Randy Weaver was dominant on Friday night at Smoky Mountain.
Sometimes things just fall perfectly into place for a driver and his team on a given night. That was the case for Randy Weaver in the Ultimate Super Late Model Series race on Friday night at the Smoky Mountain Speedway. The Crossvile, Tenn. racer led all 50 laps of the event on his way to a $5,000 payday.
Weaver began his night of complete domination early on when he set fast time in qualifying with a lap of 15.881 seconds around the 4/10 mile clay oval. That time was over a half-second faster than second fastest Jason Welshan. Joining those two drivers in the top-10 and earning locked in feature starting spots were Vic Hill, Dennis Franklin, Chris Ferguson, Casey Roberts, Kennie Compton, Billy Ogle, Jr., Chad Ogle and Cory Hedgecock.
The two B-main races were won by Skip Arp and Tommy Kerr.
From the very drop of the green flag, it became obvious who the car to beat would be. Weaver bolted to the early lead. However, that lead would never be long lived as the race was interrupted eight times for caution flags.
Perhaps the most serious and impactful yellow flag came on a lap 8 restart when 3rd and 4th running Hill and Roberts got together coming off of turn four. They both continued on, but the chain reaction that followed set off a multiple car incident resulting from the contact between those two front runners. Chris Ferguson’s night would end at that time as he suffered from a broken drive shaft while Chad Ogle, Aaron Ridley, Tommy Kerr and David Payne experienced varying degrees of damage.
Anytime the race was under green, Weaver was out front, and often by a comfortable margin. Meanwhile, there was some intense battling just behind the leader. Casey Roberts began to rumble through the pack as he picked of cars at a steady rate, at one time going three wide to get around Franklin and Ferguson. Also, Skip Arp found a groove around the high side of the track that allowed him to work his way up as far as 3rd at one point.
Randy Weaver and Jason Welshan go side-by-side in the early going at SMS.
At the halfway mark, Weaver led easily ahead of Welshan, Hill, Roberts, Franklin and Arp. But Welshan’s first outing in the Warrior house car came to a premature end when he pulled off track on lap 37 with mechanical issues.
From the lap 37 restart, the race ran without incident and Randy Weaver cruised a big win over Casey Roberts, Vic Hill, Billy Ogle, Dennis Franklin and Tommy Kerr.
The Ultimate Super Late Model Series moves on to the North Georgia Speedway a Saturday night show. Look for live updates from that event on this website.
Randy Weaver and crew celebrate in the SMS victory lane.
