Dale McDowell keeps winning. Just as he did the previous night at the North Georgia Speedway, McDowell wired the field at the Duck River Raceway Park on Sunday evening to take the Southern Nationals series last points event and the $10,053 that went with it.
He was fastest in Boyd Bilt hot laps and the overall fastest qualifier in FK Rod Ends time trials, of the 34 cars that signed in for the evening’s event. Series point leader Carson Ferguson was second fastest.
Heat race number one had trouble at the drop of the green flag. The number 7JR of Bobby Allen broke the right rear wheel off his car in turn one. On lap number four the 2 of Bo Jay spun harmlessly in turn one. McDowell cruised to the win and put himself on the outside of the front row for the night’s feature.
Heats two, three and four went to Benji Hicks, Ferguson and Sam Seawright. The only other incident of occurred during the third heat, involving Ricky Weiss and Dalton Cook, who spun in turn two to avoid Weiss, when he bounced off the wall in between one and two.
The first of the nights two B-Main’s saw Oakley Johns take the win and Grayson Brewer also transfer into the feature. The second B-Main had Parker Martin and Chase Walls transfer into the nights main event.
McDowell, took charge right from the start of 53 lap feature as the field thundered into turn one. Point leader Ferguson, Hicks, Seawright and Caden Mullinax gave chase but it quickly became apparent who was going to rule on this night.
The driver of the Team Zero 17M EZGO machine was masterful in lapped traffic as the field started to single out around the 1/4 semi-banked oval. Ferguson for all his efforts, was never able to stay within more than half a straightaway of the Chickamuaga, Ga native.
McDowell ran away from Ferguson, Hicks and the rest of the field, to take the checkered flag in a caution free race and his series leading 16th victory.
Ferguson took home the series title, the $10,053 check and a new pit bike courtesy of Vidalia Powersports. Runner up honors went to Clover South Carolina’s Ross Bailes by a scat followed by Kenny Collins, Haden Cowen and Caden Mullinax.
Ferguson persevered through six rainouts and scored two wins in the Ray Cook promoted series to take the title by just 26 points.
With the title decided, the series will return to the Tazewell Speedway to run the rescheduled non-points third annual Little Bill Corum Memroial which will be co-sanctioned with the Valvoline IronMan Late Models on July 3rd for $21,000 to win.
