South Boston season opener results

Sellers leads wire-to-wire to claim victory in tight Late Model Stock Car opener at South Boston Speedway

SOUTH BOSTON, VA. -- An afternoon of hard work turned into a fairly easy cruise over the final few laps for Peyton Sellers of Danville, Va. Saturday at South Boston Speedway.

Sellers led from start-to-finish to win the season-opening, double-points race for the drivers in the NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series Late Model Stock Car Division. The race was the featured attraction of the Spring Fling 200 and was run before a large, enthusiastic crowd.

While Sellers had little to worry about over the final five circuits, he had his hands full for most of the night with eventual 16th-place finisher Woody Howard of Chesapeake, Va.

Denny Hamlin of Midlothian, Va. finished second in the 33-car field, while Timothy Peters of Providence, N.C. motored to a third-place finish.

T.J. Majors of Mooresville, N.C. was fourth, while Scott Worley of Long Island, Va. completed the top five competitors.

The top 10 drivers in the field were rounded out by David Triplett, Jr. of Durham, N.C. in sixth, Jimmy Mullins of Collinsville, Va. in seventh, Bugs Hairfield of Chesterfield, Va. in eighth, Wayne Ramsey of Amherst, Va. in the ninth slot and Richard Bailey of Mebane, N.C. in the 10th-place position.

The race was slowed by 10 caution periods, three of which brought out the red flag.

The most significant red flag came on lap 181 and altered the final rundown of the race.

Moments before the night's final red flag, Sellers was busy trying to hold off a furious challenge for the lead from Howard, who had nearly swiped the lead away several times in the event.

The two closed in on the lapped car of Dave Carter in turn three and Sellers managed to get by, while Howard had trouble and lost second place to Hamlin.

As the cars headed into turn one on the next lap, Howard got into the back of Carter's ride and the incident wound up claiming the top-three car of Brandon Butler of Petersburg, Va.

Butler, who started ninth in the field and had worked his way into the top three in the late stages, settled for a 19th-place run.

When the race went back green with 10 laps to go, Howard was black-flagged and sent to the pits for a one-lap penalty, enabling Sellers to motor comfortably ahead of Hamlin over the closing laps.

Sellers wiped the pole position for the race with a qualifying run of 15.925 seconds.

Cash picks up where he left off in Limited Sportsman Division

Jonathan Cash of Oxford, N.C. picked up right where he left off last year in the Limited Sportsman Division.

Cash, the defending division champion, started outside on the front row, swiped the lead from pole winner Brian Cole of Roxboro, N.C. on the initial circuit and led the rest of the way to secure a victory in the 100-lap race.

While Cash had few problems to deal with in the race, there were several key cautions behind him, which jumbled up positions in the top five.

Chad Mason of Richmond, Va. finished second in the final rundown and was closing strong on Cash in the closing few laps. Billy Myers of Hurt, Va. finished third in the 25-car field, followed by Troy Jones of Creedmoor, N.C. in fourth place and Jonathan Bailey of Keysville, Va. in the fifth spot.

Wally Latta of Durham, N.C. placed sixth and was followed in the top 10 by Cole, Wayne Roach of Chatham, Va. Tommy Peregoy of Red Oak, Va. and Jeremy Ratliff of Halifax, Va.

The race was slowed by six cautions, several of which involved cars battling for positions in the top five.

Jones and Roach brought out a caution on lap 80 when the two got together while racing for third place. Earlier, Cole went spinning in turn two on lap 73 to bring out a caution shortly after Mason had snared the second-place spot from the pole winner. Cole had the fast qualifying time with a lap of 16.209 seconds.

On the 64th lap of the race, Jones and Adam Barker of Hurt, Va. brought out a caution flag when the two tangled in a race for third place.

Craig Oliver thunders to Modified victory

Craig Oliver of Linwood, N.C. started from the pole and easily cruised to the checkered flag in the 50-lap race for the Rolling Thunder Modifieds.

Oliver earned the pole spot with a qualifying run of 16.262 seconds and endured six caution periods to record the win.

Chad Gordon of Emporia, Va. eased up to second place on the final lap of the race, while Thomas Stinson of Chester, Va. swiped third place in the 22-car field when Mark Slye of Toano, Va. encountered problems on the final circuit and wound up in fourth place.

Outside pole starter Kevin Eby of Lenoir, N.C. rounded out the top five drivers in the field.

Wooldridge leads all the way in Pure Stock race

Tommy Wooldridge of Forest, Va. started from the pole and led all the way to claim the checkered flag in the 30-lap event for the Pure Stock Division.

