Brandon Overton passed Casey Roberts on the last lap
The final event in what proved to be a busy Dirt Late Model racing weekend took place at the Cherokee Speedway. The Palmetto Invitational ran in front of an empty grandstand due to restrictions resulting from the coronavirus outbreak but was broadcast by Speed51.com. In the end, Brandon Overton scored his second win of the weekend with an aggressive lap lap pass to earn $10,000 after taking the checkered flag in Gaffney, SC.
Overton won a Carolina Clash sanctioned event on Friday night at Lancaster Speedway.
Brandon Overton proved to be the fastest in Group A time-trials as he sailed around the 4/10 mile clay oval in 15.495 seconds to beat out Zack Mitchell, Christian Thomas, Casey Roberts, and Kyle Strickler.
Austin Kirkpatrick turned the fastest lap in Group B qualifying with a mark of 15.620 seconds to top Anthony Sanders, Michael Brown, Jonathan Davenport and Logan Roberson.
Brandon Overton won the first heat race of the night by topping Kyle Strickler, Ethan Wilson and Ross Bailes while Austin Kirkpatrick took the night’s second preliminary ahead of Derrick Ramey, Logan Roberson and Darrell Lanigan.
It was Zack Mitchell who took the third heat over Casey Roberts, Pearson Lee Williams and Allen Weisser just before Anthony Sanders earned the win in the fourth and final heat ahead of Chris Madden, Jonathan Davenport and Jeff Smith.
Dalton Polston and Michael Brown won the two B-main races.
At the start of the 60-lap feature it was Sanders who grabbed the early advantage with Roberts, Madden and Overton in his wake. But Roberts wasted little time as he put his No. 101 machine in front of Sanders on the second circuit.
Just behind the lead duo Overton took third away from Madden on lap 5 just before a caution flag waved for the slowing car of Polston. On the restart both Overton and Madden were able to get around Sanders to claim second and third respectively.
On a lap 7 restart Madden moved around Overton to claim Sanders as both continued to chase Roberts. However, Overton would retake the runner-up position on lap 9 as the top-3 cars ran in tight formation around the high speed track.
Heavy traffic would dictate the pace throughout the middle section of the race with Roberts continued to lead the close trailing cars of Overton and Madden.
With 20 lap remaining Roberts appeared to be pulling away from his pursuers as he opened a lead of five car lengths. But as the laps ticked away Overton would begin to close back in.
As the cars made their way into turns one and two on the last lap, Roberts appeared to slip up off the bottom of the track. Overton forced his way into the opening and the two machines bounced off one another going down the backstretch. Entering turn three the Roberts car clipped the inside berm which sent him spinning up the track and into the outside wall, causing significant damage.
Overton would win the dash back to the finish line to score the win.
Feature Finish: 1. Brandon Overton, 2. Chris Madden, 3. Kyle Strickler, 4. Derrick Ramey, 5. Zack Mitchell, 6. Jonathan Davenport, 7. Ross Bailes, 8. Tyler Erb, 9. Logan Roberson, 10. Allen Weisser, 11. Michael Brown, 12. Pearson Lee Williams, 13. Casey Roberts, 14. Anthony Sanders, 15. Cla Knight, 16. Darrell Lanigan, 17. Kyle Hardy, 18. Ethan Wilson, 19. Corey Gordon, 20. Christian Thomas, 21. Tim Vance, 22. John Henderson, 23. Austin Kirkpatrick, 24. Dalton Polston, 25. Jeff Smith, 26. Jason Miller
