Story by: Langley Austin ~ [email protected]

Dublin, VA(April 1, 2012) — Philip Morris and Lee Pulliam make room for CE Falk as in their absense, the three-time Langley Speedway champion is taking his show on the road and doing things his fiercest competitors have never done.

Last season, Pulliam dominated Motor Mile Speedway, but following a post race incident at South Boston Speedway last fall in the Danville Toyota 300, the young driver has been suspended from racing until May 1st and his vacancy at the front of the field was filled generously by Falk. Pulliam was commended last season for his efforts of coming from sixth place starts several times due to a handicapping rule by the speedway, but Pulliam never pulled off what Falk did at Motor Mile on Saturday evening.

While the race in it’s 150-lap entirety was boring, drawn out and filled with carnage and chaos for the first 55 laps, Falk’s day was amazing, even for a driver who’s accomplished a lot over the last three years. Falk put on a clinic. He dominated the day, despite not getting to take advantage of setting fast time on the 22-car field, showed that at the end of the day, he had the best car and the determination to win.

With Falk posting the fastest time of the day in qualifying, many thought that the young driver would simply ride off into the sunset, but surrounding him was many hungry racers including Josh Berry, who started second, Matt Bowling, who posted the third fastest time, Jesse Little fourth, Craig Stallard fifth and Frank Deiny, Jr. sixth. The starting lineup was a mixed bag of proven commodities like Falk, Berry and Deiny to youngsters looking to leave their mark in a one-off starts at Motor Mile like Little and Bowling to even a new full-time guy, Stallard looking to make the most of his new ride.

The field looked a little different from last season missing Pulliam, Morris, Kris Bowen and Tommy Lemons, Jr. just to name a few and replacing them was a host of young drivers looking to make a name for themselves at what’s been known as the toughest Late Model Stock Car track in the region. The newcomers on the scene included Matt Waltz, Little, Bowling, Quin Houff and Jonathan Smith, but one veteran that made the season opener was a surprise to many.

Another familiar face was back as Chad Harris made his return to Motor Mile Speedway, the track where he made his name over the years and a place that’s been his home up until the last few seasons. He raced three times in 2010 and then sat idle in 2011 and now teamed once again with his former crew chief, Dave Roope, who spent most of the 2011 season working with Derrick Lancaster. Harris’ racing career has a new lease on life and while his first day back at the track didn’t go as planned, he and his team are planning to race at Motor Mile all season long.

With the 22-car field set for a green flag in the middle of the afternoon under bright, sunny and sometimes cloud covered skies, Falk rolled out to lead the field with Berry alongside. However, Falk’s day turned south on the pace laps as he quickly rolled down pit road to have his crew look at his car. Falk’s team had been having trouble with the exhaust and after fixing it on Friday in testing and checking it before the race, he once again had trouble. As the officials gave the signal for the field to double up it looked as if Falk might not make it back out on the track, but he did just in time and started his pole winning car from the 22nd position.

Falk was on the move, into the top ten in no time, but ahead of the field was at times chaotic with veterans and youngsters both making moves that made everyone shake their heads, but Falk was avoiding the chaos and keeping his nose clean. Up front, Bowling had moved up to start from the first position and on the start he jumped into the lead as the field behind him shuffled out for the first five laps, before fifth place starter, Stallard became the races first caution.

Stallard got turned and right in front of several other cars including Matt Waltz, who looked to have a busted radiator and heavy damage to the nose of his car. Soon after the restart from this altercation, Smith gets into the back of one of the cars ahead of him and brings out the caution as he stops in the apex to pit road in turn four. Another car stops on the track for a quick caution and before Stallard spins in turn four on lap 50 setting up another restart with Bowling leading Deiny, Falk, Looney and Berry.

The next restart helped setup the next caution flag and the lone red flag of the race as Derrick Lancaster gets turned by Stallard, possibly as payback for earlier contact? Lancaster crashes as others pile in including Matt Waltz, Andy DeFilippis and Scott Millington as Millington ended up airborne destroying his car, which had been wrecked in practice and rebuilt just in time to start the race. DeFilippis also lost most of the sheet metal on his car, but as the cars sat under the red flag, the fireworks were about start.

Lancaster tried to get his car back going, but once he realized it wouldn’t get going, he parked it and emerged from the car headed straight for Stallard, who was at the other end of the front straightaway just out of turn four. Just as Lancaster got nearly to Stallards parked car, a Pulaski County Sheriff’s deputy emerged from pit road and stopped him from getting to the window. Lancaster was upset about the contact and wanted to speak with Stallard, but we’ll never know what might have happened had the officer not arrived.

With the carnage cleaned up, the cars went back to racing and setup a green flag run to the end of the race, with Falk grabbing the lead just after lap 65. Coming from last to first in just 65-laps was impressive, but more impressive was how he pulled away once in the lead and dominated the race. Falk continued to pull away from Bowling, who remained second for the rest of the race. Deiny, who was second for much of the race, began to fade as he was back to third after Falk passed him and Bowling, but was on the way further back as the laps clicked off.

Deiny and Mike Looney had a great battle for many laps as Looney would slip by and finished third behind Berry with Adam Long also getting inside Deiny and getting around him to finish fifth. Deiny finished sixth with Little, Michael Kidd, Jason Merriman and Brad Foy rounding out the top ten finishers.

All in all this race had many twists and turns with the eventual winner being a big part of all the action in the 150-lap race or at least, what was a race for 65-laps, before he took the lead and killed his competition. Falk is on a roll this season with a win at South Boston Speedway and Motor Mile Speedway before he heads to his home track of Langley Speedway next weekend for the season opener. He could open the season with three wins in three season openers at three different tracks, which would be a huge feat all in itself, but a huge step toward being the front runner for the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Virginia State and National title.

For the rest of the competition at Motor Mile, the season opener showed that while Pulliam and Morris might not have been there, that they’re all in for a long season. Some regulars had good opening runs like Berry, Deiny, Looney and Long, but no one stood up and showed that they have what it takes to win and no one stood up to take Pulliam’s place until he returns after May 1st. Falk has certainly shown what he’s made of, but the rest of the competition at Motor Mile simply proved that when Pulliam returns it’s going to be Déjà vu and he’ll ride off into the sunset once again.

Results:
1 – CE Falk #40
2 – Matt Bowling #83
3 – Josh Berry #88
4 – Mike Looney #47
5 – Adam Long #3
6 – Frank Deiny Jr. #5
7 – Jesse Little #97
8 – Michael Kidd #49
9 – Jason Merriman #30
10 – Brad Foy #10
11 – Craig Stallard #42
12 – Kelly Kingery #57
13 – Harrison Rhodes #36
14 – Scott Millington #17
15 – Derrick Lancaster #25
16 – Andy DeFlippis #32
17 – Matt Waltz #02
18 – Rusty Skewes #41
19 – Chad Harris #39
20 – Jonathan Smith #51
21 – Quinn Houff #4
22 – Doug Williams #7