Story by: Langley Austin ~ [email protected]
Newton, NC(March 11, 2012) — As the 2012 season got underway at Hickory Motor Speedway on Saturday, March 10th, the beautiful day turned into a crisp, cool night as 18 Late Model Stock Cars battled for 100-laps.
Qualifying set the field for the 100-lap race as Josh Wimbish put his car on the pole for opening night with 2011 track champion, Jesse LeFevers posting the second fastest time. Newcomer, Lucas Bize qualified third in his first ever start in a Late Model Stock Car with a background in the Skip Barber road racing series. Clint Fields, who was moving up from the Late Model Truck division qualified fourth with Austin McDaniel posting the fifth fastest time. The remainder of the top ten included Kyle Moon, Matt Piercy, Pietro Fittipaldi, Jeremy Sorel and Clayton Pyne. Other notables in the back half of the field included Grant Wimbish who qualified 12th, Trey Gibson in 14th and Dillon Bassett, who posted the slowest time of the day.
With the field set for the race, it was time for the drivers to strap in their cars and do battle for 100-laps and while some would get their season started off right, others would fail to get their season launched the way they expected. Right from the drop of the green flag one of the veterans, Jesse LeFevers, the 2011 track champion has problems as he was racing Wimbish for the lead. His car would come to a stop on the track and after his crew surveyed the car on pit road, his night was done, digging him in a hole in his quest at back to back championships.
Wimbish would line back up for the double file restart and right away he would jump out into the lead, but now fifth place starter, McDaniel was glued to his bumper and this would be a glimpse of what this race held in store. After an early spin by Mackena Bell, Wimbish would line back up with McDaniel along side him and this time it would be McDaniel, who would get out into the lead. 
While one Wimbish was having a great night battling for the lead, the other Wimbish, Grant was having a terrible night and never could get his car right despite pitting several times.
With McDaniel in control of the race, rookie Matt Piercy slowed the action not once, but twice as he spun all by himself on the front straightaway. He managed to avoid making contact both times, but his night was pretty much ruined by what the team thought was a rear end issue. With a little over half the race in the books, it looks as if the field was stringing out with a few people on the move and a few heading to the back as fast as possible. On lap 57, one of the best battles on the track came to an end as rookies, Dillon Bassett and Ben Rhodes, who will both compete for Rookie of the Year in the UARA got together. Bassett was working by Rhodes on the highside when Rhodes came out of turn four a little hard and slammed into the side of Bassett’s car.
Bassett was no worse for the wear, but Rhodes got sideways on the front straight and eventually spun in turn one. Rhodes’ car was right in the middle of the track as it stopped spinning and the rest of the field did a great job to avoid his car as the passed him on both sides. Rhodes would continue on, but would be mired back in the field as much of the 18-car starting field was still on track. Following the restart for this caution, the front of the field was each separated by a car length or two, but the back seven or eight cars were scrapping like it was the last lap for the win. John Kidwell, who started 17th was making his way by these guys as they all diced it up, but as quickly as he made to the front of this pack, they moved him up to the high side and he was headed backwards again.
If you were just watching the leaders, this race may have seemed to be getting boring, but the cars in the back of the field were all over one another, making contact in every turn, but continued to swap positions each lap. All of that battling came to a screeching halt however, when rookie, Pietro Fittipaldi’s car made a sudden loud thundering boom and he was done for the night. Fittipaldi came into the night with high expectations, but his night when wrong right from the drop of the green flag when the field stacked up behind LeFevers, who was having problems and Fittipaldi got shoved into the car ahead of him, which may have led to his later problems.
As the laps were winding down and McDaniel still seemingly had the race in hand, a series of cautions around the lap 74-78 mark showed that Wimbish might just have something for McDaniel on the restarts. Finally after a spin by Fields and Moon, who had earlier looked to be just as fast as the leaders, McDaniel and Wimbish got the chance to battle for the win. At the drop of the green flag McDaniel and Wimbish were side by side and lap after lap for the final 15-laps as the two were racing each other as clean as possible.
Rarely making contact, the two put on one of the best shows ever as they battled side by side all the way to the finish with the two still side by side all the way off turn four as McDaniel on the outside gave it all he had and even scraped the wall, but slipped behind Wimbish, who took the checkered flag. Behind these two, Bassett, who had started dead last after turning the slowest time of the day rallied to finish third with Rhodes coming back from his spin to finish fourth as these two rookies both showed a lot of talent in a “practice” race for them for next weeks season opener for the UARA, which is also at Hickory.
Behind them, Mackena Bell, who really didn’t make much noise, quietly put herself in the fifth spot at the finish ahead of Moon, rookie Chandler LeVan, Jeremy Sorel, Bize and Piercy, who rounded out the top ten finishers.
While the track regulars will be off this week, Hickory Motor Speedway won’t be idle as the UARA-STARS Series rolls into town and will feature many of the same drivers from this weeks race, but they’ll have a tall task out doing Saturday nights amazing race, which was one of the best in Hickory Motor Speedway’s rich history. Of course RACE22.com will be on hand for the UARA-STARS Series race and will keep you up to date with all the happenings from Friday practice to raceday and well beyond.
Finishing Order:
1 – Josh Wimbish #51
2 – Austin McDaniel #12
3 – Dillon Bassett #04
4 – Ben Rhodes #9
5 – Mackena Bell #4
6 – Kyle Moon #19
7 – Chandler LeVan #8
8 – Jeremy Sorel #77
9 – Lucas Bize #28
10 – Matt Piercy #11
11 – Clint Fields #16
12 – John Kidwell #7ny
13 – Trey Gibson #2
14 – Sean Salvoy #89
15 – Grant Wimbish #57
16 – Pietro Fittipaldi #1
17 – Clayton Pyne #6
18 – Jesse LeFevers #43
