CHARLOTTE, NC :: As the halfway point of the 16 race season nears for the Pro All Stars Series (PASS) South Super Late Models, veterans Jay Fogleman and Kyle Grissom are once again duking it out for the series championship. But heading into Saturday night’s 150 lapper at Virginia’s South Boston Speedway, a new group of contenders has emerged this year looking to challenge for wins. A stellar contingent of rookies has impressed this year in the PASS South Super Late Model division which includes Brandon Lynn, Spencer Davis, Cole Timm, Tate Fogleman, and Karl Weber. For Lynn, Davis, and Timm, their paths to the PASS South Series might have differed greatly, but the goals are all the same.After moving from New York to North Carolina with his family to pursue a career in racing, Brandon Lynn has steadily climbed the racing ladder. From Bandoleros and Legends, Lynn made the move to the legendary Hickory Motor Speedway where he won in the Limited Late Model division before moving up to Late Model Stocks. With time spent reassessing his plans, Lynn joined with David Pletcher to make the move to PASS South in 2013, immediately finding success with a fourth place finish in the season opening South Carolina Clash at Dillon Motor Speedway.
“We’re real happy with our start to the year,” said Lynn. “We’ve been out of the game for about two years and to come back and run full-time with these PASS guys, be third in the championship and the top rookie, we’re definitely pleased.”
Despite being third in PASS South points, Lynn believes his team can do better. His worst finish of the season came at South Boston Speedway nearly a month ago when he finished 18th after a grinding crash with Brandon Ward entering turn one.
“We’d definitely like to keep moving up in the championship points, that’s everyone’s goal is to move forward and win the championship and that’s definitely what we want to do,” said Lynn. “We’d like to have a solid finish as always at South Boston. Obviously we’re going for the win and hoping to bounce back from the crash we had here in May.”
Like Lynn, Georgia’s Spencer Davis has been impressive so far this year. Racing since he was six-years-old, Davis started out racing Go Karts, quickly becoming one of the top kart racers in the country. In 2011, Davis moved from karts to the Pro Truck ranks in Georgia and Florida where he once again became a consistent winner. Last year, Davis began competing in Pro Late Model races throughout the Southeast, scoring a handful of wins before making his PASS South Super Late Model debut at Orange County Speedway. This year, Davis sits 5th in PASS South points with two top ten finishes, just 10 points out of third. But, his best moment so far this season has been in one of the biggest races of the year, the Easter Bunny 150 at Hickory. After leading a number of laps, he finished seventh to propel him into third in PASS National points heading to next month’s prestigious TD Bank 250 at Oxford Plains Speedway.
“We’ve had a real good season so far for our first year in PASS,” said Davis. “The race that hurt us the most was when we had some technical issues in the pits at Southern National, but we’re real good in points and still got a shot at them. With a race under our belts at South Boston, hopefully we can grab on real quick this time and have a real good day.”
Although a rookie in PASS South, Cole Timm is a face very familiar to those in the pit area. Since 2010, Timm has been winning support division races at PASS events, first in the Bandolero division and then in the Super Limited class which ultimately became the PASS Pro Late Model division. One of Timm’s biggest supporters has been 2010 PASS South and PASS National Champion Preston Peltier, who has helped prepare Timm’s car this year and served as a mentor to the driver on the track. A best finish of 12th at Southern National Motorsports Park has helped Timm to sixth in PASS South points heading to South Boston Saturday night. But, perhaps his best run of the season came at Caraway Speedway in the most recent event for the PASS South Super Late Models. Timm ran as high third before a mechanical issue relegated him to a 17th place finish.
“We’re going to just keep working on the car, try to get some speed out of it, but all in all this year’s been pretty good,” said Timm. “Anytime you go to a track that you’ve been to before, like South Boston, it helps you set up wise and how you’re going to drive the car.”
While his experience in the PASS Pro Late Model has proven to be beneficial as far as track experience goes, Timm feels his biggest hurdle thus far has been in adapting to the much longer, more demanding races in the PASS South Super Late Model division.
“In the PASS Pro Late Model, you never had to save a lot, you just go as hard as you can for 50 laps,” said Timm. “Now I’m having to learn how to conserve and that’s what we’ve been working on. I’ve been burning the brakes off the Super Late Model for the past couple of races, but we’re going to try and work on that.”
Short track racing’s best will once again tackle “America’s Hometown Track” led by PASS South points leader Jay Fogleman, defending series champion Kyle Grissom, Brandon Ward, John Batten, Justin Allison, and Bobby Measmer, Jr. Austin Theriault returns to the seat of the Brad Keselowski Racing #29 along with teammate Zak Hausler. Virginia drivers Tanner Rumberg and former South Boston Speedway competitor David Quackenbush hope their home track knowledge can lead to victory lane, while rookies Joe Ryan Osborne and Joseph Mursuli try to build more momentum. Gus Dean makes the move back up to PASS after two top 10 finishes to start the year at Dillon and Myrtle Beach and Trevor Noles climbs back into the Coulter Motorsports #2 after leading laps at SoBo in May. Kevin Powell will be in the Woodman Racing Q104 looking for another strong run and Jerrick Johnson hopes to get his season turned around for Godfather Motorsports.
Action gets underway on Friday for the PASS South Super Late Models at South Boston Speedway with an optional practice from 10 AM – 4 PM. On Saturday, there will be rotating practice for the PASS South Super Late Models, NASCAR Late Model Stocks and Legends from 2 PM – 3:50, followed by qualifying at 4:30 PM and main event racing slated to begin at 7:00 PM. Fans can purchase $10 advanced tickets and watch over 300 laps of the South’s best racing by going to the South Boston Speedway office or southbostonspeedway.com.
