Dustin Mitchell(Photo: @LakeViewDirt on Twitter)
The Ultimate Southeast Series opened its 2021 campaign on Saturday night at the Lake View Motor Speedway. At the end of the evening, it was Dustin Mitchell who would claim the win. The Pine Level, NC driver picked up a winner’s check at the South Carolina track valued at $5,000 for his efforts in a race shown live by Speed51.com.
A total of 17 cars were signed in for competition.
Matthew Nance led the way in qualifying by posting a time of 16.831 seconds around the 4/10 mile clay oval to top Dustin Mitchell, Anthony Sanders, Corey Gordon, Christian Thomas, G.R. Smith, Willie Milliken, Zachary Cox, Chris Blackwell, and Daniel Tucker.
On the initial attempt to start the 50-lap feature the pole sitting car of Nance spun in turn one and collected the car of Christian Thomas. Because it was a multi-car incident, everyone returned to their original starting position.
Once the race officially got underway, Mitchell sped to the early lead with Nance, Gordon, Sanders and Smith trailing. Gordon moved by Nance to claim second while Thomas took fifth away from Smith one lap later.
A caution for the slowing car of Will Harris slowed the action on lap 5 with Mitchell still leading ahead of Gordon and Nance.
On the lap 5 restart, Nance took second away from Gordon as Thomas also rose by grabbing fourth. But the story up front was that of Mitchell and Nance pulling away from the rest of the pack for the next several laps.
However, when slower traffic came into play, Gordon pulled in on the lead duo to make it a three-car fight at the front of the field. On lap 23, Gordon wrested the runner-up spot away from Nance as those two machines worked through slower traffic.
At the halfway mark, Nance made a bold move on Gordon in an attempt to regain second. But the move went awry as Nance tagged the left rear of Gordon’s car and the two went spinning. Gordon immediately retired from the race while Nance continued from the rear of the field.
Sanders and Thomas were lifted to second and third behind Mitchell following the incident.
The final caution flag waved on lap 27 when Nance slowed and dropped from the race. On that restart, Smith jumped to second and took up the pursuit of Mitchell.
Over the remaining laps, Smith closed in on Mitchell but was never able to make a move for the lead. Mitchell would not be denied as he sailed under the checkered flag to earn his fourth career Ultimate Series victory.
Feature Finish: 1. Dustin Mitchell, 2. Jeff Smith, 3. Anthony Sanders, 4. Christian Thomas, 5. Daniel Tucker, 6. G.R. Smith, 7. Chris Blackwell, 8. Cla Knight, 9. Dennis Franklin, 10. Willie Milliken, 11. Zachary Cox, 12. Adam Yarborough, 13. Matthew Nance, 14. Doug Sanders, 15. Will Harris, 16. Corey Gordon, 17. Brian Ledbetter
