ALTAMAHAW, NC :: On a night when one winless driver would dominate the race, another winless driver broke a five year streak and entered victory lane for the first time.
Mr. Excitement Gary Causey would put his racer on the pole for the 100-lap annual May Daze event but the veteran driver wouldn’t be the one in the spotlight for long. Outside pole sitter, Thomas Scott would follow in the tracks of early race leader Brad Kurth but even riding in second he was having the race of his life.
Scott ran second for the majority of the first half of the race as the field was slowed a couple times early for debris and on lap 22 for a blown engine in Wesley Thomason’s car. Lap 30 saw the evenings biggest wreck as pole winner Causey would spin as he would collect several other top ten running cars including John Moore, Dustin Rumley, Ryan Gray and Dean Fogleman.
On this restart, Kurth would once again get the lead, but now, a new challenger for the lead as veteran Barry Beggarly moved to second ahead of Scott. By lap 37 Beggarly had got along side Kurth to challenge but was unable to get around him, then on lap 38 the two made hard contact off turn two. Kurth would spin out into the outside wall but wouldn’t pick up any damage while Beggarly, who didn’t wreck, would be done for the night with suspension damage.
The incident would see Scott inherit the lead and from here the young second generation driver would lead until late in the race, surviving several restarts with several different drivers challenging for the lead. One of those challengers would be multi-time track champion Dustin Rumley who started shotgun on the field after missing qualifying due to attending his wedding rehearsal.
Despite some good restarts by Rumley, Scott appeared to have the better car or at least he was showing that he wanted it more. Rumley following a lap 67 restart would begin slipping through the field and soon would crash with Trey Hutchens. Scott would hold the lead until it came down to five to go and Fogleman, who was involved in the earlier caution, would begin to make his move. Fogleman would get to the inside of Scott for the lead a couple times but couldn’t get the position.
Finally, Fogleman got his car into position on lap 96 and he gets by Scott. Just as he got by Scott, it appeared the young driver attempted to do a crossover move and got into the back of Fogleman spinning him in turn four. Scott’s shot at winning the race would come to an end under this caution as he would be black flagged and inheriting the lead was John Moore. Moore, too, had been involved in an earlier incident but now he was in position to win the race, only having to hold off a hard charging Kurth who had returned from his earlier altercation.
Moore would see an early challenge from Kurth on the restart but would begin to pull away. Moore would cross the finish line ahead of Kurth for his first win in five years of racing at Ace Speedway. Winner from the last race out, RD Smith, would finish third with Ryan Gray and Causey completed the top five of the 17-car field.
For Moore it would be a jubilant victory, while for Fogleman it was devastating ending and for Scott it was a night of mixed emotions. The drivers were either mad or excited about how things turned out in another crazy night of racing and along with Moore the fans won out because they saw the best race of the season. It was full of twists and turns, bumps and bruises and everything in between.
