A season ago Ace Speedway fans saw Bobby McCarty put on his most dominating performance of his 2018 title run, leading all 125 laps in route to the victory. McCarty will be searching for the repeat, over another great field of cars at the paperclip-shaped 4/10th-mile track in Elon, North Carolina as the tour hosts’ its first-ever Friday night feature event.
A strong group of Ace Speedway track regulars like Ryan Millington and Jason York should be tough completion for the rest of the field. The one driver, however, that many have discussed as being in the mix for a podium finish, has been Winston-Salem, NC driver Trevor Ward. After finishing a career best of 5th at his home track last year, Ward will be looking for more as he and his father-son team with Dean Ward (father) have vastly improved from a year ago. No doubt this will be Ace Speedway’s best Late Model race of the season, and one that ticket buyers will get their monies worth.
NOTES:
Track/Location: Ace Speedway-Elon, NC
Track Size: .410 mile
Event Name: The Race at Ace 125
Laps/Distance: 125L (LMSC)
Event Schedule: Practice: 3:30PM-4:45PM, Qualifying: 7:15PM, Green Flag: 8PM
Twitter Handle/Event Hashtag: @CARSTour / @Ace_Speedway / #TheRaceAtAce125
CARS LMSC Tour Pre Entered Drivers:
#08 Deac McCaskill
#07 Bradley McCaskill
#01 Camden Guillie
#1 Craig Moore
#2 Brandon Pierce
#4 Jonathan Findley
#4H Leland Honeyman
#12 Sammy Smith
#15 Ryan Millington
#17 Taylor Gray
#17P Stacy Puryear
#18Y Jason York
#19 Cameron Bowen
#19C Jessica Cann
#22 Bobby McCarty
#25 Zack St. Onge
#27 Tommy Lemons
#57 Justin Carroll
#63 Tyler Matthews
#74 Ronald Hill
#77 Trevor Ward
#81 Mini Tyrrell
#88 Josh Berry
#98 Adam Lemke
#99 Layne Riggs
(25 total)
Media Coverage:
-Speed51 (speed51.com) will provide Trackside Now Live Coverage
-Race22 (race22.com) will provide Raceday Live Coverage
-CARS Tour TV (www.carstour.tv) – LIVE Broadcast Video Production Coverage
-CARS Tour Facebook (facebook.com/CARSTour) / CARS Tour Twitter (@CARSTour)
QUOTES:
Carroll Ready to Turnaround at Ace
Justin Carroll has had a very average and slow start to the season. After getting caught up in a pair of incidents at Southern National and Hickory, to go along with a tough 18th place finish in the series last outing at Orange County, Carroll currently sits 13th in the championship points standings. Friday night’s race at Ace Speedway could be exactly what is needed for his family operated race team. Carroll comes into The Race at Ace 125, having won the track’s weekly Late Model event on April 26th, giving a strong shot of confidence and excitement into the arms of his race team.
“We’ve has a rough start to the year, but it hasn’t been from lack of effort, that’s for sure. We’ve brought face racecars to both Southern National and Hickory, and just got caught up in accidents. At Orange County, we just missed the setup, where we needed to be. I mean it’s been very frustrating not to have the results to show for our efforts, it’s late Monday night and we are still working away on these cars. If we can really get to racing people our efforts will reward us, and that showed this past weekend at Ace’s Late Model race. There were some good cars there, most of them I think we’ll race against again, so we are excited to get to Ace and get this CARS Tour season turned around.” Justin Carroll – #57 Industrial Battery & Charger Ford
Gray Doing Great and Ready to get Technical at Ace
The talent level of teams and drivers competing full time on the 2019 CARS Late Model Stock Tour has been described as the toughest in series history. Three returning champions of Deac McCaskill, Josh Berry, and Bobby McCarty were all spoke of being the first CARS Tour driver to repeat as a series champion. However; 1/3rd of the way into the season none of these drivers have a win, unlike 14-year-old Hickory winner Taylor Gray. Gray, has been without a doubt the biggest surprise yet this year, as he rolls into Ace in the runner up points position, just six markers behind leader Josh Berry. With its long straightaways and tight corners, Ace Speedway is a far different beast than the track’s Gray has shown success at. According to the rookie, he feels like it will be a place he has to be very technical at, but competing for another top five is very real.
“We’ve tested there and right away I could see how technical of a racetrack Ace is going to be. It will be a place you need to have a good qualifying effort for track position and hold that position all night by just hitting your marks. At the end of the day I know my DGR-Crosley guys will give me a car capable of a good points day, I just have to do my part, and everything will fall into place.” Taylor Gray – #17 Gray Motorsports/Valvoline Toyota
Ace Speedway Hyped for CARS Tour Return:
Last season the CARS Late Model Stock Tour made it’s first ever visit to Ace Speedway, located just outside of Elon, North Carolina. The 4/10th-mile track was given a second chance by father and son duo Robert and Jason Turner, after several years of being dormant. After a hosting the tour for the first time in 2018, the facility sees the excitement anticipated by local fans and teams for this weekend’s event, The Race at Ace 125, to be even bigger than it was a season ago.
“Having the CARS Tour come to Ace is once a year spectacle. Ace is already a track home to the best drivers in the Late Model Stock world, and now some of those best get to compete against the elite of the CARS Tour Friday night. It will be interesting to see if it is an Ace regular or CARS Tour regular, not only taking home the big check, but a guaranteed starting spot in the Rodney Cook Classic coming up October 18th and 19th. There’s no question that Ace Speedway is ready for the CARS Tour return. ” Jason Turner – Ace Speedway Director of Operations
