Cleveland County Speedway
Roberts cruises, collects $4,000 Ultimate victory
By Gene Murphy
DirtonDirt.com correspondent
Casey Roberts visits victory lane at Cleveland County. (ZSK Photography)
LAWNDALE, N.C. (May 10) — Casey Roberts displayed power and patience Friday en route to a $4,000 Ultimate Super Late Model Series win at Cleveland County Speedway. The reigning series champion utilized lap traffic to his advantage to overtake Jonathan Davenport for the winning pass, then showed his seasoned prowess to the huge crowd assembled around the 4/10-mile oval the rest of the way.| Slideshow
“We’ve hit on something here the last two or three weeks that seems to be working real well,” the Toccoa, Ga., driver said. “It is just a fine tuning of our basic setup that we have used the last few times we have raced. We just hit it right tonight, and hit a home run against a really good field of cars.”
Brett Miller of Greeneville, Tenn., finished second in making his debut in the TNT Race Cars house car while consolation race winner Jeff Smith of Dallas, N.C., was third. Justin Labonte of Trinity, N.C., and Mike Gault of Gaffney, S.C., rounded out the top five while the pole-starting Davenport retired in 14th.
At the outset of the 40-lapper, Davenport powered to the lead, getting the jump on outside front-row starter Vic Hill. Coming off the second corner, Roberts slide into the No. 2 spot, bypassing Hill.
The front of the field had to begin negotiating lapped traffic early-on during the first few handful of laps. While trying to work past a slower car, Davenport got trapped high in the fourth corner, and Roberts turned his machine low to pull off a pass.
As the cars rocketed down the front straightaway, Davenport turned his machine back down low and tried to return the favor, by using the slowing car of Jason Womack as a pick. Refusing to be denied, Roberts swept around to the outside. Providing the most thrilling move of the race, the frontrunners went by on either side of the limping Womack machine, continuing their dogfight into the first corner.
As Roberts again assumed control of the lead over Davenport, Chris Madden quietly moved into the third position behind them. The first of many yellows flew shortly thereafter, bunching the field back up.
The second yellow flew on the 11th lap when Josh Henry slammed the outside wall exiting the fourth corner with the right-rear quarterpanel. The impact threw front of the car right and the nose stabbed into the fence, tearing down approximately 40-50 feet of fencing and ensnarling the front of the Henry machine.
It took the track crew about 10 minutes to free the car. Since the section of damaged fence was not in an area close to spectators, it was not required to stop the action to perform immediate repairs to the fencing. Henry wasn’t injured.
Upon returning to green, Roberts again flexed his muscles. The familiar No. 101 machine opened 10-length leads on whoever was trying to catch him.
Davenport and Madden fell by the wayside. Davenport had a flat tire and pulled pitside, while Madden’s car was overheating, forcing him out.
The next assault on Roberts was mid-pack starter Chris Ferguson, who by the 24th lap had pulled to the rear decklid of the Roberts machine. He kept the pressure on Roberts for the top spot, but following a lap-32 restart Ferguson took a slow slide in the second corner.
A few laps later Ferguson again looped his machine in the middle of turns three and four. It was found later that the culprit behind his troubles was a fastener failure in the front suspension.
Miller inherited the second spot, but in the closing laps it was all Roberts as he took the checkered flag by about half-straightaway.
Notes: Roberts drives a Capital Race Car sponsored by Starrette Trucking, Cushman Paint & Body and Schaeffer Oil. ... Roberts has four career series victories, tied with Jonathan Davenport and Vic Hill on the all-time list. ... The Ultimate tour heads to Friendship Speedway in Elkin, N.C., on Saturday for another $4,000-to-win contest.
Ultimate @ Cleveland County: (1) Casey Roberts, (2) Brett Miller, (3) Jeff Smith, (4) Justin Labonte, (5) Mike Gault, (6) Dennis Franklin, (7) Doug Sanders, (8) Brian Ledbetter, (9) Larry McDaniels, (10) Larry Timms, (11) Chris Ferguson, (12) Johnny Pursley, (13) Chris Madden, (14) Jonathan Davenport, (15) Zack Mitchell, (16) Luke Roffers, (17) Casey Barrow, (18) Chip Brindle, (19) Josh Henry, (20) Vic Hill, (21) Furman Parton, (22) Jason Womack, (23) Ken Rominger, (24) Brent Dixon. Fast qualifier (among 24 cars): Davenport, 17.04 seconds. Consolation race winners: Brindle, Smith.