Wooldridge had his hands full in the closing laps of the race with Donald Glass of Halifax, Va.

Jason Parker of Madison Heights, Va. finished third in the stout 21-car field, while Brad Matthews of Oxford, N.C. was fourth and Scott Phillips of Virgilina, Va. rounded out the top-five competitors.

Wooldridge earned the pole position for the start of the race with a qualifying lap of 18.947 seconds and 76.001 miles per hour.

The next event on the schedule at South Boston Speedway is April 3 with the NASCAR Late Models running Twin 110 laps, NASCAR Limited Sportsman run Twin 50's, Pure Stocks and Grand Stocks will each run 30 lap races. Ticket prices are $8 in advance and $10 at the gate for Adults, Youth ages 10-15 can get in for only $5 with children nine and under admitted free.

For more information, visit the speedway's website at www.southbostonspeedway.com or phone the track at (434) 572-4947 or toll free at 1-877-440-1540.

<pre> LATE MODEL STOCK

POS     #  DRIVER
1       26 Sellers, Peyton
2       99 Hamlin, Denny
3       77 Peters, Timothy
4       17 Majors, TJ
5       88 Worley, Scott
6       00 Triplett, David
7       75 Mullins, Jimmy
8       04 Hairfield, Bugs
9       51 Ramsey, Wayne
10      60 Bailey, Richard
11      57 Johnson, Eddie
12      15 Kesterman, Andreas
13      98 Carroll, Terry
14      55 Campbell, Clay
15      54 Carter, Dave
16      30 Howard, Woody
17      19 Dickerson, Jason
18      68 Winslow, Ernest
19      29 Butler, Brandon
20      07 Storm, Richard
21      02 Driver, Bruce
22       2 Ward, Dean
23      08 McCaskill, Deac
24      84 Puryear, Stacy
25      81 Johnson, Justin
26      90 Hill, Ronald
27      11 Young, Ray
28      35 Lofflin, Keith
29       5 Southard, Mike
30      42 Pinion, Tim
31      14 Cook, Rodney
32      79 Quackenbush, David
33      53 Crocker, Jack

LIMITED SPORTSMAN

POS     #  DRIVER
1       07 Cash, Jonathan
2       18 Mason, Chad
3       05 Myers, Billy
4       02 Jones, Troy
5       89 Bailey, Jonathan
6       44 Latta, Wally
7       82 Cole, Brian
8       71 Roach, Wayne
9        2 Peregoy, Tommy
10       1 Ratliff, Jeremy
11       8 Thompson, Robert
12      94 Ellis, Roger
13      36 Yarboro, Eddie
14      41 Riley, Will
15      27 Moshenek, Bill
16      10 Barker, Adam
17      17 Declue, Eddie
18      64 Barnes, Charles
19      21 Wilson, Wayne
20      00 Wilkerson, Jerry
21      80 Bowes, Kenny
22       9 Anderson, Bruce
23      16 Pergerson, Chad
24       8 Oakley, Josh
25      14 Snow, Justin

PURE STOCK

POS     #  DRIVER
1       20 Wooldridge, Tommy
2       14 Glass, Donald
3        8 Parker, Jason
4       99 Matthews, Brad
5        1 Phillips, Scott
6       77 Laws, Shawn
7       07 Francisco, Mark
8       66 Griffin, Brett
9        2 Phillips, Melvin
10      10 Igdalsky, Nick
11      69 Anderson, Lee
12      84 Meek, Calvin
13       9 Crosby, Chris
14      16 Pierce, Renee
15      85 Matias, David
16       3 Throckmorton, Joey
17      18 Goble, Billy
18      55 Cash, Mike
19      00 Trickey, Stephen
20      23 Whittle, Chris

ROLLING THUNDER MODIFIEDS

POS     #  DRIVER
1       07 Oliver, Craig
2        0 Gordon, Chad
3        4 Stinson, Thomas
4       57 Slye, Mark
5       03 Eby, Kevin
6       17 Marshall, Allen
7       73 Tomlin, Mike
8       86 Denning, Steve
9        2 Paasch, Doug
10      01 Hendrick, Brandon
11      42 Hoylman, Chris
12      13 Sivers, Jeff
13       7 Collier, Tom
14      72 Cook, Roy
15       3 Steele, Jon
16      31 Hammer, JD
17       6 Horne, Buster
18       1 Hanbury, Mike
19      63 Thorpe, John
20      44 Emory, Buddy
21      27 Wheeler, David
22      36 Siler, Dennis
23      10 Winslow, David

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