Saturday night’s season opening race at Southern National Motorsports Park will feature a host of outsiders who are looking to make their presence known.
South Boston Speedway regulars Tommy Peregoy and JD Eversole, Ace Speedway regular Devin Steele and Franklin County Speedway regular Bobby Gillespie will all be traveling to unfamiliar territory on Saturday night to compete in the Spring BreakOut. The race is the beginning of a new era at Southern National Motorsports Park. It’s the first race under new promoter Langley Austin and it’s the first race under the new Late Model package which merged the two Late Model classes.
Peregoy, 42, is a regular in the Limited Sportsman division at South Boston Speedway. Instead of racing there, he will be at Southern National and he plans to run the full season and potentially mount a championship charge.
“We’re going to come down and see how we stack up with the guys who run here every week. You know, we’re just trying to do something a little different. If we run well, we’re going to stay. If we’re struggling, we’ll see what else we can do. I think we’ll be okay. Racing’s racing. If you have good cars here, you can have good cars there. It ought to be okay.”
Peregoy said he’s excited that Eversole and other drivers will be traveling to Southern National and that it weighed into his decision to race there.
“We decided to come here where we felt like there would be some competition,” Peregoy remarked. “There’s plenty of competition at South Boston but we’re behind the 8-ball there so we figured we’d pick a track where we could get into the points.”
Eversole, 21, is not a regular at Southern National but he is no stranger either. Last year, he ran in several races toward the end of the season. This year, he might run the entire season.
“They pay well down there and we get to buy new tires,” Eversole said. “They were talking about South Boston going to that scuff tire deal which I’m not a big fan of. We wanted to go down there since we’re the premier division now.
“I like Southern National. Our results haven’t shown how well we’ve run there but I like it better than South Boston.”
Eversole expects to be able to contend for wins and, at the end of the year, he says he would be disappointed if he did not win at least one race.
“Going down there, after the way last year went, we got tore up at the first race at South Boston,” Eversole said. “Anything less than winning one race would be disappointing last year. We tested really good last week. I know they’ll be tough to beat but I think we can do it. If we get tore up, we’ll move all over but I’d like to run for another points championship.”
Steele, 22, will also be running at Southern National with strong expectations. To date, he has only scored one victory which came at Franklin County Speedway in his first career start there. Now, he hopes he can score his second win in his first start at Southern National.
“I feel like we can go up there and run top-five,” Steele said. “We’re going there to win the race. We have a really good piece. Mike and Travis Sharpe put a new clip on it. We’ve been testing at Ace and were pretty fast. We haven’t had a chance to race it yet … I’ve never been to Southern National. I’m excited to go, I’ve heard a lot of good things sbout the place, just never had the opportunity to go.”
Popular Franklin County Speedway veteran Bobby Gillespie will also race at Southern National on Saturday night and he won’t be the only driver from Franklin County to race there this season. Kyle Dudley won’t be able to race this weekend but he will race at Southern National at some point this season and he could be joined by Brian Sutphin as well.
Saturday’s season opening race at Southern National, dubbed the Spring BreakOut, will go green at 7pm and RACE22.com will have Five Star Bodies RACEDAY LIVE flag-to-flag coverage of the race for those unable to attend the race.
