Ross Bailes claimed the SAS opener
Make it two Winter Freeze victories in a row for Ross Bailes as the driver of the Billy Hicks-owned No. 79 machine repeated his performance of last year and claimed the season opener for the Southern All-Stars Series on Saturday night at Screven Motor Speedway. After an early race bobble on a restart, ‘The Boss’ was able to regain the lead just after the halfway mark then hold off the competition to score the win.
The Double Nickel Race Car driver from Clover, South Carolina earned $10,000 for his efforts on the track located in Sylvania, Georgia in a race shown live by FloRacing.com.
A total of 22 cars were signed in for competition.
Qualifying Results:
Group A Results- 1. Kenny Collins(14.627), 2. Will Roland, 3. Ray Cook, 4. Steven Roberts, 5. Trent Ivey
Group B Results- 1. Ross Bailes(14.699), 2. Jordy Nipper, 3. Brian Nuttall Jr., 4. David McCoy, 5.. John Henderson
Heat 1 Results: 1. Ray Cook, 2. Kenny Collins, 3. Benji Hicks, 4. Trent Ivey, 5. Parker Martin, 6. Ben Boyd
Heat 2 Results: 1. Ross Bailes, 2. Josh Putnam, 3. Brian Nuttall Jr., 4. Billy Franklin, 5. John Henderson, 6. Pearson Lee Williams
Heat 3 Results: 1. Steven Roberts, 2. Will Roland, 3. Todd Brennan, 4. Christian Hanger, 5. Haiden Cowan
Heat 4 Results: 1. Jordy Nipper, 2. David McCoy, 3. Jimmy Sharpe Jr., 4. Caleb Gay, 5. Chase Oliver
Feature Re-cap: At the start of the 50-lap main event it was Bailes who shot to the early lead with Cook, Nipper, Roberts and Putnam on his trail. The battle immediately turned fast and furious as Nipper, Roberts and Collins went three-wide for the third position on lap 2 but a caution one lap late for a spin by Boyd would briefly slow the pace.
On the restart, Bailes looked to pull away from the pack while Putnam and Roberts fought for position within the top-5.
Roland spun on lap 9 to bring out another yellow flag. A pivotal moment occurred on that restart when Bailes bobbled getting into turn one handing the lead to Cook and the second spot to Nipper with the former leader settling into third. Cook then proceeded to put some distance between himself and the fight between Nipper and Bailes by lap 14.
Further back, Collins was on the move as began to charge from the fourth position as he and Nipper began to tussle for third on lap 19. At the same time, Bailes began to close in on Cook at the front of the field with Bailes taking the lead on lap 26 leaving cook and Collins to contest second.
A caution for the stalled car of Martin halted the action on lap 30 with the running order of Bailes, Collins, Cook and Roberts filling the scoreboard. On the restart, Ivey made a big move that pulled him up into third behind Bailes and Collins while Cook and Roberts fought over the fourth spot.
Bailes and Collins then began to pull away from their pursuers until Ivey closed when the lead duo encountered traffic.
A lap 44 caution for Oliver set up a final dash to the finish. Bailes maintained the lead on the restart as Collins, Ivey and Roberts battled behind him. In the end, it would be Bailes who would outrun the pack to the checkered flag to claim his second consecutive Winter Freeze victory.
Feature Results: 1. Ross Bailes, 2. Kenny Collins, 3. Steven Roberts, 4. Trent Ivey, 5. Benji Hicks, 6. Caleb Gay, 7. Ray Cook, 8. Jordy Nipper, 9. Brian Nuttall Jr., 10. Billy Franklin, 11. John Henderson, 12. Jimmy Sharpe Jr., 13. Chase Oliver, 14. Josh Putnam, 15. David McCoy, 16. Todd Brennan, 17. Parker Martin, 18. Christian Hanger, 19. Will Roland, 20. Pearson Lee Williams, 21. Ben Boyd
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