Casey Roberts took the win at Tri-County on Friday night.
Casey Roberts walked away from Tri-County Race Track on Friday night with a winner’s check worth $4,053, and he had to earn every penny of it in a very competitive Southern Nationals Bonus Series event held at the Brasstown, NC facility. The Georgia native had to overcome a setback in a preliminary race then overcome determined opposition for his third career Tar Heel 50 victory.
Young Austin Smith began the night by setting the overall fastest time in qualifying with a quick lap of 12.630 seconds. He was followed by Roberts, Eric Jacobsen and Steve Casebolt. The top-4 from time-trials would run a dash race to set the lineup for the first two rows on the starting grid in the feature.
It was in the dash race that the night’s first bit of drama took place. After a redraw, Casebolt and Roberts were designated to start on the front row of the four lap preliminary. However, those two drivers were forced to relinquish their starting spots to Smith and Jacobsen after multiple false starts.
Smith won the dash ahead of Jacobsen, Casebolt and Roberts. The remainder of the 21 car field lined up based on their qualifying times.
At the start of the 53-lap main event, Smith took the early lead with Jacobsen, Casebolt, Roberts and 6th starting Rick Eckert following closely behind. The action was intense from the beginning as Jacobsen applied heavy pressure on the early leader right from the start.
By lap 3, Jacobsen had wrested the top spot away from Smith while Roberts made his way by the pole sitter one lap later. Smith continued to fall back in the order as Eckert and Casebolt moved around him just a few laps later while carrying on a battle of their own.
Roberts’ Longhorn Chassis went to the front on lap 14.
The first of six yellow flags waved on lap 10 when Tyler Adams slowed on the track. During that same caution period, Casebolt went to the pit area and had to rejoin the field at the tail.
On the ensuing restart, Roberts began to challenge Jacobsen for the lead. At lap 13, the lead duo found themselves in heavy traffic as Jacobsen employed the high side of the track while Roberts worked down low. In that traffic, Roberts was able to pin Jacobsen behind one of the slower machines and grab the lead.
And soon afterward, there would be a new challenger as Eckert(who was driving an Eric Jacobsen owned car) moved around Jacobsen to assume the runner-up spot and take up the pursuit of Roberts.
Meanwhile young Donald McIntosh was moving his 5th starting Blount Motorsports ride closer to the front as he got by both Smith and Jacobsen as he climbed to 3rd. A lap 19 tangle with a slower car would ultimately ended Jacobsen’s night prematurely.
Local driver David Payne made significant progress forward during the middle stages of the race as he rode around the top side of the track and picked off cars one-by-one until he found himself in the 3rd spot. But the Murphy High School basketball coach’s night came to an end early in his brand new Capital Race Car when smoke and steam boiled from underneath his hood on lap 36.
In latter stages of the race, Roberts and Eckert separated themselves from the pack as they contested the top spot. At the same time, however, McIntosh, Smith and 2014 track champion Shawn Chastain were engaged in a tremendous battle for the 3rd position that would eventually be won by McIntosh.
In the end, Roberts would hold back Eckert to get the win with McIntosh, Chastain and Smith rounding out the top-5.
