Buckingham led all the way to collect the $3500 first prize
The Southern Nationals mini-series made its way to the hills of western North Carolina at the Tri-County Race Track for the third of its ten races. At the end of the night, it was Shanon Buckingham who earned his first ever win in the series and collected the $3500 first prize.
Casey Roberts began the night by setting fast time in Group A qualifying and overall when he posted a lap of 12.823 seconds around the quarter-mile facility. He was followed by Kenny Collins, Devin Gilpin, Ivedent Lloyd, Jr. and Chris Brown.
Due to a rain delay from earlier in the evening, there was no dash race for the top-4 qualifiers. Instead, the top-5 from each group were locked into the feature.
Buckingham was fastest in Group B time-trials when he turned a lap in 12.880 seconds. Also locked into the main event from this group were Ricky Weiss, Donald McIntosh, Josh Putnam and John Ownbey.
Shawn Chastain and Robby Moses won the two heat races used to set the remainder of the starting lineup.
At the start of the 35-lap feature, Buckingham used his outside front row starting spot to grab the early lead with Roberts, Weiss, Collins and McIntosh following closely behind. Soon, however, traffic began to play a factor on the tight track as the lead cars caught the tail of the field on the fourth circuit. At that time, the top-3 of Buckingham, Roberts and Weiss roared around the oval in tight formation with the hard racing trio of Collins, McIntosh and Gilpin following by just a few car lengths.
Gilpin managed to wrest the fifth position away from McIntosh on lap 7 while Weiss moved in to challenge Roberts for the runner-up spot just two laps later.
The first of three yellow flags waved on lap 9 when Bobby Painted spun in turn three. The ensuing restart provided an opportunity Gilpin to grab the fourth position in the running order away from Collins. Three laps later, McIntosh would join that battle and the action was two and three wide on occasion between the three competitors.
During the latter stages of the event, Buckingham and Roberts separated themselves from the pack and looked to settle the issue among themselves. As the leader negotiated slower traffic over the final laps, Roberts closed right to the rear spoiler of Buckinham’s machine. After receiving the white flag, Roberts made an attempt to move under Buckingham as the cars moved through turns one and two for the final. However, that move did not pay off and Buckingham won the race back to the checkered flag.
It was Buckingham’s first Southern Nationals victory. Gilpin left the track as the series points leader as the tour heads to Swainsboro, GA for a race on Friday night.
Feature Finish: 1. Shanon Buckingham, 2. Casey Roberts, 3. Ricky Weiss, 4. Devin Gilpin, 5. Kenny Collins, 6. Ivedent Lloyd, Jr., 7. Donald McIntosh, 8. Josh Putnam, 9. Chris Brown, 10. Robby Moses, 11. Vic Hill, 12. Brett Dixon, 13. Gavin Landers, 14. Stacy Boles, 15. Craig Vosbergen, 16. George Mashburn, 17. David Doherty, 18. David Payne, 19. John Ownbey, 20. Jamie Oliver, 21. Shawn Chastain, 22. Bobby Painter
