Randy Weaver
*Story compiled from various reports
Randy Weaver has won a lot of races over the course of 2014 and his career, but none of them have paid off like his victory on Saturday night at the Whynot Motorsports Park in Meridian, Miss. The Crossville, Tenn. driver collected $15,000 for his efforts in the two-day unsanctioned event. It was the biggest payday of the veteran driver’s career.
On Friday night, Chris Simpson set fast time in qualifying when he toured the clay oval in 13.430 seconds.
Dane Dacus earned the pole for Saturday’s feature when he won heat race #1 over Chris Simpson and Darrell Lanigan. Weaver secured a front row starting position by winning heat race #2 ahead of Jack Sullivan and Mike Marlar. Bub McCool was the winner of heat #3 over Dennis Erb, Jr. and Morgan Bagley. It was Billy Moyer, Sr. who beat out Jeremy Payne and Brian Rickman to win heat #4. Shane Clanton earned the win in heat #5 ahead of Jamie Tollison and David Breazeale while Jimmy Cliburn outdistanced Chris Wall and Anthony Burroughs in the final preliminary.
Garrett Alberson, Ronny Lee Hollingsworth and Neil Baggett each won the consolation races used to set the remainder of the starting lineup for the main event.
At the start of the 100 lap feature, Weaver used the high groove to immediately bolt into the lead with Dacus, Moyer, McCool and Clanton following close behind. ‘The Dream Weaver’ cleared from the pack early on as battles raged for the other spots within the top-5.
Clanton brought out an early caution when he banged off the turn 4 wall, but the Georgia driver was able to continue racing in the top-5.
Weaver employed a very high line throughout much of the race, which served him well for the most part in negotiating around slower traffic. At the same time, Winfield, Tenn. driver Mike Marlar began to rally from his 14th starting position all the way into the top-5 during the middle stretches of the event.
Just after the halfway mark, Weaver received his most serious threat of the night when Simpson used a lower line around the track to pull alongside the lead car. But the #116 was able to maintain the lead in traffic. Simpson would remain as a constant threat to Weaver throughout the remainder of the race as he constantly applied pressure from the low groove.
With just under 10 laps to go, the lead duo encountered a pivotal moment that would assure the outcome. Weaver came off his high line to lap the car of Chris Wall. The leader was able to get by cleanly, but Simpson and Wall bumped at the exit of turn 2. That proved to be the break Weaver needed to get clear sailing to the checkered flag.
At the finish, it was Randy Weaver, Chris Simpson, Bub McCool, Mike Marlar, Billy Moyer, Dennis Erb, Jr., Dane Dacus, Chris Wall and Jimmy Cliburn.
