LUCAMA, NC – A record crowd came to Southern National Motorsports Park on Saturday night for the heavily anticipated Monster Truck show and the fans were not disappointed.
Monster Truck freestyle competition highlighted the evening’s festivities but was not the only event. Competitive “Chicago style” racing and a wheelie contest were also part of the Monster Truck Show. The Monster Trucks that participated in the event were Red Solo Truck, the Equalizer, Hurricane Force and Storm Damage.
The event lived up to the billing for the thousands of fans who stayed until the conclusion of the event.
In addition to the Monster Truck show, there was plenty of racing action with Legends, Bandoleros and U-CARs in action.
Dillon Spain Wins INEX National Qualifier Feature
Dillon Spain led wire-to-wire to score the win in the US Legends Cars/INEX National Qualifier race. Spain’s victory was redeeming after mechanical problems sidelined him two weeks ago.
“This is a great win,” Spain said in victory lane. “We’ve had a little bit of bad luck here lately but this was a great rebound with so much money on the line. [Michael Torres] was giving me a great run for my money about 10 laps in, then I just kept hitting my marks and staying consistent and I started pulling them again. That was pretty amazing. I just want to thank everybody who helped me out. This money’s going to go a long way with racing this year so hopefully we can extend this win into a few more wins at different tracks.”
With the exception of an early challenge from eventual second place finisher Michael Torres, Spain was virtually unchallenged in the race that was slowed down by only one caution which came on the sixth lap of the 35 lap feature for Brandon Rice. Torres finished in second, a second and a half behind Spain. Will Bristle finished the race in the third position while Mason Diaz and Spencer Saunders rounded out the top-five. Kyle Beattie finished in sixth, Chris Stancil seventh, Billy Hall eighth, Ryan Polenz ninth and Brenton Irving finished 10th in the 19 car field.
Gone Girl
Kailey Murray scored her second consecutive victory in the INEX Bandolero race. Murray led wire-to-wire in the race in a completely dominant performance … the most dominant performance in the Bandolero division all year at Southern National, winning by a margin of 3.647 seconds over Dustin Yeoman.
“At first, Josh [Kossek] tried to run me into the apron but he didn’t do it and we got the lead and won,” Murray said. “The car was really fast. It was really tight though. We had some problems at the beginning of the year but we got it fixed and running well.”
Kade Lambert, Ethan Johnson and Josh Kossek rounded tout the top-five in the 15 lap race.
Toyota Dominance Continues
Travis Miller continued the dominance displayed by Toyota cars in the U-CAR division, scoring the victory over James Stroud, Lee Horner, Joseph Pittman and Lynn Waller. Miller’s luck was aided with a little bit of luck when Waller and Ronnie “Buckshot” Jones wrecked on the 14th lap of the race while battling for the lead.
“I wouldn’t have bet against any of the top five drivers here,” Miller stated. “To walk away with the win, I’ve lost a lot of them due to bad luck so I’ll take this one and take my luck this time and keep my horseshoe from this race. To win in front of this big crowd, I think the U-CARs stole the show.”
Southern National Motorsports Park will return to action on Saturday, August 29th with racing in the Late Model, Charger, Legends, U-CAR and Bandolero divisions as well as the Mid-Atlantic Street Stock Championship Series. Southern National has partnered with the Wounded Warrior Project to honor American service members injured in combat.
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.
