COEBURN, VA :: Ronnie McCarty scored his first win of the season in Saturday night’s Late Model Extreme at Lonesome Pine Raceway with a dominant performance in the second half of the 100 lap race.
McCarty was the fastest qualifier, setting a fast lap with a 16.521 second lap. McCarty started the race in fifth after the top five cars were inverted. McCarty would work his way up through the field and powered to the lead on a restart on lap 51 en route to victory lane.
“I think we ended up with a two second lead,” McCarty said in Victory Lane. “We were just on a rail. I just got out there and was cruising. My team told me to maintain that and that’s what I did. We just rolled on away.”
Derek Woodward started on the pole in the race but Hayden Woods dominated the first half of the race. Woodward wrestled the lead away at lap 47 after racing side-by-side with Woods for several laps. Woods spun a couple laps later bringing out the race’s only caution. Shortly after losing the lead on a restart, Woodward’s engine expired sidelining him from competition for the remainder of the race.
2003 track champion Michael Kidd held off Dr. Kevin Wolfe for the second position. Kidd said after the race that he respected Wolfe for racing him clean but racing him hard. Wolfe had a chance to put a bumper to him but tried to work the high side all race long. Wolfe said he just couldn’t get the run off the corner to make the run.
Ryan Stiltner finished fourth and Jody Bostic finished fifth. Rounding out the top 10 were Zack Walton, Hayden Woods, Adam Gray, Steve Wright and Jenna Wagner. Wagner arrived at the track only a short time before the race. Keith Stiltner practiced the car.
Ryan Stiltner celebrated his first Late Model championship. Stiltner scored seven wins on the season and had hoped to win the championship in style with a win in the 100 lap race.
“It feels really good to win this,” Stiltner remarked. “It took us three years to finally get one. I’m just really happy tonight to finally win this championship. We didn’t have that great of a race finish. We had problems with the caliper sticking but I’m glad we got to finish this deal. I just can’t thank everyone enough.”
Nine different drivers scored victories in the Late Model division at Lonesome Pine Raceway in the 2013 season. Stiltner scored seven wins, Adam Gray scored two wins and Jeff Woodward, Hayden Woods, Josh Hale, Jake Keaton, Danny O’Quinn, Jr., Dr. Kevin Wolfe and Ronnie McCarty each scored one win a piece. The track also hosted the UARA-STARS touring series back in June. That race was won by Garrett Campbell.
