Prior to Saturday, July 14, 2018 was the last time Layne Riggs visited victory lane in the Solid Rock Carriers CARS LMSC Tour after he led 78 laps and held off Kres VanDyke to win the Food Country USA 125 at Kingsport Speedway.
That losing streak for Riggs came to an end at Langley Speedway after he chased down Corey Heim and muscled him out of the way coming to the checkered flag for his fourth overall victory in the series.
“I didn’t think we had the winning car,” Riggs said. “Halfway through the race, I said that I would salvage the best finish I could, but I gave it all I had with about 15 to go. I had the best car on track and I drove right up to [Corey]. He chopped me off a couple of times early on, so I raced him back the same way and we ended up with the win.”
Riggs spent most of the VisitHampton.com 125’s opening stages riding behind Heim, who had claimed the pole for the feature. Riggs briefly assumed control of the lead after passing Heim on Lap 60, but he ended up falling back to third after Heim pulled a crossover maneuver on the backstretch.
Heim ended up losing the top spot himself moments later after two-time CARS LMSC Tour champion Bobby McCarty overtook him on the bottom line. A competition caution on Lap 82 enabled Heim to use the high line to re-take the top spot and assume control of the race.
Riggs himself was impressed with how strong his car was on the top groove of the flat surface at Langley, which motivated him to drive his own unique line around the facility that allowed him to pass McCarty and eat away at Heim’s lead.
“I was not expecting the top to be good at all,” Riggs said. “I think it was just the rubber that was here and it was the right circumstances. You had to search around for it like a dirt track and you had to run some really funky lines to make it work. I thought I had one of the oddest lines out here and I’ve never seen anyone run it before, but I’m sure you’ll see more people try that in the future.”
While Heim was initially able to maintain a comfortable advantage over Riggs, lap traffic caused him to be more aggressive with his equipment, creating an opportunity for Riggs to get to Heim’s back bumper by the time the white flag was displayed.
Instead of using the top line that had worked so well for him earlier, Riggs decided to drive his car underneath Heim’s as they came off Turn 2. Riggs made contact with Heim on several occasions as the two powered towards the start-finish line, with Riggs gaining the win with a strong run off Turn 4.
Heim was expecting Riggs to get aggressive once he got within striking distance of the lead, but he admitted that the lack of rear grip at the end of the race after navigating through the lap traffic made it difficult for him to hold off Riggs for the win.
“Layne’s a hard racer and he can be a little rough,” Heim said. “That’s about how half the field is with the CARS Tour, but it’s just Late Model racing in general, and that’s how you win races sometimes. All respect to Layne for catching me there.”
Riggs’ win makes him the seventh different winner in the 2020 CARS LMSC Tour season and inches him closer to Jared Fryar’s points lead. He expressed confidence in his ability to become a repeat winner on Sept. 12 at Carteret County Speedway, where he has won twice before.
“I’m feeling really good about Carteret,” Riggs said. “Carteret is based off of Langley, and we’re going to take the same car there along with the same package, which I think it’s pretty good. Hopefully it works really well at Carteret.”
Fryar put together another solid points night with a third place finish. Mini Tyrrell and Blake Stallings completed the Top 5.
LMSC Feature Results:
- 99 Layne Riggs
- 78 Corey Heim
- 14 Jared Fryar
- 81 Mini Tyrrell
- 19 Blake Stallings
- 22 Bobby McCarty
- 1 Nolan Pope
- 88 Connor Mosack
- 4 Jonathan Findley
- 16 Chad McCumbee
- 2s Jonathan Shafer
- 9 Trey Crews
- 51 Matt Cox
- 08 Justin Johnson
- 17p Stacy Puryear
- 74 Ronald Hill
- 2 Brandon Pierce
- 63 Tyler Matthews
- 90 Terry Carroll -1
- 01 Camden Gullie -1
- 19c Jessica Cann -1
- 12 Timothy Peters OUT
- 22c Grayson Cullather OUT
- 91 Justin S. Carroll OUT
