Story by: Corey Latham ~ [email protected]
Altamahaw, NC(April 21, 2011) — The old saying “I went to a fight and race broke out” is one of the more famous lines in racing.
Anytime people say this it means that the night was full of excitement and drama, stuff that the classic days of racing were made of. It seems we have that every week at Ace Speedway, and this past weeks Limited Late Model feature kept true to form as it was a wild affair to say the least. Ryan Nelson didn’t think so, then again running away from the field makes the night a lot easier.
Another stellar 15 car field met the fans at Ace for the nights 50 lap event with Kenny Bost edging out Ziggy Zimmerman in qualifying by the slimmest of margins. Opening night winner Jimmy Rice timed in third with Bowman Gray regular and opening night runner up Ryan Nelson and 14 year-old Dillon Basset rounding out the top five. Once again the Limited champion from last season, Boo Boo Dalton, was not at the track due to a school baseball game and would not get in the car until right before the field rolled off to take hot laps. When asked before the race if it would affect anything, the 16 year-old simply smiled and said “It shouldn’t be a problem, I’ll be just fine”. Turns out he was right, but he surely didn’t make any new friends on this night.
As the field gets set to go the green flies in the air and Bost jumps out front of the field as Rice seems to miss a gear stacking up the inside line behind him as Ziggy Zimmerman slips into second with Ryan Nelson barely squeezing in front of Rice for third. The top five would break away early until lap seven when Dillon Basset begins to find his groove getting by Rice and Nelson to move into the third spot. Sixth through eighth had their own fight as Tony Black, Patrick Coleman and FDJ Motorsports driver Quinn Houff were mixing it up every lap.
On lap 16 the young Bassett continues the charge as he moves Zimmerman up the track to take over the runner-up spot, as Zimmerman gets pushed high he gets bypassed by Rice and Nelson going from second to fifth in a half of a lap. It would all slow down for the first caution of the night on lap 19 as Thomas Chappell loops his machine around, the fans now get excited even more as we have our first cone restart of the night.
With the cone out we all look to see who braves the outside line, Nelson jumps out from his fourth spot to start along side the leader and Coleman and Houff come behind him from sixth and seventh. We don’t even make it to turn one before the field gets jammed up sending Coleman backwards into the outside wall bringing out the caution again. Coleman would make it back to the pits to the attention of his crew and his cousin Shane Hmiel who was making his first trip to Ace this season after a devastating sprint car crash last season. Hmiel may have limited movement at the moment but his spirit is strong as he roots the team on as they take off the crumpled hood bearing his picture and send him back out. You would think that after a crash his night would be over but at Ace that is never the case.
As we get another restart Nelson and Houff once again jump to the outside followed by Dalton, who had been in the back but had told his spotter he was just “riding” to start the race. Bost as he had before gets a great restart to take the lead with Nelson barely getting down in front of Bassett for second. Bassett had been charging trying to catch Bost before the cautions and now he looked aggravated that Nelson had impeded his progress as he had already passed him one time. Bassett begins to work him over but we get another yellow on lap 23 as Dalton sends Houff around in turn four as the two race for a top five spot.
Another start, another cone. This time it is Tony Black coming from fourth with Dalton in tow on the outside. At the green Bost goes and Black doesn’t, Dalton takes evasive action and jumps to the inside of Black, only problem is that Bassett is already there. They go three-wide down the frontstretch as Bassett turns back into Dalton as he is not amused at the move he made and the contact that came with it. Bassett runs him up the track in turn one and moves ahead into third with Dalton falling in behind. As exciting as it was the action would hurt Bassett as he got heavy right front damage when Dalton made contact with him, the rest of the night would be a struggle. Until this point Bassett looked to be the only car that had anything for Bost up front.
We make it two laps before another crash, this time Houff gets turned and collects Gary Ledbetter and Chris Elliott, with Elliott getting heavy front damage. Ledbetter was in the back to get in the accident, somewhere not familiar with the veteran driver. He said after the race that his new crate motor was down on power making him overdrive the car to compensate, therefore making it even slower. Elliott, who already had his car tore to pieces added insult to injury as he hits pit road running about 50mph too fast and is given a penalty.
