STONY POINT, NC :: Chris Chapman has had strong runs in the past at Myrtle Beach Speedway. He’s hoping to finally seal the seal and score that elusive victory in Sunday’s Southeast Limited Late Model Series (SELLM) race at ‘The Beach’.
Chapman, 35, has been racing for nearly two decades and has scored several wins and championships over his long career. Chapman is a three-time champion in SELLM and a former Limited Late Model champion at Hickory Motor Speedway. He enters this year’s SELLM race at Myrtle Beach with four late season victories he scored at Southern National Motorsports Park – three of those wins coming in the final four races of the regular season.
“We tried some different stuff on the car and got it good,” Chapman said about his partial season at Southern National. “We were only running once or twice a month or so. I had a couple bad finishes in the first race or two. We were top-five every race since then. I think, if we could have run the season, we would’ve had a good shot at winning the championship. I helped Lee Faulk some. Wendell had some other obligations with Michael Fose. We just tried to run once or twice a month depending on how everybody’s schedule was.”
Chapman was forced to sit out in last year’s race. This year, he comes with a car prepared by Wendell Davis and he feels that, if he can survive, he can be a factor at the end of Sunday’s race.
“I didn’t get to run it last year. Some things came up with my previous car owner (Johnny Price) and we didn’t get to go. We’re going this year with Wendell Davis who owns Matt McCall’s car too. The last couple years with Johnny’s car, they helped me with that car too when we finished second and third down there.”
He knows Sunday’s race will be all about tire management – but he also knows the track position game is also a factor in the Talladega-esque chess match that is Myrtle Beach.
“In that race, you’ve got to manage your tires and equipment but you can’t go too far back either because you burn your stuff up trying to catch back up. It’s a catch-22. You have to find the happy medium. This is the first time I’ve taken this car to Myrtle Beach. Hopefully we’ll be good. It never hurts when you’ve got Matt McCall on your side.”
Having recorded strong performances in the past, Chapman hopes he can seal the deal this season in what he considers the biggest race of the year for Limited Late Model competitors.
“It would be big to win it. Everyone considers that the big race of the year for Limiteds. It’d be big to finally get a win down there. We’ve been close several times. We’ve had several top-three and top-five finishes but never been able to pull it off.”
