Less than an hour into last Saturday’s annual open practice day at South Boston Speedway most all stopwatches were tuned to the No. 6 of Bobby McCarty. Even without a stopwatch, it was obvious the young Summerfield, N.C. driver was fast.

And a quick and informal poll along pit road produced similar results: the winner of just one Late Model Stock race at South Boston suddenly had to be counted among the favorites going into this Saturday Danville Toyota NWAAS Late Model Twin 100s, which opens the 2016 season.

Why the quick turnaround for McCarty? He says it’s mostly because of the new rules at South Boston. The new two-tire rule and an increased purse allowed his team to spend more money on his car in the offseason.

“The two-tire rule really helped us spend money on the car because it cut our tire budget in half. We’re a small tam, but this year we got to spend a lot of money on parts we needed to get but haven’t in the past because we needed the budget for tires. With the way the tire rule is, we got a lot of new stuff under the car,” said McCarty.

He also was able to outsource some of the offseason work.

“We took the car to Nelson Motorsports and they really hooked us up,” said McCarty. “It is phenomenal today. This thing is on a rail. They did great work It was bad fast off the truck.”

After the first two races of the year teams can purchase only two tires a week, which means driving on two new tires and two old tires. And that puts a lot back in the hands of the driver.

“We started racing when I was six and it was on the dirt and when you are on the dirt, you have to be free. I think because of my dirt roots, I’m so used to the back end just hanging out,” said McCarty, who was fastest in the morning practice and in the top five in the afternoon. “I personally feel like when the race car is slipping and sliding and the track doesn’t have any grip … I feel like I handle a plumb out of control race car as good as anybody here. It just suits me better.”

McCarty, who gets sponsorship help from Stalling Collision Repair, autosbynelson.com, Five Star Bodies, Advance Parts, Billy Banks Racing Engines, Champion Automotive and Graphix Unlimited, says he believes by the second or third race of the season there will be some fresh faces up front.

“These first two races, when everybody gets four, I think you will see a lot of the regular ones (drivers) up front, but when the two-tire rule really kicks in, I think that’s when you’ll see a lot of different people running up front.”

Even though he was fastest in the morning session last Saturday, he really wasn’t sure how fast his car was because he had four, not two, used tires on it.

“We just want to shake out the bugs today,” said McCarty. “I’m more worried about getting the car handling right with good speed. But we did unload bad fast.”

The South Boston regular season kicks off with the Danville Toyota NWAAS Late Model Twin 100s on March 12­­­­. Gates open at 12:30 with the first race set for 2 p.m. There will also be a 50-lap Limited race, 30-lap Pure Stock race, 50-lap Modified race and a 15-lap Hornet race. Adult tickets are $10 while youth ages 7-12 are $5.