Well, we make it to halfway, keep in mind this is only a 50 lap race. Dalton is the first one to bite on the cone this time with Coleman in his battered car behind him. Bost checks out and Dalton tries his luck and slides down in front of Bassett. Coleman starts to give shots to the rear of Bassett as he dives under Dalton making contact. This would be all that the Bassett machine has in it as the earlier contact starts to slide him back through the field.
Kenny bost was simply gone, nobody on this night had anything for him as long as nothing went wrong, I guess just by mentioning that you can see where this is going to go. Lap 34 see’s Dalton start to ge theavy pressure for third from Rice, they start to beat and bang with Rice finally getting under him on lap 35, Dalton slams on the brakes from the high side and does a cross-over move down the frontstretch that brings the crowd to their feet. The move didn’t work but it certainly opened everyone’s eyes.
As we get to ten to go It’s all over but the crying, then a lap later things change quickly.
The 20 car lead that Bost had over Nelson evaporates instantly as Nelson is sideways through the turns trying to get past. Nelson ducks under Bost in turn four on lap 42 and drives away easily, so easy that many eyes were raised. It was an illusion though, Nelson was good but the Bost machine was failing in the end with a faulty alternator. With five to go Rice hits pit road from his third spot, a flat right front killing his good finish. He would get another chance to advance though.
Nelson is driving off into the sunset and Bost is falling back into the clutches of Dalton in third rather quickly, but he only has four laps to catch him. We get the two go signal and Dalton is within 5 cars, they go into turn four and look at the white flag with Dalton there, Bost is helpless in his ailing car and goes high giving Dalton the inside lane. As they come off the corner Dalton drifts high and makes contact with Bost sending him spinning hard head-first into the inside wall bringing out the caution before the white flag is waved. Bost tries to fire his crumpled car up, most likely just for retaliation but the ailing battery and alternator makes it not to be. Now we have a Green-White-Checkered coming to an already exciting race.
Nelson and Dalton stay to the inside for the last restart with Coleman and Bassett going to the outside from fifth and sixth. The lead is no question on this restart as Nelson takes off from what seems to be turn three and pulls the field by 3 cars down the frontstretch. Behind him it is wild with cars everywhere as Dalton holds second with Coleman right behind in third. The crowd is remembering the confrontaion from last season as Dalton got into Coleman causing a wreck and Coleman promising he’d pay. That feud comes to life as we see the white flag as Coleman punts Dalton hard off turn four but Dalton somehow saves it as everyone is on their feet.
Nelson takes the victory but it is an absolute hornets nest behind him with cars going everywhere. Dalton somehow manages to hang on to second with Coleman right on his bumper in third. It got even crazier behind that as Ziggy Zimmerman goes across the finish line three-wide and sideways as Quin Houff gets into him with Bassett on the outside, even though Zimmerman goes crashing into the inside wall doing significant damage to the rear end of the #23, he did manage to get fourth spot in the end.
In victory lane it was Nelson celebrating his biggest win to date, and behind him it was almost a fight, and that was just to get to Dalton’s window first. Coleman got first dibs simply telling him he let him save it that time but next time he wouldn’t be so lucky. Then it was Bost’s turn, and that conversation simply can’t be printed. all the while Dalton sat back and took it in, he’s heard it before and claims that they are all just mad because he is on the board higher than them. Before any of them can get comfortable they had better figure out what to do with Nelson, he Isn’t racing the whole season but when he can he will be hard to beat.
Limited Late Model Results:
1. Ryan Nelson
2. Boo Boo Dalton
3. Patrick Coleman
4. Ziggy Zimmerman
5. Dillon Bassett
6. Quinn Houff
7. Chris Elliott
8. Tony Black
9. Gary Ledbetter
10. Brandon Meeks
11. Kenny Bost
12. Jimmy Rice
13. Bethany Stovall
14. Thomas Chappell
15. Josh Lowder
