Brandon Overton scored his second King of the Commonwealth triumph
The Ultimate Super Late Model Series made the trip to the Virginia Motor Speedway on Saturday night to contest the 2021 version of the Virginia is for Racing Lovers ‘King of the Commonwealth’ event. After a up and down night of racing, it was Brandon Overton who came away from the Jamaica, VA facility as the winner after falling back into the pack then rising. The Evans, GA driver earned $20,000 for his efforts in a race shown live by Speed51.com. .
A total of 36 cars were signed in for competition.
G.R. Smith was fastest in Group A qualifying and overall with a lap of 17.486 seconds around the half-mile clay oval beating out Tim McCreadie, Jason Miller, Cla Knight, and Ethan Wilson.
Brandon Overton led Group B time-trials with a lap of 17.594 seconds topping Josh Richards, Jimmy Owens, Ross Robinson, and Jamie Lathroum.
G.R. Smith won the first heat race of the night besting Ben Watkins, Jason Covert, and Walker Arthur while Tim McCreadie took the second preliminary ahead of Gregg Satterlee, Trever Feathers, and Cla Knight.
Brandon Overton defeated Jimmy Owens, Jamie Lathroum, and Dennis Franklin in the third heat race then Josh Richards was victorious in the fourth and final heat over Ross Robinson, Zack Mitchell, and Jeff Smith.
Ross Bailes and Dustin Mitchell won the two B-main races used to set the remainder of the starting grid for the main event.
At the start of the 60-lap feature it was Smith who went to the early lead with Overton, Richards, McCreadie, and Owens trailing. Richards took second away from Overton on the second lap but Overton retaliated and regained the spot one lap later just before a caution for the slowing car of Derick Quade slowed the pace of the action.
On the ensuing restart, Richards moved to second and Owens bolted up to third while Overton was shuffled back to fifth. McCreadie moved up to fight with Owens for third on lap 6 but the No. 20 held the spot.
Another yellow flag waved on lap 10 for debris. That restart allowed McCreadie to grab third while Satterlee took fifth from Overton. However, Overton reclaimed fifth from Satterlee on lap 14 before Bailes slowed on the backstretch to bring out another caution.
Owens pulled into second on a lap 20 restart and set off in pursuit of Smith. At the same time, Richards, McCreadie, Overton, and Satterlee were embroiled in a battle for positions 3 though 6.
Overton began to move forward as he took fourth from McCreadie on lap 27 then third from Richards on lap 31. But a key moment in the race would occur on lap 34 when race-long leader Smith slowed to bring out a caution. The former front runner’s misfortune lifted Owens to the lead with Overton, Richards and McCreadie trailing.
Overton moved in to challenge Owens after the lap 34 caution. The No. 76 then swept by the No. 20 to claim the lead on lap 39. Overton then pulled out to a lead of several car lengths as Owens, Richards, McCreadie, and Satterlee tried to keep pace.
Over the closing laps, Overton held the lead and eventually sailed under the checkered flag to score his second King of the Commonwealth victory.
“I sure know how to make it hard on myself,” Overton said in his post-race interview. “I was sitting in a pretty good spot and I had a game plan to sit there and take it easy for a little bit then I fell all the way back to eighth or ninth and I thought I had really screwed it up. But my car was really good and I kept the tires on it and made sure I didn’t wad it up when I fell back a little bit.
“I love this place,” the winner added. “I don’t know what it is but I love racing here. I always seem to do good. There was a lot of pressure, there were a lot of good cars here. But like I said, I’m really fortunate to drive good race cars for good people and compete with all of these guys.”
Feature Finish: 1. Brandon Overton, 2. Jimmy Owens, 3. Josh Richards, 4. Tim McCreadie, 5. Gregg Satterlee, 6. Zack Mitchell, 7. Ross Robinson, 8. Tyler Bare, 9. Ethan Wilson, 10. Cla Knight, 11. Jeff Smith, 12. Dennis Franklin, 13. Walker Arthur, 14. Brian Ledbetter, 15. Anthony Sanders, 16. Jason Covert, 17. G.R. Smith, 18. Trever Feathers, 19. Ben Watkins, 20. Jamie Lathroum, 21. Dustin Mitchell, 22. Corey Gordon, 23. Ross Bailes, 24. Derick Quade
