Story by: Langley Austin ~ [email protected]

Williamston, SC(March 31, 2011) — As opening night for Anderson Motor Speedway’s regular divisions dawned, it was a veteran local racer who bested the field of 13 Late Model Stock Cars to take home his first win of the young season.

Randy Porter is one of the most well known names in Upstate South Carolina and on opening night at Anderson, his name was being announced as the first winner of the season for the Late Model Stock Car division. Porter, who qualified second, started from the pole by virtue of a roll of the dice by pole winner, Neil Meredith, who would start second.

Porter, from the drop of the green flag would put his familiar red number 32 car with Porter’s RV Sales adorning the quarter panels, out in front of the field. Porter was joined at the front of the field quickly by his nephew, Trey Gibson, who took advantage of his inside line, third starting position to get his car out in front of Meredith, who raced a few laps side by side with Porter. Gibson, who in his only start at Anderson last year took the win over his uncle, was all over Porter’s back bumper for the first 16-laps of the 50-lap race.

Porter, however managed to keep his car out in front despite Gibson appearing to have the best car. As the laps clicked off, Gibson’s car began to not handle as well as it had in the early laps and Porter began to put some distance on his nephew. As the laps clicked off, Meredith would make his move on Gibson for the second position and take the spot away, but he had a mirrorful of fifth place starter, Anthony Anders. Gibson lost the position as he was squeezed high by a lapped car and dropped all the way back to fourth.

Anders may have qualified fifth after his team experimented with a setup in qualifying, but had his car on a rail for the 50-lap race. Anders kept his car working the low line as he tried to get alongside Meredith and as the laps wound out he made his move to the inside and raced him hard for second. The race went caution free from green to checkered leaving Anders nor Meredith a chance to close in on Porter as the veteran driver drove away for the win.

Anders would claim second as he and Meredith raced to the finish line side by side for the position with Meredith settling for third in the end. Gibson would retain fourth after getting messed up by the lapped car and having the handling on his car slip away. Ralph Carnes took home fifth after slipping as low as sixth racing with Toby Porter for the position with Porter finishing sixth. BJ Thrasher, in his first start in a Late Model Stock Car finished seventh, Austin Aker was eighth, Mark Timmerman ninth and Greg Bohanson completing the top ten.

Results:
1 – Randy Porter #32
2 – Anthony Anders #36a
3 – Neil Meredith #36m
4 – Trey Gibson #33g
5 – Ralph Carnes #2
6 – Toby Porter #80
7 – BJ Thrasher #9
8 – Austin Aker #07
9 – Mark Timmerman #0
10 – Greg Bohanson #17
11 – Anthony Cordell #33c
12 – Amanda Lynch #01