Cory Walker scored his first career Late Model victory at Wake County Speedway two weeks ago and felt a burden lifted from his shoulders when he pulled into victory lane.
Walker, 22, felt he could win a race but luck has simply not been in his favor. That luck shifted on June 5th when he prevailed in a wild race at Wake County Speedway in Raleigh, North Carolina. Walker picked up the win and was able to cherish the moment with his grandparents who came in from Ohio to see him.
“It was awesome,” Walker said of his first career win. “I had my grandparents in town so that made it even better. They were down from Ohio. It was a long time coming. We put a lot of hard work into it. Got some luck on our side and it gives me confidence going into the rest of the season. We’re only 24 points out of the lead. It would be nice to get a championship at Wake. We’ve been running well this year aside from a few races when we’ve had bad luck. When everything’s gone right, we’ve been on top of our game.”
That win gives rise to championship ambitions for the Fuquay-Varina driver and gives him hopes that he can repeat and win again on Friday night.
“It built confidence up,” Walker explained. “We always put in the work that was needed, never had luck on our side. Now we’ve got the monkey off our back and we can take that momentum into tonight. We just got that car last year. We worked some kinks out. We have everything where we want it. We’ve been changing a few things. We have a good baseline setup to go off of. Now that they’re doing the two-tire deal, it’s more consistent. You’re not chasing tires, you know what you have on the car and it makes it easier when you’re setting up.”
Walker says his racing program is more sponsor-dependent than most and, because of that, moving up does not come as easy. He is setting his sights on running some in Tom Pistone’s Southeast Limited Late Model Series as well as at East Carolina Motor Speedway, Orange County Speedway and in the Thanksgiving Classic at Southern National Motorsports Park.
“We’re looking at the Southeast series,” Walker remarked. “We’ve wanted to help them out. Every race we tried to go to, got cancelled for rain. We want to hit one of those. Not sure on our plan for next year. Sponsors are the main thing for us. We rely a lot on them and our crew. If we can be competitive, we’ll look into it. The Southeast series is an option for this year. We’re thinking about going to Tri-County and giving it another shot. Late Model Stock and CARS Tour races, that’s where we need more sponsors … We have sponsorship this year and it’s helped out with funds.”
Walker will be racing at Wake County Speedway on Friday night, June 19th, where he hopes to score a second consecutive victory.
