When Motor Mile Speedway announced they would not hold any races on their oval track in 2018, Daryn Cockram had no hesitation about where he would race in 2018.
Cockram, who currently calls Blacksburg, Virginia home, is a former Mini-Stock champion at Franklin County Speedway and a multi-time Limited Late Model winner at Motor Mile. This year, he will compete predominantly at Southern National Motorsports Park, a track he fell in love with the first time he raced there in July 2014, as well as at South Boston Speedway.
“We’re going to run the full season at Southern National and a full season at South Boston,” Cockram said. “Motor Mile affected a bunch of people when they closed. I always loved that track and have always been competitive. I always wanted to go down to Southern National and run a full season and, when Motor Mile closed its doors, the first thing I said was I was fixing a car and heading down there.”
Cockram has run well in the past at Southern National, even if the results have not done him justice. Although luck has not been on his side, it is a track he loves, mainly due to the caliber of competition and the challenge the abrasive track surface at the 4/10-mile track in Lucama, North Carolina presents.
“The Limiteds at Southern National are very competitive,” Cockram explained. “You’ve got people like Bradley McCaskill and Deac McCaskill’s daughter is racing there now. You’ve got Tony and Andrew Grady. It’s the luck of the draw. That track changes daily. It’s like, we came down there and were fast last year in practice, came back two weeks later and we were a seventh-place car. That track is one of its own and everybody is so close. “If you’re not dead on, you’re going to lose four or five positions easily.”
Cockram’s most recent start at Southern National Motorsports Park was in October 2017 when he competed in the Spooktacular, finishing sixth. That race was won by Rusty Daniels. Daniels was one of three different winners in the last three Limited Late Model races held at Southern National. Jamie York and Mini Tyrrell each scored victories in Limited Late Model races at the Thanksgiving Classic.
This weekend’s 100-lap Limited Late Model feature will be the headline race on Saturday afternoon at Southern National Motorsports Park. The green flag will fly at 2pm.
