Randy Weaver scored his second Ultimate SLM Series win in as many nights at North Georgia.
The Ultimate Super Late Model Series followed up its Friday night show at the Smoky Mountain Speedway with a $4,000-to-win affair at the North Georgia Speedway in Chatsworth on Saturday night. And just like the night before, it was Randy Weaver who turned in a dominating flag-to-flag performance to claim the feature victory.
Just as had been the case the previous night, Weaver was fast right out of the box. The Crossville driver bested the field of 23 cars to earn the pole for the feature when he posted a lap of 13.175 seconds around the tight, high-banked layout. Joining Weaver in being locked into the main event via time-trials was Dennis Franklin, Riley Hickman, Johnny Chastain, Shawn Chastain, Jeff Smith, Aaron Ridley, Derek Ellis, Tom Maddox and Preston Graves.
Jamie Oliver beat out Ray Cook and David Payne in the sole B-main race used to set the remainder of the starting grid.
At the start of the feature, Weaver shot to the lead and immediately built a comfortable margin. Behind him, Hickman seized the 2nd spot away from Franklin on the second circuit while some intense two and three wide action took place further back.
The race ran caution free for the first 27 laps, which meant that the leaders would find themselves battling slower traffic for much of the night. The ever patient Weaver was able to cleanly pick his way through those machines he was putting down a lap while still able to maintain his advantage over the pursuing Hickman.
Further back in the pack, 12th starting Ray Cook began to move forward by running a higher line around the track than virtually all other competitors. By the time of that lap 27 caution, the ‘Tarheel Tiger’ had made his way to 7th. But it was at that point where the North Carolinian was about to make his strongest charge.
Once the race resumed under the green flag, Weaver again surged ahead with Hickman keeping him just within his sights. Cook took to the high side and began to pick off the opposition one by one as the crowd focused on his surge.
Two more cautions, both for cars stalled on track, would slow the action briefly. After the final restart, Weaver drove away from the pack. The only question that remained was how far up the leaderboard Cook would go. He eventually made it to 3rd place when he got around Maddox, but a last lap bobble forced him to surrender that position.
At the finish it was Randy Weaver, Riley Hickman, Tom Maddox, Ray Cook, Jeff Smith, Dennis Franklin, Derek Ellis and Aaron Ridley.
