From Track Reports
Photos Courtesy of: ThePineRaceway.com

Coeburn, VA(September 2, 2012) — On a night when the points leader only needed to take the green flag to clinch the Late Model division title, a budding star emerged in victory lane after a couple of front runners ran into misfortune.

Ronnie McCarty, who won the most recent race at Lonesome Pine Raceway qualified on the pole and when it came time to roll the dice to determine the invert, McCarty had a little luck on his side and was able to roll a one, leaving him on the pole for the start of the 60-lap race. With McCarty on the pole, Lance Gatlin, who won the first nine races of the season was needing only to start the race to clinch the Late Model division track championship and did so from the outside pole.

With the green flag going in the air, McCarty would jump right into the lead, but by lap eight the caution flag would wave as Derek Woodward and Jody Bostic got together in turn two. As the green flag waved once again, McCarty fended off the challenges of Gatlin once again as he took his number five car into the lead. Behind them, the battle was furious for the third and fourth spots as Josh Hale and Jeff Woodward swapped the third position a couple of times before halfway as Ryan Stiltner, Kevin Wolfe and Matthew Eades waited paitently for one of them to make a mistake from fifth on back.

After another caution for Terry Stone’s crash into the outside front stretch wall, the green flag flew again and that’s when calamity struck the leader as the biggest wreck of the night ensued. McCarty would be taken out of the lead in a crash with Eades, Hale and Elby Harrison. The incident put Gatlin in command of the race, but derbis from the big crash would throw his chances of victory right out of the window as one of his tires was cut and would end his run up front as quickly as it started.

Stiltner would inherit the lead from Gatlin as the young driver was still in search of his first career win, but in command of the races with the laps running out. As the laps clicked off veteran Jeff Woodward would give Stiltner all he could stand from behind, but the young driver proved that it was time for him to make a trip to victory lane. For the first time in his career, Stiltner, who has raced in the shadow of his father, a very successful racer, Keith Stiltner, who won one of twin races just two weeks ago, emerged in victory lane for the first time in his career.

Race Results
1. 22 Ryan Stiltner
2. 94 Jeff Woodward
3. 17 Kevin Wolfe
4. 40 Brian Blevins
5. 5 Ronnie McCarty
6. 97 Lance Gatlin
7. 29 Josh Hale
8. 11 Robbie Ward
9. 75 Steve Wright
10. 44 Jody Bostic
11. 18 Derek Woodward
12. 99 Matthew Eades
13. 7 Elby Harrison
14. 34 Terry Stone