Brandon Overton led all 50 laps at Cherokee
The Ultimate Super Late Model Series made its way to Cherokee Speedway for a Memorial Day weekend event in a race dubbed the Mike Butler Memorial. At the end of the evening, it was Brandon Overton who scored his fourth win in as many tries with the Ultimate Series as he grabbed the checkered flag at the Gaffney, SC facility. The Evans, GA driver collected a $7,500 winner’s check for his efforts in a race shown live by Speed51.com.
A total of 22 cars were signed in for competition.
Trent Ivey was fastest in Group A qualifying as he turned a lap of 14.981 seconds around the 4/10 mile clay oval besting Derrick Ramey, Ben Watkins, Adam Yarbrough, Brent Dixon, Ethan Wilson, Thomas Robinson and Jeff Smith.
Brandon Overton was quickest in Group B time-trials with an effort of 14.891 seconds to beat out Cla Knight, Dennis Franklin, Zack Mitchell, Matthew Nance, Ross Bailes, Dustin Mitchell, and Johnny Pursley.
There were no heat races as all entered cars made it to the feature.
At the start of the 50-lap feature Overton wasted little time asserting his dominance as he bolted to the early lead with Ivey, Ramey, Knight and Franklin in his wake. By the fifth lap, Overton and Ivey had pulled away from the rest of the field. The lead duo then began to encounter slower traffic by lap 8.
The first caution flag of the night waved on lap 16 when the car of Travis Stoner spun in turn 4. One lap after the restart, Adam Yarbrough looped his car in turn to bring out another yellow flag.
On the lap 17 restart, Ramey took the runner-up position away from Ivey as Overton pulled away.
Larry Grube brought out another caution when he spun in turn 4 right in front of the leaders on lap 21. On that restart, Ivey returned to second with Ramey, Franklin, Dixon, and Knight following in tight formation.
Bailes began to move toward the front on lap 32 when he took fifth away from Franklin. Further ahead, Ivey and Ramey fought over the second position with the end result being a spin by Ivey on lap 36. With Ivey staying in the gas he was able completely loop his car then rejoin the field in fourth.
On the lap 36 restart, Dixon jumped up to second. But over the closing laps, no one was able to challenge Overton as he drove on to the victory.
“The old race car was good,” Overton declared in victory lane. “I don’t know what to say. We just did our job tonight, qualified good and got ourselves in position to win and that’s kind of how these races are won now. If you don’t mess up in traffic, keep your nose clean, and keep the tires on her, and don’t do nothing stupid, it all works out.”
Feature Finish: 1. Brandon Overton, 2. Brent Dixon, 3. Derrick Ramey, 4. Ross Bailes, 5. Trent Ivey, 6. Zack Mitchell, 7. Dustin Mitchell, 8. Dennis Franklin, 9. Ben Watkins, 10. Ethan Wilson, 11. Cla Knight, 12. Thomas Robinson, 13. Jeff Smith, 14. Brian Ledbetter, 15. Matthew Nance, 16. Tim Vance, 17. Adam Yarbrough, 18. Larry Grube, 19. Johnny Pursley, 20. Anthony Sanders, 21. Travis Stoner, 22. Doug Sanders
