County Line Raceway
Roberts collects $10,000 in finale at County Line
By Gene Murphy
DirtonDirt.com correspondent
Casey Roberts heads toward victory. (focusedonracing.com)
ELM CITY, N.C. (Nov. 15-16) — Casey Roberts, of Toccoa, Ga., put a defining stamp on his second consecutive Ultimate Super Late Model Series championship season with an impressive flag-to-flag victory Saturday night at County Line Raceway. Roberts earned $10,000 for his seventh series victory of the season in claiming the third-year tour’s season finale.
"The Lord has just really blessed us this year," Roberts said. "We have had a really good time here this weekend. I feel really fortunate to have our car owners, my wife, and friends here to enjoy this." | Video | Slideshow
The polesitting Roberts took the checkers in the fifth annual Race for Kids ahead of Chris Ferguson of Mount Holly, N.C., while Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., was third. Jeff Smith of Dallas, N.C., and Scott Bloomquist of Mooresburg, Tenn., rounded out the top five.
In addition to wrapping up his title run on a positive note, the victory also helped turn around a frustrating stretch for Roberts, who had trouble over the previous two weekends.
"We have had a tough couple of weeks, getting the car tore up two weeks in a row. This was definitely the way to recover from that and close the year out right for sure,” Roberts said. "The car performed flawless and was real good tonight. I have to thank Marshall (Green), Shane (Clanton), and those guys at Capital Race Cars. Of course, none of this would be possible without our car owners, Jimmy and Ann Cushman.”
Roberts started on the outside of row one, alongside Ferguson. At the wave of the green flag, Roberts quickly secured the top spot by pulling ahead off of the second corner.
"I felt I let my crew down at the beginning of the race," Ferguson said. "Starting on the inside on that initial start it was really muddy down there. So on the next restart I chose the outside, but by then, the low side had came in. Jonathan got by me and when he moved up in front of me, I lost the nose of the race car, and Jeff got by me too."
Ferguson was able to fend off the advances of Bloomquist and hold on to the fourth spot. With it still early in the 50 lap affair, Ferguson began to make his way back to the top two. On long green flags runs Roberts could open up a comfortable lead on Davenport.
In the closing 15 laps, Roberts’ advantage quickly evaporated as lapped traffic began to become a factor. This allowed Davenport to pull right to Roberts’ rear spoiler in the final circuits.
“I saw (Roberts) start struggling,” Davenport said. “He got to where he was hugging the bottom more and more. I wasn’t as good as him in (turns) one and two, but I was better in three and four. I had on a little harder right rear so I could roll the top a little better.”
As Davenport made it a two-car fight for the win with Roberts, the third position was being contested. With just under five laps to go, Ferguson had reached Smith and they battled side by side for three laps before Ferguson was able to retake the spot.
Just as Davenport was positioning himself to make a run at the win with two laps to go, Brett Miller, of Greeneville, Tenn., slowed on the frontstretch as his car suffered a right rear flat, setting the stage for a green-white-checker fight for ten grand.
“I just wanted to make sure I could get a big run down the back straightaway, but it didn’t quite work out,” Davenport said. “I just got up there and it hung a little bit and I couldn’t quite get back down the racetrack. We chose the wrong right front tire and I pushed it off early. So I had to run a good bit more crooked than I would have liked. I think that hurt us more than anything. But, all in all it was a good night.”
At the final wave of the green, Roberts got a great start. However Davenport did not let him get too far away as he drove in hard to the high side. When he did that, Ferguson stuck his car low.
“I knew that Jonathan is the type of driver who was going to go for broke there,” said Ferguson. “I went to the center under him, and it pushed a bit, and we locked doors there for a second. Coming off of two it was a race down the backstretch, but thankfully I was able to get by him with a pretty good pass.”
Notes: Roberts drives a Jimmy and Ann Cushman-owned Capital Race Car powered by a Custom Race Engine and sponsored by Starrette Trucking, Cushman Paint & Body, Schaeffer Oil, M&S Concrete, VP Race Fuels and Hoosier Racing Tire. ... Roberts' seven victories leads the tour this season; he also tops the tour's all-time wins list with 10 career victories. ... County Line's two-day event served as the tour's season finale after a planned Nov. 23 event at Screven Motor Speedway in Sylvania, Ga., was recently cancelled.
Race for the Kids: (1) Casey Roberts, (2) Chris Ferguson, (3) Jonathan Davenport, (4) Jeff Smith, (5) Scott Bloomquist, (6) Chris Garnes, (7) Dustin Mitchell, (8) Steve Shaver, (9) Walker Arthur, (10) Russell Erwin, (11) Larry Timms, (12) Ray Tucker, (13) David Pettyjohn, (14) Bobby Bottoms, (15) Brandon Ifft, (16) Brett Miller, (17) Christian Joyner, (18) Spencer Liggon, (19) Michael Batton, (20) Roger Lucas, (21) Booper Bare, (22) Joe Cox, (23) Britches Liles, (24) Timmy Blackwell. Fast qualifier (among 25 cars): Arthur, 14.396 seconds. Heat race winners: Roberts, Ferguson, Davenport. Consolation winner: Miller.
