Pressley Tops Chart in Practice at TCMS, UARA Rained Out at TCMS

Coleman Pressley topped the only practice session of the day with a time of 16.487 seconds, over four-tenths of a second slower than the track record set one week ago by Jesse LeFevers in the NASCAR Late Model season opening event. Pressley toured the track 0.014 seconds faster than the second place car in practice today, the car of sophomore driver, Paddy Rodenbeck. Rodenbeck seems to be coming into his own and is making his mark on the series early in the season practicing fast and backing that up with his career best finish of fourth at Bristol Motor Speedway three weeks ago.

With two relative surprises at the top of the chart it was back to the regulars with third fastest, Richard Boswell(16.509) and fourth fastest, Matt McCall(16.544). McCall won the last UARA-STARS Series race at Tri-County last fall with Boswell finishing second. McCall was coming into the event the odds on favorite to win with fifth fastest, Andy Loden another guy who people expected to see big things from in this event. For Loden fifth fastest wasn’t good enough as his team complained of being tight and with his two home tracks, Tri-County and Hickory a month ago get rained out it has certainly slowed his anticipated fast start to the season.

The rest of the top ten fastest cars in practice today was; 6th – Darrell Wallace, Jr.(16.593), who has had a love/hate relationship with Tri-County Motor Speedway, having an incredible run in his first start there in 2007 and running terrible in last years race; 7th – Jamey Caudill(16.653); 8th – Rookie, Matthew Godley(16.666), who continues to impress in only his second start after qualifying and finishing in the top ten at Bristol three weeks ago; 9th – Brandon McReynolds(16.679), who hasn’t been all that strong in his previous start at Tri-County is showing a little strength after struggling in the season opener at Bristol with engine issues; 10th – Kyle Grissom(16.695), who struggled at Tri-County in 2008 and who is back in his older car after destroying his brand new car after only 98-laps of racing behind the wheel after blowing a tire at Bristol.

Rookies, John King, Jr. and Brennan Poole also showed some good speed clocking in, in 11th and 12th respectively and the biggest surprise of the practice session was newly signed Venturini Motorsports driver, Logan Ruffin. Ruffin at only 14-years old practiced an Alex Yontz Racing prepared car in 13th in his first ever attempt with the UARA-STARS Series. Another rookie, who continues to show improvement and strength in the series is Texas native, Brad Queen, who practiced 14th and Garrett Campbell, who struggled greatly in his first Tri-County appearance last fall made huge gains and put himself in the top fifteen in practice times.

With the forecast not looking good and rain falling hard on the track shortly after practice, the series officials had to make a decision on when to run the race.  The obvious choice would have been tomorrow as many drivers would have liked, but there was several issues making that a difficult choice.  First, UARA points leader, Matt McCall is pre-entered in the PASS South Series race at Hickory Motor Speedway tomorrow night for David Stremme Racing, plus the fact that there is a race at Hickory tomorrow period given that the two tracks are less than 20 minutes apart.

Obviously the call to move the race to May 22nd was based on tonight’s weather and while the series could have come back to run tomorrow(a decision I personally would have loved), it was likely the best decision after takin everything into consideration.  Plus, the next UARA-STARS race taking place on next Saturday with practice and qualifying on Friday at Rockingham Speedway, the one-mile track in Rockingham, NC and likely the biggest race in series history.

The decision not to run the race tomorrow angered many of the series regulars, who would have liked to just stay there and get the race over with, but the UARA series officials had to make a decision and with the whole month of May off on the series schedule(with the exception of the May 30th date at Dillon Motor Speedway), May 22nd was an probably a great choice.  The May 22nd date will pose a slight problem for series regular, Brandon McReynolds, who will now have to miss his graduation in order to make the event.

With Tri-County in the books(sorta), RACE22.com was also able to chat with a member of the Alex Yontz racing team about the issues with tech at Caraway Speedway, where Yontz was disqualified following a victory last Saturday night. We will have more on this issue and hopefully give you the Yontz side of the story after having a little conversation with a member of the Yontz team.

Official Practice Times from UARA Scoring:
1 – Coleman Pressley #59 16.487
2 – Paddy Rodenbeck #81 16.501
3 – Richard Boswell #72 16.509
4 – Matt McCall #23 16.544
5 – Andy Loden #29 16.554
6 – Darrell Wallace Jr. #76 16.593
7 – Jamey Caudill #50 16.653
8 – Matthew Godley #92 16.666
9 – Brandon McReynolds #28 16.679
10 – Kyle Grissom #32 16.695
11 – John King #21 16.704
12 – Brennan Poole #8 16.708
13 – Logan Ruffin #25 16.763
14 – Brad Queen #52 16.765
15 – Garrett Campbell #12 16.768
16 – Owen Kelly #73 16.783
17 – Caleb Holman #74 16.785
18 – Lee Tissot #5 16.788
19 – Kyle Moon #19 16.800
20 – Ryan Gray #04 16.800
21 – Paul Bryant #75 16.845
22 – Scott Turlington #48 16.857
23 – Dylan Pressnell #83 16.858
24 – Grant McGinnis #41 16.870
25 – Jordan McGregor #30 16.934
26 – Michael Rouse #15 16.942
27 – Joey Bryant #11 16.990
28 – RA Brown #60 17.049
29 – Clint Almquist #10 17.283