Pressley Fastest Again in UARA Testing

Story by: Langley Austin — [email protected]

Concord, NC ~ Testing at Concord Speedway is over for the UARA-STARS Late Model Stock Car series and on top of the charts was a car that won’t even race and driver who will.

Coleman Pressley had never been to Concord Speedway just outside Charlotte, NC until today, April 24th, but the youngster could have fooled anyone as for much of the day his crate engine car and his built engine powered car sat atop the time sheets one and two respectively. Pressley was fastest in his crate engine powered car, but he and his team had that car loaded on an open trailer while his built engine beast that ended up 4th on the chart was loaded into the enclosed trailer.

Pressley was among a handful of drivers who had never raced at Concord Speedway including this season’s only pole sitter in the two UARA races to date, Matt McCall. McCall, who is generally a second to fourth place car in practice only to bust a lap and get the pole found himself ending the day in 8th, which means he’ll have to really click off a lap to win his third straight pole. McCall however must have been confident in his Mel’s Ignition Pig Rig Ford as he was loaded on the trailer and headed out of the track early in the day.

Rookie, Matthew Godley found himself climbing from way back on the chart late in the day with a mock qualifying run that put him in second(and technically first since Pressley won’t be running the car that turned the fastest time). Godley was the top Marlowe Racing Chassis car, but only by a little over a tenth of a second to another rookie, Brennan Poole, who races for FatHead Racing Development. Unofficially Brandon McReynolds turned laps comparitive to Godley, but he didn’t run a transponder today.

Another guy not running a transponder was second place finisher from Rockingham and this years “Super Sophomore”, Paddy Rodenbeck. Rodenbeck has really climbed to the forefront of everyone’s attention in the last two UARA starts finishing fourth and second and climbing to second in the points. Rodenbeck was also clocked turning laps around 16.65, but without the transponder, there is no official times from this young hot shoe.

Another Pistone LTO Chassis driven by Shaun Mangum found himself making a late sticker run and turning in a lap of 16.678. Mangum, who races full time at Motor Mile Speedway runs the same chassis and engine as McCall, so expect him to be tough especially considering he’s got a lot of laps around Concord.

Kyle Grissom and his KGR Racing Team have a long night ahead as they will be replacing his engine and he could possibly end up with a crate engine for tomorrow. Judging by the speeds that Pressley turned today with his crate, he could end up in a better position when the green flag waves tomorrow night.

Davin Scites is making a rare UARA-STARS Late Model Stock Car start this weekend and he timed in 7th overall, but said that he had a few more things he’d like to try on his car in practice tomorrow morning. The happiest guy at the race track could have been 9th fastest, Darrell Wallace, Jr., who has struggled mightily in three previous races at Concord. Wallace was among the faster cars all day and although he ended up 9th, he and his team are pretty excited about how the youngster might run tomorrow.

2007 UARA-STARS Champion, Ross Furr was seen walking around this evening, but didn’t unload his car today and will test tomorrow morning for the first time. Furr has made some changes to his chassis and hopes to have a better performance than he did a few weeks ago at Hickory in a weekly show, where he got lapped. Another Concord hot shoe out today was Roger Lee Newton, but unfortunately for him the shoe wasn’t very hot as he had a broken rear end in his primary car early in the day and couldn’t get his back-up car to turn like he wanted. It could be a long weekend for Newton unless the team can get a grip on what was wrong with the car.

Richard Boswell and his JR Motorsports teammate, Owen Kelly were not in attendance today, but word is Boswell, who trashed his car last Saturday in Rockingham will either be behind the wheel of a new Leavitt chassis or behind the wheel of a borrowed car from Rob Fuller. Both of those drivers are expected tomorrow as is last weeks third place finisher, Andy Loden as well as Jamey Caudill. UARA officials are excited and expect to see a full field of cars take the green flag tomorrow night.