LUCAMA, NC – Back in March, Southern National Motorsports Park hosted the inaugural Championship Auto Racing Series (CARS) Tour doubleheader race. Saturday night, the CARS Tour is back for an encore presentation.
The March 28th races were won by Cole Timm (Super Late Model) and Todd Gilliland (Late Model Stock Car). Both drivers, and an all-star cast of racing’s past, present and future, will all congregate once more on the 4/10-mile track in Lucama, North Carolina.
Dave Mader, III was the winner of the 1978 Snowball Derby. The 59-year-old veteran will be making his first ever start in the CARS Tour.
“We haven’t been to one of the races yet,” Mader said. “It’s Super Late Model racing. I don’t know their format but it sounds very exciting and I’m glad to be a part of it and hope that it will work. We used to have the All Pro Series, All American Series and then we had the guys that ran up north. We could run all over the country, so this is so nice that people are trying to come together with a common goal.”
Mader has watched generations change as he has continued to race, but he’s excited to still be a part of the sport.
“I raced with Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Terry Labonte, Buddy Baker,” Mader explained. “It’s very exciting that the new people in racing, it’s a changing of the guard. I can only do this for so long. I’ve had a great career. I don’t know all the new racers but I can’t tell you how excited we are to be here, hope this works and hope we can be a part of helping make it work.”
Mader will be racing against Harrison Burton, son of former NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Jeff Burton, Kyle Busch Motorsports driver Christopher Bell, Steven Wallace, son of 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Champion Rusty Wallace, and a host of others on Saturday night in the Super Late Model race.
Despite being swept up in accidents in the last two CARS Tour Late Model Stock Car races, 15-year-old Todd Gilliland enters Saturday night’s race with confidence. Two weeks ago, he became the youngest winner in ARCA Racing Series history when he scored the victory at the historic Toledo Speedway in Ohio. Gilliland also knows he’s returning to the site of his first career Late Model Stock Car victory.
Gilliland, and the rest of the field, are all trying to cope with Brayton Haws, the winner of the last two Late Model Stock Car races. Haws, who won the 2014 Autumn Classic at Southern National Motorsports Park, prevailed over Justin Crider and Myatt Snider at Orange County Speedway in Rougemont, North Carolina back in April and then backed that up with a victory over Austin McDaniel in an instant classic at Hickory Motor Speedway in Newton, North Carolina.
The Late Model Stock Car races have provided thrilling finishes all season long, between the 20 lap showdown between Haws and McDaniel at Hickory, a side-by-side battle between McDaniel and Snider at Orange County that lasted nearly half the race and the thrilling finish in the season opener at Southern National when Todd Gilliland upset popular veteran and four-time Southern National Motorsports Park track champion Deac McCaskill with a bump and run.
The Super Late Model side has yet to see a repeat winner. Cole Timm won the opener at Southern National, Christopher Bell won at Hickory and William Byron, who will not race in the CARS Tour on Saturday night, scored the win over Chase Elliott, son of 1988 NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion Bill Elliott, at Hickory.
Saturday night’s Don’t Tread on Me 250 presented by Military Missions in Action once again brings “the best of both worlds” to Southern National Motorsports Park and the racing will not disappoint.
The gates for Saturday night’s CARS Tour race open at 4pm, qualifying begins at 4:30pm and the two 125 lap races will go green at 7pm with the Late Model Stock Car division taking center stage first. Adult tickets are $20, kids ages 7-12 are $10 and kids six and under admitted free.
For more information about the CARS Tour, please visit their website at www.carsracingtour.com.
For more information about Southern National Motorsports Park, check out SNMP’s website at www.snmpark.com, “like” Southern National Motorsports Park on Facebook or “follow” @SNM_Park on Twitter.
