Posted by Langley Austin on November 4, 2007, 1:35 pm
Board Administrator

Asheboro, NC ~ When was the last time you saw a championship decided on the final lap of a race in any division? At Caraway Speedway the UARA-STARS Late Model Stock Car touring series settled their championship in the most bizzare of days on the 4/10 mile speedplant. Ross Furr's day started off in the most unusual of ways, after his team massaged on his car to make it a top five car for qualifying a miscue nearly wiped his chances of winning the championship away. Ryan Salomon was the car just ahead of Furr to go out on the track to take time and as he rounded into turn two for his first and only lap of qualifying, after he was penalized during pre-qualifying inspection, he spun his car out and gently brushed the wall and at the same time Furr was sent out on the track for his qualifying run. As Furr headed out he saw the spun car of Salomon up against the wall and slowed down allowing Salomon to get his car turned around and headed for pit road. As Salomon headed down the pit access road in turns three and four Furr began to get up to speed to take his qualifying run, unfortunately Salomon was just turning around to make his second lap of qualifying not remembering his penalty and not knowing Furr was getting up to speed. The two cars made contact, tearing the right side of Furr's car completely off and leaving both drivers very upset. As Furr exited his car he ran over to the window of Salomon's car and show his displeasure as he took a swing at Salomon, who still had his helmet on. The two were then seperated, but as Salomon exited his car he was furious running down the track after Furr. Salomon was grabbed and held by an official and the two remained seperated while the crews and family members swapped some heated words. Many believed that this crash could have been avoided had the UARA officials not decided to take the radio's from the competitors for qualifying in an effort to stop the use of traction control. The officials thought that the system was in some way run off the radio communications system. The move proved to be a bad decision and will likely not be tried again. Also several competitors have raised the question as to whether the officials are sending the cars out on the track too quickly, but that's another story for another day. Eventually everyone was seperated and the crew of Furr's #25 car was able to get to the task at hand, first finding an official to see what would be allowed and what they needed to do and then they thrashed on the car to get it ready to go out and make a qualifying run. Furr's crew did a great job and the car despite still having some issues qualified 18th, but the championship thoughts seemed still to be dashed as point leader, Mark Setzer qualified on the outside pole and gained three points by his qualifying effort in a point battle that was already only seperated by 12 points between he and Furr. As race time rolled around Furr knew that under the UARA points system all he needed to do was pass ten cars to gain ten points back as the series offers passing points for up to ten cars and Setzer knew all he needed to do was ride up front, lead a lap and things should take care of themselves. Unfortunately for Setzer his championship chase was going for a spin as well. As the race started a pile up happened on the front straightaway of some of the cars in the back of the 29 car pack and as this happened the leaders were racing into turn one and soon Setzer found himself nose first up against the outside wall as he and pole sitter, BJ Mackey made contact. Setzer was relegated to the rear of the field for the restart a couple positions behind Furr. Unfortunately for Setzer passing points only are awarded based off where you start the race, so while he and Furr made their way through the field, Furr was earning points and the gap between the two was shrinking. Taken out in the first crash of the night on the start of the race was Salomon, who was involved in the incident with Furr earlier in the day as well as Bobby Measmer. Corey Lajoie, son of NASCAR Busch Series champion, Randy Lajoie, was making his first start also recieved damage in this wreck as well as 14 year-old rookie phenom, Darrell Wallace, Jr., Claude Kelly and Clay Greenfield among others. Once the race resumed Furr and Setzer began to make their way up through the field seeming to be glued to one another. Caraway Speedway local, Travis Swaim and former UARA champion Jason York were the big movers in the early stages of the race, but the two would both find trouble as they chased down Mackey for the lead. First Swaim and York got together resulting in Swaim's day coming to an end and then York was taken out by Lee Tissot, who was racing with Shane Bradford as both were a lap down. The caution flag flew over the field often and by just after the halfway point the 29 car field was widdled down to just 19 cars still left running. 2007 Melling Select Rookie of the Year winner, Matt DiBenedetto, who had a typically quiet but front running day got aggresive late in the running of the race first banging fenders with Caraway Speedway ace, Stephen Grimes for second position and then getting along Mackey for the lead late in the going when Mackey slipped up on a restart. DiBenedetto was the only driver to make a challenge on Mackey for the lead all race long, but DiBenedetto was happy to settle for second in the end. A caution with just under ten laps to go set up a six lap dash to the finish, but shortly after the restart as Furr was pushing for every position to get out and away from Setzer, who had roughed him up once earlier in the race, Furr got into the back of Todd Goble, who was having a wild night running up in the top five. Goble went for a spin as Furr and Setzer took evasive action to miss his car. For Goble it was a fitting end to a good, but wild day that started off with him having the fastest car in the final practice, qualifying seventh and then beating and bumping around and even riding down the front straightaway on top of the lapped car of Paddy Rodenbeck, who was involved in nearly half of the cautions that waved during the day. The final restart would come with two laps remaining and the UARA rules state that there will only be one attempt at a green, white, checkered finish. On the restart Furr tried again to get away from Setzer, who was glued to his bumper and as the pair raced into turn one they both got sideways as the leaders ran in a tight pack down the back straightaway. It looked as if Furr was going to finish just one spot ahead of Setzer and due to bonus points the UARA would have to take extra time to make sure they declared the correct champion, but all that was wiped away as the cars of Roger Lee Newton and Jake Crum got together ahead of Furr and Setzer. Crum crashed as the cars scattered all over the track and then Setzer took a wild ride as he got into the mess as Furr took to the bottom of the track and steered clear of the crash taking home the decisive championship win as he come fifth and Setzer was credited with a 16th place finish. As Mackey came back to the caution flag, the race was over and he would win the Marlowe Racing Chassis 150 behind the wheel of a Ransone Racing car that was built by Marlowe Racing Chassis. For Marlowe it was a one, two sweep as DiBenedetto finished second in another one of his cars. Newton was credited with third as he slipped through the wreckage with Matt McCall in the Pig Rig Ford car getting by Crum's wrecked car and finishing fourth. Furr was credited with fifth with Zeke Shell having one of his best finishes of the season in sixth, Daniel Pope II survived to finish seventh, Lucas Ransone rebounded to finish eighth and Rodenbeck managed to finish ninth despite being involved in over half the cautions that waved over the field in the 150-lap race as Greenfield came back from the first lap crash to round out the top ten. Grimes slipped through the field after he and DiBenedetto swapped paint for second and finished eleventh just ahead of Goble, Matthew Godley, Toby Parese, Crum and Setzer. Shane Bradford finished six laps down in 17th and was the last car to finish the race still on the track. Mikey Kile, who had a great run going after qualifying in the top ten crashed late and ended up 18th with Mike Swaim, Jr. 19th and York credited with 20th after his crash with a lapped car. Rounding out the 29 car finish order was Tissot, Swaim, Wallace, RA Brown, Lajoie, Brent Raymer, Kelly, Salomon, Measmer. Following the race things got out of hand for the second time as crew members from Newton and Crum's team had some heated words on the track during the post race celebration. The UARA officials seperated the two teams and no other incidents took place after a wild night that saw Mackey celebrate his third win of the season and his first behind the wheel of a Larry Ransone owned car after the team he competed with all season folded several weeks ago and Furr celebrated his first championship just two weeks after celebrating his first career win. Look for continuing coverage of the UARA championship and the wild happenings of the race day that was on RACE22.com all week including audio from the champion, the race winner and the rookie of the year as well as more details on the radio issues in qualifying and the heated words after the race.