Riverside Int'l Speedway
Wallace wins; Mitchell wins CCSDS tiebreaker
Wendell Wallace heads to victory at Riverside. (Woody Hampton)
WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. (Oct. 20) — While Wendell Wallace of Batesville, Ark., captured the finale on the Comp Cams Super Dirt Series at Riverside International Speedway, Jon Mitchell of Texarkana, Texas, won the postseason tiebreaker to capture his first championship on the series.
Wallace earned $3,000 for winning the sixth annual Comp Cams Mid-South Dirt Track Championship presented by Driven Racing Oil while Mitchell’s title came after he overcame adversity to unseat reigning champ Brandon Smith of Floral, Ark.
Mitchell entered the event eight points ahead of Smith, but he struggled in his heat race and had to transfer to the main event through a consolation race. While Smith ran among the top-five most of the 35-lap feature, Mitchell was sent to the tail for his part in a lap-11 caution.
Mitchell charged back to the front, and a last-lap slide job that gave him the seventh position knotted the championship battle at 2,219 points apiece. Mitchell won the tiebreaker of most series victories; he had one while Smith was winless.
Wallace’s victory was his third overall in the event and second in a row in the quarter-mile oval’s season-ending Late Model event. Tanner English of Benton, Ky., finished second followed by Smith, Kyle Beard of Trumann, Ark., and Jon Kirby of Russellville, Ark.
Jamie Dacus and English started on the front row with English taking command early and setting a quick pace to quickly get into lapped traffic.
The sixth-starting Wallace worked his way to the front, then used the low groove exiting turn two on the 12th lap to take the point from English. Wallace led the rest of the way in a race slowed by three cautions and a red flag.
Notes: Wallace’s Barry Wright Race Car has a Russell Baker powerplant and sponsorship from Triple A Diesel, Wincrest Farms, C&S Cable Construction and Delph Communications. ... Wallace has a series-leading 15 career Comp Cams victories. ... ... Robert Baker wrapped up the tour's Kuntz & Co. Racing Engines Rookie of the Year title. ... Ashley Newman’s 14th-to-sixth run gave him Larry Shaw Race Cars Hard Charger honors. ... Newman also picked up a $200 bonus from Huffman Motorsports as the best finishing crate engine entrant. ... Clay Fisher received the Quarter Master Hard Luck Award after losing a driveshaft in hot laps, then missing a feature transfer by a single spot in a consolation race. ... Other drivers failing to make the feature lineup: Lynn Irwin, Mike McNay and Joshua Kahler.
Comp Cams Mid-South Dirt Track Championship: (1) Wendell Wallace, (2) Tanner English, (3) Brandon Smith, (4) Kyle Beard, (5) Jon Kirby, (6) Ashley Newman, (7) Jon Mitchell, (8) Keith Lawson, (9) T.J. Hughes, (10) Billy Tedford, (11) Larry Potter, (12) Kenneth Jackson, (13) Todd Hall, (14) Dillon Knight, (15) Thomas Dacus, (16) Tommy Surrett, (17) Jamie Dacus, (18) Ricky Vandergriff, (19) Billy Moyer Jr., (20) Chandler Petty. Heat race winners (among 24 cars): J. Dacus, Vandergriff, English, Smith. Consolation winners: Newman, Moyer.
