Big T's

Big T's

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Needmore Brings The Heat


      Needmore Speedway hosted their sixth race of the season on July 28th and the temperature wasn't the only thing that was hot. The racing proved to be parallel to the south Georgia summer heat.
The night started out with the Superstreet division and had the 22 of Terry Redding on the pole with the 169 of "The Dominator" Michael Ford on the outside. Redding kept the lead for a few laps until Michael Ford lived up to his nickname and went to the inside of the 22 and took over the top spot. Ford was then followed by the 69 car driven by Jimmy Sloan. The first caution was brought out when the 3 of Gary Shaw and the 17 of Ty Moore got together in turn 4 and both spun out. Michael Ford kept his top spot all the way to the end of the race with Sloan, Redding, and the 229 of Chris Cunningham following behind. The fifth place spot was a fight between John McBrayer in the 00 and Tim Vaughn in the 4 with McBrayer winning the spot.
    The late model race had the 11 of Stacey Roberts on the pole and the 33 of Gene Ross in the second spot. On the first lap a caution was brought out due to a multi car spin out. The next caution was brought out when on a restart the 22 of Lavon Sloan and the 16 of Josh Southerland got tangled taking with them the 0 Russell Brown Jr., 21 Tom Jones, and 37 of Gary Palmer with Sloan ending up on the hood of Russell Brown Jr. After multiple restarts due to cars jumping the restart the second row of #111 Steven Roberts and the 8 of Lee Newsome were brought to the front row. Steven Roberts took off with the lead and created a battle for the second spot between Newsome and the 16 of Josh Southerland and had Newsome keep the spot. Past winner, Gene Ross came up past Southerland to end up racing Newsome for the second spot and taking it for himself. Lavon Sloan in the 22 took the fourth spot and Josh Southerland ended up in the fifth spot.
    Needmore's Hobby series has been one of the most exciting races of the night week in and week out. It has not left the fans disappointed yet. Ronnie Newsome in the 8R car started on the pole with the 72 of Lee Wilkerson on the outside pole. The first caution of the night was for a wreck involving the 37 of Josh Guthrie when he shot to the inside of the 7 car driven by Leon Childs and saw the two connect with Guthrie on the losing end. Childs ended up battling for the second spot against Wilkerson and overtaking it. Ronnie Newsome was a force to be reckoned with by showing his strength and driving skills and taking the lead from start to finish. In the end Childs was close but Newsome's power kept Child's at bay. The 4th and 5th places were taken by Bradley Frakes in the 51 car and Randy Merwin in the 97 car.
    Limited late models were in full force with Russell Brown Jr. in the 22 car and Cole Exum in the 26 car starting the front row. As soon as the green flag dropped Exum took control of the race and kept the lead from start to finish showing his skill at the track. Billy Nipper in the 99 and the 14 of Johnny Tawzer kept fans on their feet with their constant battle for most of the night. Russell Brown Jr. kept a hold on the third spot followed by the 01 of Gene Maine. On the last lap Jimmy Sloan Jr. got high and lost his fourth place spot to Nipper and had Tawzer slide under him also to take fifth place.
    Enduro was representative of the heat with some fiery racing and tempers. Ryan Hembree in the 07 and Wesley Horne in the E5 started the race in the front. The first lap had cars swinging high, all the way up to the wall and creating three wide racing. Ryan Hembree took out to the front and Wesley Horne had to battle out for the second spot with Cameron Connell in the 4 car with Horne keeping his position. The 31 car of Daniel Thompson came up to take the fourth place spot after a caution which he kept until a collision with another car on the track caused him to lose his spot. Connell kept his third place spot til the end and was followed by Nathan Sowell in the 2 car and Nick Kennedy in the 18 car. Needmore will have two new series coming in to race at the track. One will be the Outlaw Superstreets and the other will be the Late Model O.S. series. The O.S. stands for "old school" and is the first like it anywhere. If any drivers in the Outlaw Superstreet series can win and beat a Needmore Superstreet driver they will win an extra $200. The next race for Needmore will be on August 11th. Track information can be found by calling 229-769-3355.