SOUTH BOSTON, VA :: Cole Timm wrestled the lead away from his racing mentor Preston Peltier coming to the white flag and held on to win his first career Pro All Stars Series (PASS) South Super Late Model race Saturday night at Virginia’s South Boston Speedway. Timm’s victory came as a surprise to few since the 15-year-old driver has been knocking on the door as of late finishing second in two of the last seven PASS South events dating back to last year.
“I’ve never driven that many hard laps in my life and as hard as I drove, I still messed up that last restart and let him [Peltier] get by me, but luckily we had that high line going and we were able to get back by and pull it off,” said Timm afterwards in victory lane.
The afternoon started well for Peltier who claimed his series leading 14th career quick qualifying time with a lap of 93.848 miles per hour around the fast 4/10 mile speedway. After the top 10 qualifiers redrew for their starting positions, Peltier would slide back to start 7th while Trevor Noles and Jared Fryar moved to the front row for the start of the 150 lap feature.
When the race got underway, Noles quickly jumped out front and took command in the early going. But all eyes in the local crowd were on Harrison Burton, who started third. In his first ever start at South Boston Speedway, fans were soon reminded of the days when young Harrison’s father, Jeff, and uncle, Ward, once toiled around the tough short track in the early days of their driving careers. Burton brought the fans to their feet on lap 48 when he moved around Noles to take the lead.
Burton set a quick pace through the first two-thirds of the 150 lap event as his competitors tried to keep in contact. Burton, Peltier, Noles, Timm, Tyler Dippel, and PASS South points leader Tyler Church jockeyed for position as they began to enter slower traffic. Dippel was the first to fall by the wayside, dropping out of the race with engine problems while running fifth on lap 83.
Caution free through the first 100 laps, Burton continued to lead but the battle was for second between Peltier and Timm. The two cars raced side-by-side for the position before Timm was able to move by with 43 laps to go when Peltier got slowed behind the lapped machine of Trey Jarrell. The first caution of the night finally waved on lap 112 when seventh running Jared Irvan slowed with a flat right front tire at the exact same time Joe Ryan Osborne came to a halt with a mechanical issue.
Utilizing the high groove on the restart, Timm was able to move by Burton to take the lead. Peltier soon followed, moving by Burton to take second. Despite racing in close proximity of one another, Timm’s Triad Racing Technologies Toyota was making the high groove work as he began to pull away from Peltier in the closing stages of the race. But, the second and final caution of the night would wave with just three laps to go when Tyler Church spun in turn four while battling Garrett Campbell for fifth.
On the restart, Timm appeared to spin his tires allowing Peltier to move by to take the lead. But again, Timm returned to the outside groove that had worked so well for him throughout the race, drawing alongside Peltier for the lead as they came to the white flag. Timm powered away to take the win by five car lengths over Peltier, Noles, Burton, and Fryar. Rounding out the top ten were Tate Fogleman, Church, Jarrell, Irvan, and Brandon Setzer,
For official race results, updated points standings, and photographs from South Boston Speedway, please go to ProAllStarsSeries.com.
