County Line Raceway
Madden claims County Line's Ultimate event
By Gene Murphy
DirtonDirt.com correspondent
Chris Madden won $5,000 at County Line Raceway. (focusedonracing.com)
ELM CITY, N.C. (MAY 17) — There were only two things that were able to contain Chris Madden Friday night. The first was the turn one wall at County Line Raceway he hit it during hot laps. The second was the rain shower that rolled across the speedway with 41 laps complete of the planned 50-lap feature.
However, neither could deny the Gaffney, S.C. racer. He raced to a $5,000 payday in winning the 3/8-mile oval’s Ultimate Super Late Model Series event. | Slideshow
After the contact with the wall in practice, resulting in only minimal damage to his signature black No. 44 Bloomquist Race Car, he returned in qualifying to take the pole in time trials.
“We’ve been struggling this year,” said Madden, who earned his second overall victory of the season in winning County Line’s Ultimate Series event for the second year in a row. “We put a lot of time in this week and made a lot of changes to our race car. We brought it up here and hot lapped and went a little farther than we needed to, but that’s a good problem, because it’s an easy fix to go back the other way. We hit the wall hot-lapping. It really didn’t damage nothing, just the quarter panel and spoiler. Stuff like that, just cosmetic.
“Then we went out there and we were able to set fast time in qualifying,” Madden added. “We ran a total different line around the racetrack than anybody else that I saw. We beat ‘em pretty bad qualifying. In the race, the racetrack did obviously get one-lane, but still, we had a dominant race car. We had a real good race car tonight.”
At the start of the main event, Madden flexed his muscles early on, quickly opening up a comfortable lead over outside front-row starter Dale McDowell of Chickamauga, Ga. Over the next handful of laps, it was clear that he was on a mission. A caution brought out by the slowing car of Michael Batten in the first ten laps was the only yellow to slow the pace of the event.
After the restart Madden again shifted into cruise control. Protecting the low side and working traffic meticulously, he opened up a wide margin on the rest of the field. When the rains came rolling in on the 41st lap, his advantage over McDowell stretched the length of the track’s straightaways in front of a near-capacity crowd.
Chasing McDowell to the line was Tim McCreadie, of Watertown, N.Y., who had pressured McDowell for a good portion of the event for the runner-up spot. Chris Ferguson, of Mt. Holly, N.C., finished fourth, finally nabbing a top-five finish to showcase his team’s effort to turn around a long trail of disappointing runs. Greg Satterlee, of Rochester Mills, Pa., rounded out the race’s top five finishers.
The shower completely soaked the track and the race was deemed complete by series officials.
Notes: Madden’s Bloomquist Race Car is powered by a Clements Racing Engine with sponsorship from Hamrick’s of Gaffney, Henderson Amusement, KC Transport, Swiftco, Allstar Performance, Century Plastics, Cushman Body and Paint, East Coast Entertainment and Xtreme Customs and Cycles. ... Friday’s race was the first leg of a planned weekend doubleheader for the Ultimate Series. Action was scheduled to continue at Virginia Motor Speedway in Jamaica, Va., for the $10,000-to-win USA 100 Saturday night, but the event was rained out. ... The next scheduled event for the Ultimate Series is a $4,000-to-win race May 25 at Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tenn.
Ultimate @ County Line: (1) Chris Madden, (2) Dale McDowell, (3) Tim McCreadie, (4) Chris Ferguson, (5) Gregg Satterlee, (6) Casey Roberts, (7) Austin Hubbard, (8) Dustin Mitchell, (9) Roger Lucas, (10) Dennis Franklin, (11) Mike Gault, (12) Travis Hair, (13) Larry Timms, (14) Jeff Smith, (15) Casey Barrow, (16) Christian Joyner, (17) J.C. Clary, (18) Scott Neighbors, (19) Randy Lucas, (20) Michael Batten, (21) Brett Miller. Fast qualifier (among 21 cars): Madden. Consolation winners: Mitchell, Hubbard.
