DILLON, SC :: Daniel Hemric survived an epic crashfest to score the victory with a late race pass on Cole Timm in Saturday Night’s Pro All Stars Series (PASS) Carolina Clash 150 at Dillon Motor Speedway. Hemric’s victory came in a race where only 13 cars out of the 24 cars that started the race finished after two massive melees on the frontstretch swept up half the field. The victory is Hemric’s second consecutive PASS South victory and his fourth career win in the series.
The first wreck came on the third lap of the race which swept up Hayes Goodson, Bill Catania, Ted Mickelson and Brandon Setzer. Shortly after the debris from that incident was cleaned up, another wreck two laps later collected many cars. The incident was triggered when Tate Fogleman spun in front of the field. The incident resulted in Jody Measamer barrel rolling and also collected Matt Daley, Tate Fogleman, Cole Timm, Trevor Noles, Kevin Powell, Tyler Church, Tyler Dippel and Garrett Campbell. Tate Fogleman said he was turned off the front bumper of Preston Peltier but Peltier’s team disputed Fogleman’s version of events.
After the carnage was cleared off the track and the race calmed down, Gus Dean dominated until the closing laps when Cole Timm got around him for the lead. Timm would relinquish the lead to Hemric with two laps to go in the race. Following the pass, a caution came out setting up a Green-White-Checkered finish. Hemric would survive the challenge from Timm on the restart to score his second consecutive PASS South victory.
“It feels good to come here and run these PASS races,” Hemric said. “Greenville, I knew we had the best car. Here, I’m not sure but I think we had a little more heart than everyone else did tonight. On that last restart, everybody reminded me to have the faith and get up on the wheel. They believed in me.”
Hemric’s win came with Caswell Motorsports. In the first race of the season, which Hemric won, he scored the victory driving for Woodman Racing.
Cole Timm took his second place finish in stride.
“I just wish we could’ve held Daniel off but the lapped car got in the way,” Timm said. “Preston Peltier lost it the same way last year. I don’t know if it’s just this track or what. We ran a good race. I just can’t thank everybody enough for what they do.”
Tyler Church managed to escape being involved in the lap five accident to finish third.
“That’s one of the most serious moments I’ve ever had seeing the underside of a car right in front of me flipping around in the air,” Church said. “I’m glad everybody’s okay. Started 14th and got up to third. Congratulations to Cole for a good run and Daniel for a win. I’m proud.”
Preston Peltier went on to finish in fourth while Spencer Wauters, Gus Dean, Jimmy Doyle, Joe Heigl, Jared Irvan and John Batten rounded out the top-10.
Zachary Dabbs scored his first career win in his second career start in the PASS Pro Late Model race which, like it’s successor, also saw a series of accidents in which only three cars finished the race – the car finishing in third, Matt Murphy, was seven laps down. Dabbs was the winner over Greg Bohanon Jr, Murphy, Jacob Schneider and Lucas Jones rounding out the top-five.
Controversy also surrounded the Pro Late Model race when Jeff Batten was disqualified after retaliating against Schneider and taking him out of the race. Prior to that incident, the two drivers had gotten together on the track. Schneider said, after the race, that Batten couldn’t handle being outrun by a guy who’s only run two races and that the two also had incidents at Greenville. Batten declined our request for an interview.
The next race for the PASS South Super Late Model tour will be on April 5th at Orange County Speedway in Rougemont, NC.
