Ross Bailes got the Ultimate win at Cherokee
Ross Bailes is always a tough competitor at Cherokee Speedway and Sunday night proved to be no different. The No. 79 machine completely dominated the Ultimate Southeast Series feature one week after collecting $20,000 for his win in the rain shortened ‘King of the Commonwealth’ at Virginia Motor Speedway.
The Longhorn Chassis driver from Clover, SC scored a $7,500 paycheck in a race held on the 4/10 mile ‘Place You Momma Warned You About’ and shown live by FloRacing.com.
A total of 18 cars were signed in for competition.
Qualifying Results: 1. Trent Ivey(15.117), 2. Ross Bailes, 3. Dennis Franklin, 4. Zack Mitchell, 5. Johnny Pursley, 6. Brent Dixon, 7. Dale Timms, 8. Ben Watkins, 9. Corey Gordon,10. Anthony Sanders, 11. Adam Yarborough, 12. John Henderson, 13. Tim Vance, 14. Bryson Harper, 15. Doug Sanders, 16. Brian Ledbetter, 17. Larry Grube, 18. Nick Hoffman(DQ)
Heat Race Results: There were no heat races.
Feature Re-cap: At the start of the 40-lap feature there was a caution just prior to the completion of the first lap for a multi-car mishap that involved multiple cars. Then a second attempt to get the main event going saw Pursley crash to bring out another yellow flag.
When the race finally got going Bailes grabbed the lead with Franklin, Ivey, Dixon and Timms trailing. Dixon then moved around Ivey for third on the second circuit. At that point, though, the top-2 of Bailes and Franklin began to separate.
By lap 10, Bailes then began to dominate as he increased his lead over Franklin, Dixon and Ivey. However, Ivey took third away from Dixon on lap 14. Two laps later, Bailes had already built his lead to five seconds while Franklin and Ivey battled for second.
Ivey got by Franklin to claim the runner-up position on lap 23. By this time, Bailes had disappeared by almost half the distance of the track but Ivey began ripping off the fastest laps of the night. The No. 88 car closed the distance to just over two seconds.
A lap 31 caution for a spin by Doug Sanders set up a last dash for the finish. Mitchell moved to second on the restart but Bailes set sail over the final nine laps to claim the lead and ultimately the victory.
“I think we’re really starting to hit our stride here,” Bailes said in his victory lane interview. “The car was really good tonight. Logan, my guy who was spotting for me, was telling me I had a big lead, but really I was slowing down. I guess I was going faster as I was slowing down. This place has been really good to me but I’ve had my ups and downs but we’ll just keep digging and hopefully knock off some more wins.”
Feature Finish: 1. Ross Bailes, 2. Zack Mitchell, 3. Trent Ivey, 4. Dennis Franklin, 5. Brent Dixon, 6. Dale Timms, 7. Anthony Sanders, 8. Corey Gordon, 9. Nick Hoffman, 10. Adam Yarborough, 11. Tim Vance, 12. Bryson Harper, 13. Doug Sanders, 14. Larry Grube, 15. Brian Ledbetter, 16. John Henderson, 17. Johnny Pursley, 18. Ben Watkins
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