanical issues and he opted to go to the back of the feature, take the green flag and then pull off.
This moved up the inside line and gave Moyer Sr. the pole and he used that advantage to take the early lead over Kyle Beard and Alberson. Moyer Sr would lead in the early going as he hugged the low side of the track while Beard and Alberson traded back and forth the second spot. Three yellow flags in the first half of the race would see Moyer Sr continue to lead while Beard and Alberson traded the second spot back and forth three times. On each restart the outside lane driver would get the advantage and power into second and while taking a shot at Moyer Sr., neither could complete the pass to take over the top spot.
Cade Dillard and Logan Martin would crack the top five as the race reached its halfway point. Disaster would strike Beard as while battling to get past Alberson and move back into second, he spun in turn four and triggered the final yellow with just nine laps to go. Speaking of go, it was then go time for Alberson who immediately jumped to the second lane on the green anc crept up beside Moyer Sr, looking for the lead.
Billy tried to fight off Garrett but Alberson had a good line on the high side, using him momentum off the corners to drive past Moyer Sr who was spinning his tires coming off the corners in an effort to stay in front. Once Alberson cleared Moyer Sr for the lead with just five laps to go, he quickly showed that he was the fastest car on the track as he pulled away with Moyer Sr having no chance of catching back up. Continuing to stretch his lead, Alberson drove on for the win with Moyer Sr settling for second.
After starting eighteenth on the grid, B. J. Robinson did a great job of working his way up through the field and would end up third as he passed Dillard late in the race to get that position with Billy Moyer Jr. completing the top five driving the Henderson Motorsports entry this weekend. Only five cars didn't go the distance and all were on the lead lap as Saturday night's race was a complete reversal from the Friday night fireworks.
Unlike Friday night, the two support classes, both popular classes in this area, brought big numbers to the track with thirty nine Limited Mods and forty Factory Stocks signing in to race. Each class would draw for starting positions and run four heats and a pair of B Features prior to their twenty lap main events.
Twenty two cars would start the Limited Mod feature with Chase Hatton the early leader. His lead would be one that would be hard to beat as eventually he would go on to hold the top spot all the way to the checkers. Five yellows in the first half of the race would keep the field bunched but each time the yellow waved, Hatton would pull away. Early on he was chased by Stephen Guidry until the two car team of Colby and Connor Mewborn would take over the second and third spot.
The last twelve laps of the race would go nonstop and while Colby would close up on the leader, Hatton would not make any late mistakes, would protect the low side of the track, and would drive on for the win i front of the Mewborn's.
Twenty four cars would start the Factory Stock feature but the same scenario would play out. Kyle Cummings would start on the pole and would lead all twenty laps to get the win. He was chased early by Gary Harvin and C.J. Howell until Justin Whitehead came storming up from the seventh starting position to take over second. He then had the last seventeen laps to try and get by leader Cummings and he tried his hardest, switching lines on the track and trying to run off the banking to gain momentum and make a pass.
However, despite his best efforts, Cummings would run a strong and consistent race and not allow Whitehead any openings and he would drive on for the win. Harvin would settle for third at the line.
It should be noted that after a good sized crowd on Friday night, a gigantic crowd was in attendance on Saturday with the cement slabs nearly full of fans. With much of the parking lot still a muddy mess and folks getting stuck more than once, finding a place to park was quite the challenge and lots of folks had to make an East Bay type hike to get to the track. It was also a challenge for the race cars to find spaces to park and every piece of high side land in the pits found race cars jammed together. It will certainly take some time and effort to repair all the ruts and puddles both in the pits and in the parking lots. The entire race track property sits on low ground and between the rain and the Spring runoff, it is quite the swamp.
I must make special mention of the track announcer here at Boothill, Joshua Bell. He has to be one of the best local track announcers that I have heard as he was knowledgeable and had great diction and was so easy to understand. He, along with Comp Cams announcer Wesley Gaultney made a great pair to call the action. And also it should be mentioned what a great sound system they had. The announcers could be heard well and even the drivers that were introduced came through loud and clear which is often not the case.
Thanks to all the track officials for their efforts this weekend. They had to fight the conditions which required lots of work but they produced a good race track both nights and did their best to pull all the stuck folks out of the mud. Also, thanks to the Comp Cam officials and especially Chris Sullivan for his help.
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