Chris Madden continued his winning ways at Port Royal
For the second time in as many nights, the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series took to the track at Port Royal Speedway. And just like the night before, it was Chris Madden who came away victorious. This time, the Gray Court, SC driver earned $15,000 for the victory.
Brandon Overton was fastest in Group A qualifying with a lap of 20.848 seconds around the half-mile clay oval topping Kyle Hardy, Brandon Sheppard, Dan Stone, and Tyler Bruening.
Chris Madden topped Group B time-trials with a lap of 20.715 seconds beating out Matt Cosner, Ryan Gustin, Rick Expert, and Ross Robinson.
Brandon Overton was the winner of the first heat race as he outran Chris Ferguson, Tyler Bruening, and Brandon Sheppard while Dan Stone bested Donald Lingo Jr., Kyle Hardy, and Dennis Erb Jr high in the second preliminary.
Chris Madden defeated Ryan Gustin, Ross Robinson, and Gregg Satterlee in the third heat then Rick Eckert took the fourth and final heat over Matt Cosner, Ricky Weiss, and Gary Stuhler.
Brent Larson and Tyler Bare won the two Last Chance Showdown races used to set the remainder of the starting lineup for the main event.
The WoO Late Models redraw set the first four rows in the feature as Overton, Madden, Eckert, Stone, Cosner, Lingo, Gustin, and Ferguson.
At the start of the 50-lap feature, Overton went to the front of the pack with Madden, Eckert, Stone, and Ferguson following behind. Stone took third away from Eckert on the fourth lap while Overton looked as if he might run away and hide from the rest of the field.
Cosner moved to fifth on lap 7 as Ferguson and Gustin fought over the sixth position just behind. Ultimately, Gustin would win out in that battle as he moved into sixth on lap 12. At the same time, Stone closed in on Madden to contest the runner-up spot but the feature winner from the night before was able to fight back the challenge.
Overton caught up with slower traffic by lap 15 which allowed Madden and Stone to close the gap. Further back, Ferguson was engaged in a dispute with Bruening and Satterlee of positions 7 through 9.
On lap 28, Overton appeared to bobble in traffic which gave Madden the chance he was looking for. The No. 44 car moved inside and around the No. 76 to assume the race lead. However, Overton fought back and ran to Madden’s inside in hopes of regaining the top spot on the leaderboard.
Instead, however, Overton went into a slide and near spin as the cars raced through turn three. Although he did not fully spin, series officials called for the caution flag to be displayed. Since Overton never actually came to a stop, he did not have to restart at the tail.
When green flag racing resumed, Madden went to the lead with Eckert, Overton and Stone trailing. Overton tussled with Eckert for second on lap 29. But by that time, Madden was seemingly on cruise control.
Over the final five laps, Eckert and Overton were able to cut into Madden’s lead but were never able to get close enough to mount a serious challenge.
It was Madden’s second consecutive win and his fourth in WoO competition in 2021.
Feature Finish: 1. Chris Madden, 2. Rick Eckert, 3. Dan Stone, 4. Brandon Overton, 5. Ryan Gustin, 6. Ross Robinson, 7. Tyler Bruening, 8. Chris Ferguson, 9. Matt Cosner, 10. Gregg Satterlee, 11. Gary Stuhler, 12. Ricky Weiss, 13. Cade Dillard, 14. Brandon Sheppard, 15. Kyle Hardy, 16. Kyle Strickler, 17. Dennis Erb Jr, 18. Hayes Mattern, 19. Brent Larson, 20. Tyler Bare, 21. Boom Briggs, 22. Colton Dinner, 23. Dylan Yoder, 24. Dillon Stake, 25. Donald Lingo Jr.
