PLAY DEFENSE: Hackney Protects Lead, Wins First Career Street Stock League Race at Limaland
Jackson, Kilgore score more top-five finishes, now top points standings
March 31, 2021 – Three laps remaining. Restart upcoming. Keith Hackney had one shot to clinch the win he worked so hard to defend all race long.
Hackney, a frequent racer with the Chevy Performance Street Stock League, had led 20 of the 21 laps completed before the restart, and was just three trips around the virtual Limaland Motorsports Park away from his first career Feature win under the DIRTcar eSports banner. He took off on the restart well, but Carl Kilgore hit it even better.
“Carl got a heck of a jump there, and that sort of worried me,” Hackney said. “I thought he was going to drive around me on the outside.”
Kilgore, of Greenville, MS, had been breathing down Hackney’s neck throughout the 25-lap affair and got a great run to Hackney’s outside at the drop of the green. He led the field across the stripe to complete Lap 22, but Hackney stayed with him on the inside.
With a big leap across all three lanes, Hackney, of Calhoun, GA, threw a big slide job on Kilgore in Turns 1-2 to defend the lead. A successful attempt, as Kilgore ran into Hackney’s rear bumper at the exit of Turn 2.
This move dampened Kilgore’s momentum enough to allow both Tyler Jackson and Jesse Wall to close the gap as the white flag was displayed. As Hackney sped away with the win, three-wide across the line came Kilgore, Jackson, and Wall for the runner-up spot.
Wall ended up edging out Kilgore and Jackson by .014 seconds at the line for the runner-up spot with a great move through the middle, threading the needle between his opponents as they raced through Turns 3-4.
“I wish we would have had a few more laps up there to try and catch Keith, but man, that was fun,” Wall said.
Kilgore stayed glued to the top side and made it work in the final corner, squeaking past Jackson at the line by just over one tenth of a second. He, like Jackson, has won with the League before and is now sitting inside the podium in the points standings.
The Chevy Performance Street Stock League action continues next Wednesday night, April 7, from the Eldora Speedway! Don’t miss a moment – watch all the action in the iRacing server at 7pm Eastern or on the DIRTVision live broadcast for free.
Chevy Performance Feature (25 Laps) – 1. 69 – Keith Hackney (1), 2. 2 – Jesse Wall (5), 3. 021 – Carl Kilgore (2), 4. 8 – Tyler Jackson (3), 5. 21 – Jim Reavis (4), 6. 029 – Lane Phillips (8), 7. 121 – Edward Farness (6), 8. 225 – Nathan Lemons (10), 9. 026 – Blade Kearns (7), 10. 92 – Payton Gries (15), 11. 17 – Brett Rowles (11), 12. 48 – Kyle Vaughn (18), 13. 15 – Grant Parr (14), 14. 717 – Bobby Rafferty (13), 15. 260 – Sage Luther (23), 16. 18 – Justin Henson (20), 17. 077 – Holden English (17), 18. 29 – Joshua Divine (19), 19. 71 – Daniel Stiffler (21), 20. 14 – Jaxon Steele (24), 21. 26 – Sean Stevens (16), 22. 93 – Steve Miskolczi (9), 23. 546 – Randy Axner (12), 24. 4 – Nicolas Adkins (22)
THUNDER VALLEY THROWDOWN: Seay Leads Flag-to-Flag in Tour UMP Modified Action at Bristol
Seay’s fourth career Tour victory ties him with Alex Bergeron for most all-time
He’s been in Victory Lane with his Summit Racing Equipment UMP Modified on DIRTVision before, and now he’s done it again. With his fourth career victory aboard the DIRTcar eSports Tour Wednesday night at the virtual Bristol Motor Speedway, Evan Seay now sits tied for the most Feature wins in Tour history.
Grabbing the lead at the drop of the green, Seay, of Chesnee, SC, pulled out to a big advantage over his competition early, turning the fastest lap of the race on Lap 2. It wasn’t until the halfway mark passed before Seay received his first challenge from a hard-charging Dylan Yeager, who started on the front row but had fallen all the way back to ninth on the initial start.
Yeager, of Hamilton, NJ, immediately hit the high side and began making up spots rapidly, reaching the runner-up spot by Lap 12. He then used that momentum to track down leader Seay as he approached lapped traffic.
“I told myself I was going to stick to the bottom the first few laps, and it ended up working out and getting me the lead. But all of a sudden, it just slowed way down a ton on the bottom about eight laps in. [Yeager] basically just caught me just running the top – the top was that much faster,” Seay said.
But a few costly mistakes on the treacherous high side of Bristol broke Yeager’s momentum on multiple occasions, giving Seay the edge he needed to pull away.
“As my dad always says, I race better when I’m pissed off, so I got up on the wheel and drove back up to P2,” Yeager said. “I was running down Evan at the end and then I started messing up and hitting the wall.”
Seay turned on the jets in the home stretch and brought home the $250 payday on cruise control. With an eighth-place finish last week with the Big Block Modifieds at Weedsport, Seay now sits inside the top-five of the points standings.
Defending Tour champion Kendal Tucker, of Mount Airy, NC, made his first appearance of the season Wednesday night and had a solid run going, tracking down Yeager in the final laps and making the pass in traffic to clinch a runner-up finish.
With all of the back-and-forth, ups-and-downs Yeager had over the 40-lap contest, it’s no surprise he was almost relieved to see the checkered fly by race’s end.
“I think that’s the first time I’ve ever sweated in a sim race before,” Yeager said.
The DIRTcar eSports Tour action continues next Wednesday night, April 7, with Round 3 of action at the Williams Grove Speedway. The Super DIRTcar Series Big Block Modifieds will be the vehicle of choice – catch all of the action live in the iRacing server or on DIRTVision at 8pm ET.
Summit Racing Equipment Feature (40 Laps) – 1. 33 – Evan Seay (3), 2. 00 – Kendall Tucker (4), 3. 48 – Dylan Yeager (2), 4. 12 – Alex Bergeron (4), 5. 000 – Kevin Dedmon (11), 6. 331 – Dustin Hall (1), 7. 033 – Richard Murtaugh Jr. (17), 8. 37 – Randall Carter (7), 9. 115 – Boddie Parker (10), 10. 85 – Tyler Schell ((16), 11. 41 – Logan Rumsey (14), 12. 1 – Jesse Enterkin (13), 13. 30 – Tyler Jackson (15), 14. 17 – Brett Rowles (23), 15. 71 – Kevin Hebert (12), 16. 928 – Josh Vinci (20), 17. 29 – William Richardson (24), 18. 24 – Dominque Foster (22), 19. 19. 44 – Clint Sullivan (19), 20. 013 – Brent Feher (18), 21. 69 – Brent Carter (9), 22. 127 – Blake Matjoulis (5), 23 32 – Daniel Powell (21), 24. 2 – Dylan Houser (8)
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Sources: Jordan DeLucia, DIRTcar Racing PR