Roberts Edges Carrier At I-77 For $5000 ULTIMATE Series Victory
5 min read
Before Saturday afternoon, Casey Roberts had never even seen the 3/8ths of a mile I-77 Raceway Park. But when the checkered flag fell for the night’s ULTIMATE Super Late Model Series 50 lap feature no one could have ever guessed. All Roberts did was set fast time over a strong field of racers from all over the area and then best Eddie Carrier, Jr. in a wild side-by-side battle over the entire last half of the race to score the $5000 payday. In doing so Roberts became the first repeat winner of the 2013 season for the ULTIMATE Series and he further extended his points lead. “That was a great race. I thought that he had got me there a couple of times. But our Capital Race Car was just so good up on the top and we were able to keep our momentum going up top to keep the lead. My hats off to Eddie, he could have drove me dirty there and pulled a bad slide job but he didn’t. He’s a professional and it showed during that race. I appreciate him running us clean like he did.” Roberts said in VP Race Fuels Victory Lane.
Roberts began the evening by picking up VP Race Fuels Race for the Pole fast time honors ahead of Carrier. Roberts’ 12.578 second lap fell just shy of eclipsing the track record which had just been established a week earlier by Steve Lucas. Carrier wasn’t far off the mark either with his best lap of 12.688 seconds. Rounding out the top 8 which were locked-in to the feature was 2011 ULTIMATE Series champion Chris Ferguson, Kentucky’s Josh McGuire, Rick Williams, Jeff Smith, track record holder Steve Lucas and local favorite Travis Brookover. A pair of fast and furious B-Mains set the remainder of the field with Mike Benedum of Salem, West Virginia and Cross Lane, West Virginia’s Zach Dohm both scoring victories in the 8 lap prelims.
At the drop of the green flag Roberts jumped to the lead while Carrier was forced to deal with a hard charging McGuire to his outside and Ferguson who dove to the bottom looking for second. McGuire was able to finally grab second with the highside momentum dropping Carrier to third with Ferguson trailing in fourth. However the night came to a quick ending for Ferguson when his machine slowed in turn four with rear-end issues. The restart saw McGuire opt for the outside in the double-file restart with Carrier to the inside. This time Carrier found a different line on the bottom and moved by McGuire for second.
Throughout the field there were wheel to wheel battles for position. 10th starting Zach Dohm worked the bottom and moved into the top five by the race’s halfway point. Back up front Roberts and Carrier were waging an all-out war for the top spot. Neither could seem to get an advantage as they reached lap traffic. Roberts held firmly to the high side as he bypassed the backmarker machines but on a few occasions he was forced to move down low. That’s when Carrier was able to reassert himself. As lap after lap the two drivers went door to door.
With 3 laps remaining, Roberts pulled ahead of Carrier down the back straightaway but just as so many times in the previous laps, Carrier drove it off deep into turn 3 and emerged off of turn 4 in a dead heat with Roberts. Through the white flag more of the same as Roberts nosed ahead on the back straightaway with Carrier shadowing him. As the 2 exited turn 4 for the final time Carrier was able to get in the gas earlier than Roberts and again pulled even. But his momentum was carrying him up the track into Roberts forcing him to turn down ever so slightly to stay off Roberts’ car. It wasn’t much but that was all Roberts needed as the 2 drivers flashed across the line Roberts to the victory by just 0.168 seconds over Carrier.
“That was a lot of fun. This is a neat track. It’s fast and racy. I am glad we were able to get the win. I want to thank Jimmy and Ann Cushman for everything they do for me and my family. I wish they could have been here for this one but they had a prior engagement so we will give them a call here in just a few minutes and give them the news.” Roberts added in Victory Lane.
“That’s the way it’s supposed to be you know. We raced each other so hard and never beat and banged. He gave me room to race and never pinched me and did my best to race him clean. I didn’t want to door him on that last lap because that’s just not how I race. We will take 2nd from that and be happy with it. I believe those folks up there (motioning to grandstands) got their monies’ worth tonight. Congratulations to Casey and his team on the win.” Carrier commented in post-race interviews.
Roberts drives a Capital Race Car with Custom Race Engines under the hood and sponsor support from Cushman Paint and Body, Starrette Trucking, Schaeffer Racing Oil, M&S Concrete, VP Race Fuels and Hoosier Racing Tire. The win was Roberts’ 5th career ULTIMATE Series victory moving him into 2nd all-time on the third year series’ winner’s list. The race was slowed by 4 yellow flags none of which were for serious incidents. The I-77 event was ULTIMATE’s first venture into West Virginia but not its last as the series is set to return in 2 weeks to Beckley Motorsports Park for a $10,000 to win event. Up next on the series schedule is a $4000 to win / 40 lapper on Saturday, June 8th at the Toccoa Speedway.
Official Finish
1 – 101 Casey Roberts
2 – 28 Eddie Carrier, Jr.
3 – 41 Josh McGuire
4 – 17 Zach Dohm
5 – 25 Mike Benedum
6 – 17 Kenney Newhouse
7 – 4 Victor Lee
8 – 12B Travis Brookover
9 – 28R Harold Redman, Jr.
10 – 71 Larry Timms
11 – 83 Brett Miller
12 – 2 Don White
13 – 5L Steve Lucas
14 – 17 Mike Gault
15 – 42 Chris Garnes
16 – 20P Scott Peltz
17 – 70 Jeff Smith
18 – 29 Tyler Carpenter
19 – 9 Shane McLoughlin
20 – 529 Brock Morris
21 – 64 Marshall Wiblin
22 – 12 Rick Lucas
23 – 12H Weston Hutchinson
24 – 21 Chris Ferguson
25 – 12 Rick Williams
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