LUCAMA, NC – Jeff Batten is hoping to pick up his first career Super Late Model win when the Pro All Stars Series (PASS) heads to his home track, Southern National Motorsports Park, on Saturday night.
Batten, 31, from Nashville, North Carolina, has logged countless laps throughout his career at Southern National Motorsports Park in Lucama, North Carolina. It’s a track he’s comfortable racing at and a track that gives him confidence as he chases his first career victory.
“If we can get the car pretty comfortable, I’m pretty confident there,” Batten said. “Since I destroyed that car back in March, we’ve put this back together. We can’t get the balance right, we can’t figure out what’s going on with the balance. Everything’s back the way we had it but it’s not comfortable. We changed a bunch of things. Hopefully we can get it back the way we had it back in March.”
Batten had a fast car in the PASS race at Southern National in March. After qualifying third, he had been riding around in the top-five for much of the race until a brake issue soured what would have been a career best effort.
“Back in March, we were riding around when we had a brake issue,” Batten remarked. “We came in and figured out what was going on, came back out and got chopped off by a lapped car and we ran up in the wall and destroyed me.”
Batten started out his racing career in 2012 in Pro Late Models. When he competed in the PASS Pro Late Model division, he had success, scoring 15 top-five finishes in 25 starts – although, no wins. Since making the jump to Super Late Models, Batten has yet to channel that kind of success. Batten has only two top-10 finishes in 21 career starts in the PASS Super Late Model Tour, and three top-10 finishes in 12 starts in the CARS Tour.
The goal for Batten is to get a win in a Super Late Model.
“Just to get a win period would be pretty awesome,” Batten explained. “We’ve been close in Pro Late Models, I gave a few away being inexperienced and not knowing what to do. Everyone sees I’m 31 and think I’ve been racing forever and I’ve only been racing for five or six years. It would be awesome to get a win. It’s not your everyday shows in Super Late Models. The caliber of competition, they’re the top of the top when it comes to short track racing.”
Batten, who is an EMT intermediate during the week, grew up on the racing scene. His father, Bobby, and uncle, John, both raced. His stepdad, Roger Matthews, got much of his family into racing. His uncles, John and James, race on dirt and his cousin, Michael also races on dirt.
“It’s a family thing,” Batten said.
Along with this weekend’s PASS Southern National 150, Batten will also compete in the Fast Five Pro Late Model race at Southern National Motorsports Park on Saturday, August 19th. Batten was going to compete in a Pro Late Model on July 9th, but the sky opened up just five laps into the race, washing it out.
The PASS Super Late Models will be accompanied by the Mid-Atlantic Street Stock (MASS) Championship Series and the USAC Eastern Midgets on Saturday night, July 29th. For more information about the Pro All Stars Series, visit their website at proallstarsseries.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.