COEBURN, VA :: Thomas Beane scored his first career Late Model Stock Car victory at Lonesome Pine Raceway on Saturday afternoon. The 21-year-old driver, who competed in the UARA-STARS tour in 2013, had been flirting with victory at Lonesome Pine prior to Saturday’s win.
Beane scored the win after starting in the second position. The start of the race was pushed up to mid-afternoon by track officials as severe weather threatened. Beane took the lead in the mid-stages of the race and held off defending track champion Ryan Stiltner and Kres VanDyke on his way to victory lane.
“It’s pretty awesome,” Beane said of his first career win. “It was kind of unexpected. I thought it would rain the whole deal out. They decided they’d run early which kind of, we didn’t get any practice which didn’t hurt me at all. We’ve run well up there all year which is why I run up there. We’ve been close all year but I’ve screwed up a couple times which has cost me a couple wins I think. Everything kind of worked out on Saturday.”
With four races remaining, Beane now feels confident about scoring a few more wins before the season ends at Lonesome Pine.
“I think we should be able to win more,” Beane said. “We’ve had a car that could win every week, just bad circumstances and stuff. I think if we get in a circumstance where we get a good start, we can win a couple more before the end of the year.”
Ryan Stiltner finished in the second position while Kres VanDyke, Chad Finchum and Adam Gray rounded out the top-five. The victory halted the Chad Finchum steamroller that had been rolling over the past couple of weeks. Prior to Saturday’s race, Finchum had won the last five consecutive races he ran in – including a win at Kingsport Speedway on Friday night.
Looking ahead, Beane has plans to run in the Fall Brawl at Hickory Motor Speedway as well as in the Thanksgiving All-Star Classic at Southern National Motorsports Park.
Lonesome Pine Raceway’s next race will be on Saturday, September 13th with twin Late Model races.
