Shane Clanton earned the win at Tri-County
After being shut down much like the rest of the world for the past several weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic, Dirt Late Model racing return to action on Thursday night with a special event aired by DirtonDirt.com. Ray Cook’s Tri-County Race Track in Brasstown, NC was the scene of the Schaeffer’s Oil Tarheel Invitational special event held in front of an empty grandstand. Shane Clanton ultimately came away with the $4,000 victory by beating out a solid field of competitors.
Kyle Hardy led the way in qualifying by posting a lap of 12.369 seconds around the quarter-mile clay oval. That time beat out the efforts of David Payne, Shane Clanton, Cody King, Michael Chilton and Donald McIntosh.
Shane Clanton won the Dash Race that would determine the first three rows on the starting grid for the feature. Donald McIntosh, Michael Chilton, Cody King, Kyle Hardy and David Payne would lineup in that order for the main event.
The top-4 starters were offered the opportunity to start the race from the tail of the field with a chance to win thousands of bonus dollars if they could win the feature from there. Ultimately, only Chilton would accept the challenge and drop to the rear of the field for the start.
Hudson O’Neal topped Casey Roberts, Ashton Winger and Shawn Chastain in the first heat race of the night.
Shanon Buckingham won the second heat of the night ahead of Tyler Erb, Kenny Collins and Brandon Overton.
Clanton shot to the early lead at the start of the 40-lap feature with McIntosh, King, O’Neal and Hardy trailing in his wake. Clanton set about pulling away from his pursuers by building a lead of a straightaway by the end of the third circuit.
The lead car found himself battling slower traffic by lap 8 while McIntosh, King and O’Neal ran in tight formation in positions 2-4. On lap 14, O’Neal took third away from King then Hardy grabbed the fourth spot shortly thereafter.
Just before the halfway mark McIntosh, O’Neal and Hardy closed in on the Clanton. However, a caution would slow the action on lap 23.
McIntosh continued to apply pressure to the leader when the race returned to green flag action. On lap 30, McIntosh used a slide job in turn 4 to briefly take the lead until Clanton applied a crossover to retake the top spot.
McIntosh would take the lead on lap 32. But a yellow flag would wave before the lap was completed for an incident involving top-5 runners O’Neal and Hardy. The caution placed Clanton back at the front of the field for the restart in front of McIntosh and Payne.
Following the restart, Clanton crept out to a lead of two or three car lengths over a fierce battle between McIntosh and Payne for the runner-up positions. In the end it was the Georgia native who would sail under the checkered flag to score the victory.
Feature Finish: 1. Shane Clanton, 2. Donald McIntosh, 3. David Payne, 4. Casey Roberts, 5. Brandon Overton, 6. Tyler Erb, 7. Kenny Collins, 8. Shanon Buckingham, 9. Michael Chilton, 10. Ashton Winger, 11. Tyler Millwood, 12. Cody King, 13. Pearson Lee Williams, 14. Hudson O’Neal, 15. Kyle Hardy, 16. Jamie Oliver, 17. Joe Denby, 18. Shawn Chastain, 19. Cla Knight, 20. Jadon Frame
