John Smith Claims Second Straight SMRS Modified Win at Wake County
RALEIGH, NC (July 2) – John Smith grabbed the lead from Brandon Ward with 29 laps to go and led the rest of the way for his second consecutive Southern Modified Racing Series (SMRS) Presented By PASS win in the Battle At The Bullring Saturday night at Wake County Speedway.
“I think the real deal was my boys put the left front on the left rear [during the pit stop] and that gave me a lot more drive off the corner than the rest of them, but I still didn’t think I could get passed them,” said Smith afterwards. “Brandon [Ward] was getting a little bit sideways off the corner and I knew Jason [Myers] was coming so I knew I needed to go. But my boys in the pits really won me this race.”
Walnut Cove, NC’s Burt Myers scorched the tight quarter-mile in qualifying with lap of 12.676 seconds to score his first Precision Built Spindles Pole Award. But, after the top six qualifies redraw, Ward would slot into the pole position, while B Myers would move to the outside of the front row.
At the drop of the green, Ward would take the lead, until B. Myers made the move to go up front on lap 20. B. Myers would continue to lead until he got hung up behind the slower car of Jason Tutterow on lap 63, allowing Ward to move back by and take the lead again. The only caution of the night would wave ten laps later when Tutterow had a problem entering turn one.
At this time, all the leaders would pit, with B. Myers winning the race off pit row and Zack Brewer flanking him on the outside for the restart. B. Myers would only lead the next six laps before being bypassed by Ward and John Smith. The fastest car on the track though was Jason Myers, who restarted fifth, but was quickly closing in on the leaders.
While Smith made the move by Ward with 29 laps to go for the lead, J. Myers had moved past Brewer and B. Myers into third. With around 10 laps to go, J. Myers disposed of Ward for second, but ran out of time to run Smith down for the win. Following Smith and J. Myers to the checkered flag were Ward, B. Myers, and Brewer.
Cory Walker claimed his first career Mid-Atlantic Limited Late Model win, while Dillon Spain took the checkered flag in the Legends division.
The Southern Modified Racing Series Presented By PASS will be in action once again for 125 laps on Friday night, July 22 at Tri-County Motor Speedway. Entry forms will be available at SouthernModifiedRacingSeries,com. Be sure to “Like” the Pro All Stars Series and Southern Modified Racing Series on Facebook or follow us on Twitter at @PASSSLM14.
SMRS Modifieds – Battle At The Bullring 125 – Unofficial Results
1. 25 – John Smith 125
2. 4 – Jason Myers 125
3. 19 – Brandon Ward 125
4. 1 – Burt Myers 125
5. 31 – Zack Brewer 124
6. 12 – Mike Norman 123
7. 15 – Jeremy Gerstner 120
8. 33 – Jason Tutterow 70
Sources: Alan Dietz/SMRS PR