Fogleman Takes Wild PASS South Win at Home Track in Orange Blossom Special
ROUGEMONT, NC — Pro All Stars Series (PASS) South Super Late Model points leader Jay Fogleman took one step closer to the championship by winning a wild 8th Annual Orange Blossom Special at Orange County Speedway Saturday night. The win was Fogleman’s 9th career PASS South Super Late Model win, but his first at Orange County Speedway, the track he began his racing career at over 30 years ago.
“The pace was all over the place tonight, it was real hard to back up and ride because everybody was going so hard around us,” said Fogleman in victory lane. “Just glad to get a win here for all the people that have supported us over the years at this place. It’s really nice to finally win one here, we’ve lost a couple.”
Throughout the afternoon, eyes were focused on the heavy overcast skies above Orange County Speedway as there was some doubt if the race would even get started. But, after a very slight delay which saw practice start about 10 minutes late, focus quickly shifted to qualifying and race preparation. In qualifying, John Hunter Nemecheck sped to his first career PASS South quick time with a lap of 97.157 miles per hour. After the customary top 10 qualifiers redraw, Nemechek would slide back to the fifth starting position while Jody Measamer and Derek Ramstrom moved to the front row for the start. However, Ramstrom and seventh place starter Daniel Hemric would have problems on the pace laps and neither driver would be able to make a single lap in the 150 lap feature.
At the drop of the green flag, Measamer sped out into the lead, but would be overtaken by Nemechek on lap 9. Nemecheck and defending PASS South champion Kyle Grissom entertained the crowd by swapping the lead at least four times over the next 20 laps. The first major incident of the night occurred on lap 40 when Brandon Ward was turned head on into the front stretch wall after contact with Randy Gentry. Tempers flared and Gentry was parked for the night by PASS officials for rough driving.
On the ensuing restart, race leader Grissom was slow to come up to speed and dropped back to 7th. In the chaos, Preston Peltier, driving the Hamke Racing house car, spun in front of the field exiting turn four after contact from Measamer while racing for third. Ryan Moore and Jared Irvan collided in the melee and stopped on track to bring out the fifth caution of the race.
Grissom and Nemecheck continued to be the class of the field through the first two-thirds of the race, but were joined in a furious battle for the lead with less than 50 laps to go by Tyler Church, Fogleman, Peltier, and Measamer. On lap 104, Peltier moved by Fogleman for fourth, but contact between the two in turn two sent Peltier spinning for the second time in the race. Peltier again did a complete 360 degree spin and kept going without bringing out the caution.
With 24 laps to go, Nemechek bobbled off of turn two while challenging Grissom for the lead and fell back to fourth. But, on the next lap, Nemechek and Fogleman would make slight contact again in turn two, this time resulting in Nemechek hitting the outside wall, ending his night and bringing out the race’s ninth caution.
Following the next restart, Church got into the back of the race leader Grissom entering turn three sending Grissom’s machine into the outside wall. Church was sent to the back of the field for rough driving by PASS officials, while Grissom went behind the wall seriously impacting his bid for a second straight PASS South championship.
Fogleman got the better of Measamer on the final restart of the race and led the final 22 laps for his second PASS South Super Late Model win of 2013. Peltier and Church rebounded to finish second and third respectively in front of John Batten and Measamer. Rounding out the top ten were Russell Fleeman, Trevor Noles, Irvan, Roger Lee Newton, and Cole Timm.
In the PASS Pro Late Model division, Trevor Noles passed Jeff Batten on lap 10 and led the rest of the way for his seventh win of the season. Kodie Conner finished second, in front of fast qualifier Erik Nash, Batten, and Fryar.
Zane Smith took the win in the 25 lap Legends feature.
The PASS South Super Late Models will be in action again on Saturday, November 9th at Caraway Speedway as part of the 11th Annual North-South Shootout.
UNOFFICIAL PASS SOUTH SLM RESULTS 150 Laps – ORANGE COUNTY – 10/19/13
1) 4 – Jay Fogleman – 150 Laps
2) 17 – Preston Peltier – 150
3) 7 -Tyler Church – 150
4) 48 – John Batten -150
5) 98 – Jody Measamer – 150
6) 198 – Russell Fleeman – 150
7) 2 – Trevor Noles – 150
8) 28 – Jared Irvan – 150
9) 33 – Roger Lee Newton – 150
10) 57 – Cole Timm – 150
11) 30 – Rodney Brooks – 147
12) 40 – Ryan Krachun -147
13) 8 – Joseph Mursuli -141
14) 22 – Tyler Audie – 129
15) 31 – Kyle Grissom – 127
16) 8n – John Hunter Nemechek – 125
17) 129 – Spencer Davis – 123
18) 15 – Tanner Rumburg – 116
19) 5 – Wes Burton – 80
20) 12 – Mark Reedy – 75
21) Q104 – Kevin Powell – 48
22) 74 – Ryan Moore – 48
23) 62 – Brandon Ward – 39
24) 13 – Joe Ryan Osborn – 28
25) 50 – Karl Webber – 25
26) 8f – Tate Fogleman – 6
27) 35 – Derek Ramstrom – DNS
28) 98h – Daniel Hemric – DNS
DQ – 09 – Randy Gentry
UNOFFICIAL PASS SOUTH PLM RESULTS
50 Laps – ORANGE COUNTY – 10/19/13
1) 16 – Trevor Noles
2) 45 – Kodie Conner
3) 1x – Erik Nash
4) 49 – Jeff Batten
5) 5 – Jared Fryar
6) 7 – Matt Murphy
7) 14 – Austin Reed
8) 18 – Kiel Spaulding
9) 21 – Collin Vernal
10) 71 – Nick Robinson
11) 6 – Evan Horne
12) 87 – Ben Petersen
Sources: PASS South PR