LUCAMA, NC – Justin Mitchell outlasted Hunter Brown to score the victory in Charger action at Southern National Motorsports Park while Scotty Benford picked up his first Southern National win in Saturday afternoon’s The Sign Shop 215.
Mitchell started in the second position in the 40 lap Charger race and held steady in the opening laps. After 15 laps, Mitchell made his move on pole-sitter Hunter Brown to take the lead and never looked back from there as he went on to win by over two seconds.
“It’s a good run,” Mitchell said in victory lane after the race. “We’ve had that speed for a long time but had really terrible luck each time so it’s good to finally piece a whole race together and show for it. I’m just happy for the car. Anytime we come here and the car’s in one piece and we don’t have any major issues, I’m happy. We’ve been trying for five years to get this done so it’s nice to see it finally come through.”
Brown settled for second while Wesley Johnson, Davis Renfrow, and Brandon Head rounded out the top-five.
For Johnson, just finishing on the podium in the race was emotional. Earlier in the day, they had honored the memory of Timothy Earl Statmatis, a four year old who passed away from cancer. Statmatis was the grandson of a longtime friend and crew member, Teddy Statmatis.
After multiple seasons of trying, two-time defending Carteret County Speedway champion Scotty Benford finally picked up a Legends win at Southern National Motorsports Park, adding to his growing list of accolades.
The triumph was a hard fought one for Benford.
Benford swapped the lead back-and-forth multiple times with Brody Rhodes, who started the race on the pole. After a late race caution, Benford finally passed and cleared Rhodes with three laps remaining and sailed to victory.
“After that caution, my tires were getting hot and I didn’t know if I could get him,” Benford said. “I could get up to him and he’d lose me. We were just so close and then, after that caution, it saved us and cooled down the tires. At the end, I was able to make a move, nice and clean, and get the win.”
Rhodes finished second while Oliver Missner, Michael Bivens, and Aaron Linsky rounded out the top-five.
Andrew Watson picked up the win in Andy Car competition over Sammy Pacitti, P.J. Flowers, Duane Walker and T.J. Medeiros. After the race, Watson made the near hour-long drive to Wake County Speedway to compete in the division’s race out there, which was run after the Accent Imaging 125 zMAX CARS Tour race. Watson picked up the win at Wake County as well.
Johnny Shonk was victorious in the Virginia Mini Cup race over Tyler Warriner, Noah Matthews, Nate Thomas, and Benjamin Birch.
Southern National Motorsports Park returns to action on Saturday, April 12 with the Dogwood 280 featuring throwback racing action from the Southern Ground Pounders Vintage Racing Club, East Coast Flathead Ford Racing Association. Each of the URA and INEX weekly divisions will also be in action.
Unofficial Results
Charger (35 Laps): 1. 10-Justin Mitchell[3]; 2. 11-Timothy Brown[1]; 3. J12-Wesley Johnson[6]; 4. 14-Davis Renfrow[5]; 5. 16-Brandon Head[2]; 6. 21B-Daniel Benton[4]; 7. 7-Louis White[7]; 8. 02-Jonathan Kluge[9]; 9. 21-Gerald Benton[8]; 10. 41-Austin Ferrell[10]; 11. 61-Michael O’Brien[12]; 12. (DNS) 88-Brian Rundstrom
Legend Car (25 Laps): 1. 51-Scotty Benford[2]; 2. 9-Brody Rhodes[1]; 3. 28-Oliver Missner[4]; 4. 97-Michael Bivens[5]; 5. 2B-Aaron Linsky[3]; 6. 316-Kaedin Ridenhour[6]; 7. G7-Colby Gurganus[9]; 8. 006-Landon Barefoot[7]; 9. 18-Knox Bryant[8]; 10. 35-Daniel Thompson[10]; 11. (DNF) 28M-Aiden McConnaughey[11]
Any Car (20 Laps): 1. 08-Andrew Watson[7]; 2. 43P-Sam Pacitti[4]; 3. 22-PJ Flowers[1]; 4. 17-Duane Walker[2]; 5. 91-Timothy Medeiros[3]; 6. 45-Mike Sliger[6]; 7. 14-Tom Palmer[5]; 8. (DNS) 5-Joe Lazarczyk
Virginia Mini Cup (25 Laps): 1. 34-Johnny Shonk[1]; 2. 11-Noah Matthews[3]; 3. 12-Tyler Warriner[2]; 4. 7-Nate Thomas[4]; 5. 18-Wesley Warriner[10]; 6. 74-Jim Grady JR[6]; 7. 06-Benjamin Burch[5]; 8. 38-Ronnie Schneider[8]; 9. 05-Tyler Thorn[7]; 10. 91-John Alford[9]
