A promising start to the auto-racing career of Danville, Virginia native Blake Stallings was put into jeopardy when he was involved in a serious motorcycle accident at the start of 2016. The crash left Stallings with life-threatening injuries that he barely survived, but it remained unclear as to whether or not Stallings would be able to climb behind the wheel of a racecar, or make a full recovery.
Stallings’ long journey to return to the track began shortly after his accident, and by the midway point of the 2017 season, Stallings was back racing in his #77 Late Model for Nelson Motorsports, and was frequently competing for wins against Late Model veterans Philip Morris, Lee Pulliam and Timothy Peters. Stallings recovery came full-circle at Ace Speedway, where he put on a dominant performance in the fourth annual Rodney Cook Classic to secure the most prestigious win in his Late Model career.
“This is the biggest accomplishment in my racing career by far,” Stallings said in victory lane. “Rodney Cook was such a special person not only to the racing community, but as an individual. He can never be replaced, and for me to be able to win this race in his honor is a blessing in itself. I have a great group of guys with me, and they worked hard on this car all weekend. I can’t give enough appreciation to them.”
The weekend did not start out in Stallings’ favor, as he wrecked his Late Model during the Friday test session after a part failed on his car, forcing his team to return to their shop to make quick repairs to the car. When the team returned, they initially struggled to find speed in the car, as they placed 14th and 17th in the two practice sessions on Saturday.
Despite the struggles, Stallings’ team continued to adjust the repaired car, and began to make some progress as the day transitioned into the evening. Stallings greatly improved over his practice speeds by posting a time of 15.848 in qualifying, which was only a tenth of a second behind polesitter Layne Riggs, who posted a time of 15.727. Stallings would line up fourth on the grid behind Riggs, and knew that he would have to drive a perfect race in order to have a chance at victory.
An opportunity for Stallings presented itself on the opening lap of the race when Riggs made contact with the second place car of Kyle Dudley, which caused both cars to spin, and collected Ace Speedway regular BooBoo Dalton in the process. The accident sent Riggs and Dudley, who had two of the fastest of the cars in the race, to the back of the field, and allowed Dennis Holdren to inherit the race lead, while Stallings lined up third.
On the following restart, Holdren quickly lost the lead to Late Model veteran Jason York, but another restart kept the battle between Holdren and York tight, while Stallings lurked in the third position with a car that was just as fast as the leaders. Stallings passed Holdren for the second position, and made his way to the back bumper of Jason York a few laps later before he bumped York out of the way on Lap 20, allowing him to take the lead for the first time.
Stallings nearly saw his night end on Lap 26, when the lapped car of Holden Kurth spun out in front of the leaders, which Stallings managed to avoid by a narrow margin. After the near miss, Stallings had to fight off several charges from York, Holdren and Peters on the following restarts, and only lost the lead one time to York, but managed to gain it back shortly before the 10-minute break at Lap 100.
The final 40 laps of the Rodney Cook Classic saw Stallings face a new challenger in Stacy Puryear, who had climbed up to second after starting in the 16th position, and had nearly been involved in a wreck with Kyle Dudley earlier in the evening. One final restart with 15 laps to go gave Puryear a chance to steal a victory from Stallings, but he spun his tires coming to the green flag, allowing Stallings to build a comfortable advantage. No one else challenged Stallings for victory, and he was able to cement his comeback from a near-fatal motorcycle crash with a win at Ace Speedway.
“I did not expect us to be this good at all,” Stallings said. “We were slow in practice, but we qualified really well, and I thought that we had a decent race piece, but the fact that this car was as great as it was is unreal.”
Puryear managed to hang onto second in the final stages of the race, while York, who posed as the strongest challenger to Stallings throughout most of the evening, came home in third. Timothy Peters had to overcome a tire-change violation during the ten-minute break on Lap 100, and raced his way up to 4th when the checkered flag, while 2017 CARS Late Model Stock Car Tour champion Josh Berry rounded out the Top 5.
Anthony Alfredo, who won the Fall Brawl at Hickory Motor Speedway during the previous weekend, managed to race his way into the Top 5 several times during the race, but would ultimately settle for a sixth place finish. Former Rodney Cook Classic winner Justin Snow came home in seventh, while Dylan Ward, Burt Myers and Thad Moffitt rounded out the Top 10.
Official Race Results:
1. 77s Blake Stallings
2. 17 Stacy Puryear
3. 18 Jason York
4. 12 Timothy Peters
5. 88 Josh Berry
6. 8a Anthony Alfredo
7. 0 Justin Snow
8. 7 Dylan Ward
9. 51 Burt Myers
10. 46 Thad Moffitt
11. 77w Trevor War
12. 45 Gary Young Jr.
13. 07 Kevin Neal
14. 71 Dean Fogleman
15. 8 Thomas Scott -3
16. 2 Dennis Holdren OUT
17. 4d Kyle Dudley OUT
18. 31 Thomas Beane OUT
19. 26 Peyton Sellers OUT
20. 16 RD Smith OUT
21. 1 Craig Moore OUT
22. 22 Robert Powell OUT
23. 24 Colin Garrett OUT
24. 9 Dustin Rumley OUT
25. 59 Heath Causey OUT
26. 77j Logan Jones OUT
27. 14 Holden Kurth OUT
28. 99 Layne Riggs OUT
29. 50 BooBoo Dalton OUT
30. 4 John Moore OUT
