Posted by Corey Latham on September 24, 2007, 2:05 pm
Board Administrator

By: Corey Latham/Contributor to RACE22.com Altamahaw, NC ~ As Friday night loomed at Ace Speedway, all the attention was not on the close battle for the LMSC track championship, but the arrival of reigning NASCAR National Champion Phillip Morris and his army of cars that came with him. As it was posted on various websites and thru word of mouth, Ace was going to have one of the biggest car counts in the history of the track for it's late-model division because Morris is in the thick of the National points battle, and car count plays a big part in the points. The fans were excited and the grandstands were packed, I was excited also. Well the car count was great but the only excitement was put on by the Ace regulars. In qualifying, Gary Causey from Snow Camp set fast time in Mike Bledsoe's car. Bledsoe had to attend his son's football game and asked Causey to drive it for him. After only having practice time in the car that day, Causey put it at the top of the leaderboard of the 17 cars that attempted qualifying. He was followed by Ace regulars Dean Fogleman, Scotty Warren, Rodney Cook and Morris rounding out the top 5. Going into the first race of the twin 50's scheduled, Cook was leading the track points by a scant 16 point margin over second place Warren. 3rd place Todd Massey was at the track but did not race, saving his car for the Martinsville race this coming weekend. Before the race Cook said the thing that worried him the most was that all the cars that came for Morris could get in his way and affect his championship hopes. Well as it turns out it was one of his fellow racers he races against every week that would effect his night. Ace speedway is one of the few tracks that runs "hot laps" to get the cars tires up to temperature. Only 17 cars took qualifying runs, but when the cars lined up on the track, there was a hefty field of 24. With so many cars on the track at once, and the back of the pack not wanting to get up to speed, the leaders "hot laps' were pretty much worthless. At the wave of the green flag the #71 of Fogleman spun his cold tires and Cook and the rest of the field piled in behind him. When it was all said and done, the cars of Fogleman, Cook, Kenny Bradley, Dennis Holdren and Scott Andrews Jr never made it past the flagstand. All cars pulled away with minor damage with the exception of Cook and Fogleman, with Fogleman taking damage to all for corners of the car and pulling into the pits for repairs. Cook pitted and ripped away the loose sheet metal and joined the rear of the field before the restart. As the race restarted, the #97 of Jesse Ingle III started to show his muscle as he blew past the #26 of Morris for 3rd on lap 4. Rodney Cook, who had started at the rear of the field, began driving with a mission as he moved his way to 7th by lap 11. By lap 15, of the 24 cars that started, only 13 were left on the racetrack as they all parked for the fear they might tear them up and not be able to help Morris with the all important car count for the next race. As the race went on, the car of Ingle was clearly the car to beat on this night. By lap 20 Ingle had caught and passed Warren for second. Setting his sights on Causey for the lead, he made quick work of it and ran him down and passed him on lap 29 and began to set sail. While Ingle was cruising, Cook had to drive his battered #1 as hard as possible to keep his title hopes alive. He moved by the #18 of Andrews for 5th on lap 31 after coming from the back and would finish there, keeping his points lead over 3rd place finishing Warren at 12. Morris needed a win tonight to keep his own title hopes alive, but in the first race could muster no better than 4th as the cars of Ingle,Causey and Warren had pulled a whole straitaway on him as the checkered flag waved. 50 lapper #2 Wtih an inversion of the cars from the first race, the pole sitter was the #17 of Dustin Rumley, followed by #18 Andrews, #1 Cook, #26 Morris and the #92 of Warren rounding out the top 5. 23 of the 24 cars that started the first race were on track for race #2. As the field set sail, coming off turn 2 the car of Andrews seemed to have problem and bunched up the field. Morris went low to get by but a car was under him and he was sent into the outside wall causing moderate front end damage. Morris pitted to make repairs but made it out before the green and joined the race at the end of the field. After only one lap the #93 of ronnie Crabb was sent into the backstrech wall, but not before Causey had gotten by Rumley for the lead. On lap 4 the #92 of Warren goes around in turn 4, not causing any damage to his car, but severely damaging his championship hopes. After the restart, Cook was on the move passing Rumley and Causey for the lead, bringing Ingle with him. Morris, who had started shotgun on the field, moved into 5th place by lap 20 with the help of only 13 of the 24 starters being on the track. As lap 18 came, the #97 of Ingle showed why he won the first race as he passed Cook for the lead and again began to run away. The cars seemed to space themselves out after that, with Warren making the only charge and finishing 5th, behind race winner Ingle, Cook, Causey and Morris once again finishing 4th. Congratulations to Jesse Ingle on sweeping the races and to Rodney Cook on a hard earned championship. As i've been all my life, I am just a fan at the racetrack wanting to see good racing. The fans in the stands were also pumped about the big 24 car field but were disappointed when after 15 laps 12 cars had pulled into the pits because they had no intentions on coming there to race. This was no fault of anyone, I knew it was going to happen, it is just the way the NASCAR points sytem is structured and it's what you have to do sometimes. Phillip Morris is the reigning National Champion and will go down in history as one of the best ever, he did no wrong, just what he had to do and what the rules allow. I just hope in the future NASCAR fixes this problem, maybe adding more points for race wins or number of cars passed so it doesn't have to come to what happened this weekend. But like I said, i'm just a fan of racing, if it has wheels and goes fast i'll be there and support it with all I have. Let's line em' up again this weekend at Martinsville and get it on. First 50 Lap Late Model Feature 1. Jesse Ingle III 2. Gary Causey 3. Scotty Warren 4. Phillip Morris 5. Rodney Cook 6. Scott Andrews Jr. 7. Dustin Rumley 8. Jason Merriman 9. Jason Payne 10. Don Cook 11. Dennis Holdren 12. Greg Shepperd 13. Kenny Bradley 14. Wade Beavers 15. Andy Favre 16. Dean Fogleman 17. Jerry Gobbey 18. Emory Howard 19. Matt Taylor 20. Ronnie Crabb 21. Dwayne Howard 22. Nathan Buttke 23. Jimmy Mullins 24. Jerry Scott Second 50 Lap Late Model Feature 1. Jesse Ingle III 2. Rodney Cook 3. Gary Causey 4. Phillip Morris 5. Scotty Warren 6. Dean Fogleman 7. Dustin Rumley 8. Jason Merriaman 9. Dennis Holdren 10. Kenny Bradley 11. Greg Shepperd 12. Don Cook 13. Dwayne Howard 14. Jerry Gobbey 15. Nathan Buttke 16. Andy Farve 17. Emory Howard 18. Matt Taylor 19. Wade Beavers 20. Scott Andrews Jr. 21. Jason Payne 22. Ronnie Crabb 23. Jimmy Mullins