Story by: Corey Latham ~ [email protected]

Altamahaw, NC(September 5, 2011) — With only three races to go in the quest for the Ace Speedway Late Model Championship it has become a two man race. Two people may not sound that exciting but when It’s the likes of Barry Beggarly and Jason York only separated by 12 points you have a real fight between two of the best on your hands. They whittled those races down to a couple after this past Friday nights 100 lapper and things didn’t look much different when it was over as the two top dogs rose to the occasion.

Beggarly would take the pole for the 16 car field……well check that, 15 cars. We did have 16 until Rodney Cook decided to do his best Frank Deiny Jr. impression in final practice as his crash looked similar to the crash that Deiny had in last years Fallout Invitational qualifying, hitting hard in turn one, going up in the air but actually flipping on his roof destroying his car. Cook would be ok but his car was for sure done for the night. Beggarly would redraw a six putting young Jesse Little on the pole as he was making an appearance to get ready for the UARA event in September.

When the green flew Little would find out that the guys at Ace like to go hard from the start as they drop-kick him to the outside and frieght train him back to fifth. Before he gets all the way back there he goes high off turn two on lap three putting Scotty Warren into the wall stacking up the field. Warren would continue but would fall out later from the damage, he was not happy to say the least as all he could say was “I think I’m going to have a talk with that kid when this is over, I need to tell him you can’t win on lap three of a hundred lap race”.

John Moore would take the early lead but it was Beggarly and York who were charging as Beggarly takes second fron Dean Fogleman on lap 14 and starts to reel in Moore. York would have a little more slow going as the traffic wasn’t as forgiving but it became evident that he would be there at the end. Moore was running great but Beggarly catches him and makes the move easily for the top spot on lap 29 as his car was smoking quite badly, a small oil leak getting on the headers from final practice that they thought they had fixed. It wasn’t getting on the racing surface and didn’t seem to matter anyway and he looked to be on a rail. York would move around Fogleman for third just a few laps later.

It looked to be a runnaway for Beggarly as he distanced himself from the field with himself, Moore and York being the top cars on this night. All that finally came to an end as Thomas Scott loops it around by himself off turn four on lap 51 bringing out the caution and our first cone restart of the night. Moore and 2010 champion Dustin Rumley would try their luck on the outside of Beggarly and York for the restart but Beggarly would pull away easily, his restarts this season are something to be witnessed as he nearly rips the pavement up when he takes off. York would use the inside lane to take second from Moore as the top three set sail once again.

While the first 60 or so laps were tame, it seemed as if everyone lost their mind in the last 1/4 of the race, hey, it happens sometimes. The racing behind Beggarly was wild as York had Moore on him, Fogleman was on Moore and the rest of the field were all on top of each other, into each other, under each other, it was getting rough. Thomas Scott brings out the caution once more as he goes spinning off the bumper of Robert Turner who had just got his car back together after destoying his brand new Marlowe chassis the first time out nearly a month ago. His car would once again take a bad hit later.

We don’t even get to turn one for this lap 78 restart before Jesse Little, Dustin Rumley and Dean Fogleman get tangled up with Fogleman sliding up hard into the outside wall. Moore would once again try his luck on the outside but this became just for fun as the only way to get past Beggarly on a restart would be for him to miss a gear. We almost make it a lap before it breaks loose again, this time It’s Fogleman, Scott and Turner with Turner going hard into the outside wall pancaking his car and leaving on the hook with heavy damage. Under the caution Scott pulls up behind Fogleman, drops a gear and hammers on it hitting him hard and spinning him for a complete 360 and destoying the front of Scott’s car in turn three. Fogleman will go to the pits for minor repairs as Scott gets out of his car and heads to the Fogleman pit, unhappy and not pleased with him. A little pushing from the crews is broken up by officials and Fogleman heads back out, his only damage a bent fuel cell bar.

As we get back to the racing from the pit excitement, we hit another caution immediately. Race director Mackie McBroom makes them go single file for the restart as the double file seems to be too much to handle and Beggarly is gone off into the sunset, a smoky sunset as he is still smoking rather badly. The real race is between Moore in second and York who wants it, each lap York gets closer and closer till he gets to his bumper with nine laps to go. York begins his look to the inside with Moore shutting the door off the corner. York now has to press the issue, it was time to go and he needed to not lose points to Beggarly who was on his way to the win, he gets into Moore repeatedly the last ten laps finally knocking him up the track and ducking to the inside as they enter turn one on lap 97. Moore tries to shut the door again but York is there and they make contact once more with York taking the spot and Moore hanging on for dear life.

Beggarly would take the win over York and Moore, who after the race congratulated each other on some hard but great racing, nothing was dirty it was just fun. With only two events to go the ball looks to be in Beggarly’s court, but the York camp is relentless and will run it on the edge until the final lap of the final race.

Results:
1. Barry Beggarly
2. Jason York
3. John Moore
4. Matt Bowling
5. Jesse Little
6. Dean Fogleman
7. Dustin Rumley
8. Brad Kurth
9. Aaron Dudley
10. Bobby Gillespie
11. Coy Hedrick
12. Thomas Scott
13. Robert Turner
14. Bobby Griffin
15. Scotty Warren
16. DNS Rodney Cook