David Payne
The Southern Nationals Series began its second week of competition on Tuesday night with a $3500-to-win shootout at the Boyd’s Speedway in Ringgold, GA. When all was said and done, it was David Payne of Murphy, NC who scored the first win of his career in this particular series.
Payne was fast right from the beginning as he laid down the fastest lap in Group A qualifying and overall by posting a lap of 14.857 seconds around the third-mile oval. Also getting locked into the starting lineup for the main event from his qualifying group were Craig Vosbergen, Stacy Boles and Shanon Buckingham.
The Group B fast qualifier was Vic Hill with a lap of 15.075 seconds. Joining him on the feature starting grid from this group were Devin Gilpin, Donald McIntosh and Ricky Weiss.
Jason Hiett, Derek Ellis, Todd Morrow and Chris Brown each won their respective heat races.
Payne went immediately to the front of the pack when the green flag waved to start the 35-lap feature race for Super Late Model cars. Hill, Vosbergen, Gilpin, Weiss and McIntosh gave chase early on as the field sorted itself out over the opening laps. It would then be McIntosh who would make his move first as the dashed around Weiss to claim a spot within the top-5 on the second lap.
The lead duo of Payne and Hill broke away from their pursuers just as the two cars reached the tail of the field and had to begin the process of passing slower cars. Hill looked inside of Payne on lap 8 but ultimately had to settle back in behind the leader as they worked through the maze of traffic.
The race was only slowed once by a caution when Hiett’s car came to a stop on the front stretch on lap 18.
Todd Morrow rallied from his tenth starting position and just after the lap 18 restart he moved around McIntosh to claim 5th. However, no one would seriously challenge Payne from that point as the Murphy, NC teacher and basketball coach drove on to the win.
Feature Finish: 1. David Payne, 2. Vic Hill, 3. Craig Vosbergen, 4. Devin Gilpin, 5. Todd Morrow, 6. Ricky Weiss, 7. Derek Ellis, 8. Donald McIntosh, 9. Chris Brown, 10. Ty Dillon, 11. Shanon Buckingham, 12. Stacy Boles, 13. Tyler Millwood, 14. Cody King, 15. Cory Hedgecock, 16. T.J. Reaid, 17. Ryan King, 18. David Doherty, 19. Robby Moses, 20. Gavin Landers, 21. Tom Maddox, 22. Jason Hiett, 23. Tony Morris
