Story by: Langley Austin — [email protected]
Hudson, NC(April 3, 2009) — Jesse LeFevers … get used to reading that name, hearing and saying it because the 21-year old racer is racing like he’s got a chip on his shoulder and if your going to beat him you had better bring your A-game.
LeFevers opened up the 2009 season at Hickory Motor Speedway two weeks ago with a door-to-door nail biting victory, the first he’s ever scored on the legendary track and as the season opened at Tri-County Motor Speedway he was the odds on favorite. If you laid your money on him then it’s time to cash in your chips as he took home the season opener at TCMS as well and also laid down the fastest lap a Late Model Stock Car driver has ever around the 4/10 mile track.
16.062 seconds is the amount of time it took LeFevers to race around the track during qualifying, a lap that easily beat out the record set on August 22, 2008 by Matt McCall of 16.12 seconds. LeFevers in his Pistone LTO Chassis powered by a crate engine made as close to a perfect lap as possible and put the field on notice, but the roll of the dice was up next and it appeared maybe he would have to start as far back as sixth. LeFevers even had the dice on his side as he rolled a two, putting second place qualifier, Dexter Canipe, Jr. on the inside of the front row for the start of the 100-lap race.
LeFevers jumped out into the lead from the drop of the green flag taking it hard into turn one and driving away from Canipe. With LeFevers out front showing the way, battles were raging all throughout the field as Ty Dillon, Kaleb Pressley and RA Brown were trying to figure out who was going to be the third place car. Another battle raging was Lee Faulk Racing Developmental driver, Tyler Brown and Leicht Race Cars Drive for Diversity driver, Megan Reitenour who battled side by side for many laps, not just at the beginning of the race, but late in the race as well.
Pressley brought out the first caution as his car went up in flames literally as he appeared to blow an engine with flames erupting from under the hood. He made it out of the car fast and was uninjured, but the same can’t be said for his car as the fire continued to burn before track officials managed to get the fire extinguished. We were soon back under the green flag and it was much of the same up front as LeFevers drove out to a comfortable lead and maintained it steadily, but the battles were raging on behind him as RA Brown, who had slipped back a few positions was now on the move.
Before the race, Brown told me that he would ‘be there’ by lap 80 and he was pretty accurate as he made his way all the way up through the field as the race raged on with few cautions as the race was really clean. Brown took over second position from Canipe on lap 77 and finished there. He would have liked to have got a shot at LeFevers, but with the race going clean he was unable to get caught up to him after racing past the rest of the field.
LeFevers, a five-time winner in 2008 at TCMS looks to be on the road to collecting several more trophies as the 2009 season unwinds and he’s off to a good start with his goal of winning a championship as he now leads the points at TCMS and Hickory given that he’s won the only race at each track.
The hard part for LeFevers is going to be the fact that he’s only got one car and if something happens at TCMS one Friday night that could take him out of a chance to win on Saturday night at Hickory, but the young driver is ambitious and wants to see how things play out.
Behind LeFevers was Brown with Canipe holding on to third despite a strong challenge from UARA-STARS Series Rookie of the Year candidate, Brennan Poole. Poole, driving for FatHead Racing and team owner, Jamie Yelton, had an impressive run finishing fourth, his best career Late Model Stock Car finish. Poole had struggled earlier in the day spinning out first in practice and then again as he came to take the green flag on his qualifying run, but the young kid rebounded and showed the talent that Yelton has seen in him. Completing the top five was Florida driver, David Wilson, who drives a car for Lee Faulk Racing.
LeFevers will now head home and work all night with his crew to get his car ready to go to Hickory tomorrow night as he tries to back up his first win. He’s not alone in the drivers who will compete at both Tri-County on Friday nights and then hit Hickory on Saturday nights as Canipe will be there along side him as well as Wilson. All three drivers will atleast attempt to compete for the championship at both tracks this season.
Among the other drivers in the field tonight was Ty Dillon, who I mentioned above had a good run going early, but the young driver faded late in the 100-lap event. Dillon, who has plenty of dirt racing experience was making only his first actual start of the season after in his first attempt in the Myrtle Beach 400 he failed to make the field. Dillon will likely try to participate next week in the UARA-STARS series race as he prepares for a NASCAR Camping World East Series debut, which will come at Tri-County on April 25th.
Megan Reitenour was also making her Late Model Stock Car debut and she had a tough day first spinning in qualifying and then again around the midpoint of the 100-lap race. Reitenour is part of the NASCAR Drive for Diversity initiative and is driving a car for chassis builder, Gene Leicht, who is also the father of Kevin and Matt Leicht, who will both be racing at Newport Speedway in Newport, TN on Saturday night.
Dexter Canipe, Jr. was able to pick up a win on the night as he took home the trophy from the Limited Late Model race after getting around race long leader, Tyler Church late in the race. Church finished second.
