Colby Howard, 14, of Simpsonville, South Carolina parked his Eubanks Oil Chevrolet in victory lane for the third time in three weeks at Greenville-Pickens Speedway in Easley, South Carolina as he outran a determined R.J. West in a thrilling 50-lap limited late model feature event.
Steve Guthrie, Tim Sams, Buck Simmons and Chad Redding also scored top honors on a seasonable spring night.
West nosed Howard out in qualifying to start on the pole for the feature, and he also got the early lead as Howard settled in to second after a lap or so. Luke Sorrow and Taylor Sorrow were third and fourth while the No. 1 of Phillip Peters held fifth as lap five went up on the scoreboard.
Howard held tight behind West, and began looking for a way by him just past lap ten. He finally found some room on lap 14 and dove underneath to lead the 14th circuit. The rest of the the top five remained the same.
West stayed within striking distance as both No. 16 cars appeared evenly matched on this seasonable spring evening. The race was slowed on lap 28 by a yellow flag when fifth place Peters broke loose trying to squeeze his Advanced Prosthetics No. 1 underneath the No. 92 of Taylor Sorrow. Peters clipped the inside wall and suffered some damage, but was able to restart at the tail of the field.
On the restart, West battled Howard hard from the outside and refused to give up, finally reclaimed the lead on lap 30. He held the lead for four laps until Don Morgan looped his machine in turn three and we were back under yellow.
Now it was the 14-year-old Howard who would restart on the outside. Could he regain the lead?
When the green flag waved again West and Howard locked horns and went right back at it for the lead, neither giving an inch. As the pair rounded turn one on lap 35, they made contact and West lost control and spun out, slowing the race to caution pace for the fourth time.
This dramatic turn of events led to Howard regaining the lead but he would now have a familiar foe restarting outside him in the form of fellow 14-year-old Luke Sorrow. Sorrow’s No. 9 had been a little bit off in the handling department the past couple of weeks but fans wondered if he had something for Howard, whose luck had gone from bad to two straight wins coming into the evening.
“The Young One” gave it his best shot, but Howard was too strong. West shot through the field like a bullet train, taking second with just one lap left. Howard didn’t budge en-route to his third win in three weeks of racing and another trophy to put on the mantel. West surely earned the runner-up finish. Luke Sorrow, Taylor Sorrow and Phillip Peters completed the top five.
LIMITED LATE MODELS: Colby Howard, R.J. West, Luke Sorrow, Taylor Sorrow, Phillip Peters, Austin Northcutt, Ron Hall, Don Morgan and Tasha Kummer
