Roanoke, Virginia native Kyle Dudley entered the 4th annual Rodney Cook Classic at Ace Speedway with confidence about his chances at victory. Despite only making a handful of starts at Ace Speedway, Dudley believed that the speed he showed in the practice sessions during the weekend the race was rained out made him a favorite to join Justin Snow, Alex Yontz and RD Smith as winners of the prestigious event.
Dudley’s weekend got off to a promising start, as he picked up from where he left off at Ace Speedway by posting some of the fastest laps in the two practices sessions on Saturday afternoon. Dudley backed up his speed in qualifying when he posted a time of 15.811, which earned him a starting spot of second alongside Bahama, North Carolina native Layne Riggs for the 140-lap Late Model feature.
Neither Dudley nor Riggs would have anything to show for their speed during the race, as Riggs made contact with Dudley in the first turn of the first lap, causing both cars to spin, and leading to a chain reaction crashed that involved BooBoo Dalton and John Moore. Dudley and Riggs only sustained minor damage in the crash, but both drivers were forced to find a way to climb through a field of strong competitors that included 2017 ValleyStar Credit Union 300 winner Timothy Peters, 2017 CARS LMSC Tour champion Josh Berry, and eventual race-winner Blake Stallings.
“Layne just went in over his head,” Dudley said. “He caught me in the left rear, and then ran up on my left front fender and wheel. He just got too excited, I reckon. We had a great car. It was our first race with that car, and it was on a rail the whole evening.”
Despite the damage sustained to their cars, both Riggs and Dudley began to climb their way back up through the field from the back, and both drivers had cracked the Top 15 after Lap 15. However, Riggs’ charge to the front would come to a premature end shortly before Lap 20, when his engine began to overheat, which forced Riggs to park his car for the night and settle for a disappointing 28th place finish.
By the halfway point in the race, Dudley had worked his way from 28th all the way to the Top 5, and appeared to have a car that could challenge Blake Stallings and Jason York for the win. With the laps winding down, Dudley found himself in a close battle with Late Model veteran Stacy Puyear for the fourth position, and the two made contact several times shortly before the Lap 100 break, with Dudley nearly spinning out twice.
The close racing with the leaders would ultimately lead to the end of Dudley’s hopes of winning the Rodney Cook Classic, as his car began to smoke prior to a caution for Josh Berry spinning in Turn 4. Dudley brought his car down pit road, where his team discovered that the track bar mount had been bent. Dudley’s team could not repair the damage in time, and he was forced to retire from the race, where he finished in the 17th position.
Riggs, who had hoped for a strong run at Ace Speedway following the disappointing finish at South Boston Speedway that cost him the championship, took the blame for the Lap 1 accident that put him and Dudley behind early, and took to Facebook to express his apologies.
“I feel really embarrassed about tonight,” Riggs said after the race. “I was being impatient and drove it into the first corner of the first lap too hard on cold tires and slid up into the 2nd place car. I want to apologize to everyone that was involved in the accident. My guys gave me a great car this weekend, and it showed in qualifying and when we came from the back up to 12th.”
Despite initially expressing frustration at Riggs for the early accident, Dudley holds no ill will towards the young rookie from Bahama, North Carolina, but is still disappointed in how his promising evening turned out. Dudley looks forward to returning to the track, but does not plan to run in the Myrtle Beach 400 or the Thanksgiving Classic at Southern National Motorsports Park.
“We’ve had a horrible year this year, and we’ve had nothing but bad luck,” Dudley said. “We’re just going to go ahead and try to get things freshened up for next year and hit it hard. We’re going to cut our losses now and move forward.”
Blake Stallings was able to take advantage of the crash between Riggs and Dudley, and managed to put on a dominating performance that secured him the $10,000 paycheck in the Rodney Cook Classic. Puryear and York finished second and third, respectively, with Timothy Peters and Josh Berry completing the Top 5.
