After leading the field to green in the second of two late model races last Saturday at South Boston, Brenden “Butterbean” Queen now has a pole, and more importantly, a win to his name.
Queen, 19, from Chesapeake, VA, had speed all weekend, and his performance Saturday night sure proved it.
“He was fast off the truck,” Cameron Bowen (Queen’s teammate) said before the race. After all, Queen grabbed his first career pole with a time of 15.302.
The rest of the starting five comprised of Thomas Burbage, Tyler Matthews, Kenneth Mercer, and Louis White.
In the early laps, Queen battled door to door with Burbage, but ended up clearing him. From there, Queen distanced himself to nearly a straightaway lead when the caution came out for what was probably debris on lap 57.
Queen was able to take off on the restart, only to be stopped again when the caution came out on lap 60 for a spin by Kenneth Mercer.
Following the next restart, Zach Henshaw spun on the front stretch, bringing out the caution again. Henshaw and Bowen were fighting for position, and the two got together in turn four. “He hit me hard,” Henshaw said about the incident. “He drove in too deep when I passed him and caused me to spin out.”
Bowen had a different opinion. “I hit him square but he ran out of talent and spun.”
Henshaw and Bowen finished P7 and P8, respectively.
One final caution would come out for another spin by Kenneth Mercer.
On the final restart, Queen sealed the deal on a fantastic performance and grabbed the checkers after leading all 75 laps. The ecstatic young man was not lost for words in victory lane.
“This is the best way to get the first one I guess, leading flag to flag,” Queen said about his performance. “We’ve been fighting and fighting, getting better and better, closer and closer, and we finally got it.”
Queen also acknowledged that he has been waiting for this win for a long time. “It’s been a long time, about four years back when I race legends cars that I got my last win,” Queen added. “It’s a whole family effort.”
Richlands, NC’s Tyler Matthews came home second, and was happy with the effort.
“The race was fun to say the least,” Matthews commented. “We hung in there in second on all those late restarts. That is a battle in itself just to get to the bottom. We had a decent car but by the time we would get clear on the outside, Queen would already have a straight away on us.”
Matthews also had nothing but praise for Queen’s efforts this weekend as well.
“He drove a great race and his car was really hooked up,” Matthews added. “Congratulations to him on his first win, that is always the best one.”
In regards to his season so far, Matthews is only one position short of perfect.
“We hope to build on this momentum we have going after winning last week and a second this week,” Matthews asserted. “That’s not a bad start to the season. I feel after we get some things worked out on our new car we should be right where we need to be.”
Thomas Burbage came home third in the first race race of the 2016 season. “The car was off,” Burbage commented. “But we will work on it and make it better.”
Late Model racing will return to East Carolina Saturday night along with racing from the Street Stocks, UCARS, Bandoleros, and the ECMS debut of Langley Speedway’s Grand Stock and Pro Six divisions.
