Ray Evernham picked up his 2nd win of the season with the Carolina RaceSaver Series at the I-77 Speedway on Saturday night (David Sims photo).
Chester, SC: Ray Evernham rallied back after a late race pass to win his 2nd feature of the year in the Carolina RaceSaver Sprint Series at the I77 Speedway in Chester, SC on Saturday night. In earlier action, Mike Leraas took control of the dash and never looked back as he set sail in his Carlton Scale #77 J&J. Leraas would later redraw resulting in the front 2 rows being inverted for the feature.
The start of the 20 lap feature saw several cars getting upset by a hidden rut in turn #1 of the ultra fast red dirt oval. Fortunately despite some moves worthy of a professional ballerina, the race stayed green with all competitors able to wrestle their machines back to earth and stay on the throttle. Everham was able to take advantage of the
situation and to the early lead, leaving the remainder of the field battling for position. Lap # 2 saw the yellow wave for Jake McClain when he lost control of his Stallings Pointe #67 after hitting the same rut.
On the restart, Evernham remained out front and seemed to have the race under control but on lap 11, Johnny Petrozelle nailed the same rut and spun his Hero Energy Shot #59, bringing out the 2nd caution and bunching the field up. Two laps later, Leraas was and Petrozelle made contact in the same area while negotiating the same rut. Leraas would be able to restart but Petrozelle was finished with front end damage.
On the ensuring restart, Evernham again lead the field at the drop of the green however with just 4 laps to go, bottomed the car out in the rut himself. Although the incident did not seem to slow him down, the following lap, he moved high at which time Scott Davis was able to capitalize in his Racewrap.com #3 by diving low in an all out effort to make the pass. As Davis drove past Evernham, the crowd eagerly watched the former NASCAR standout race Davis nose to tail for the next lap. Evernham set Davis up and regained the lead with 2 laps to go. With Evernham now back in the lead, McClain moved up to challenge Davis for the runner up spot as the white flag fell. At the checkered, Evernham
would win his 2nd Carolina RaceSaver feature of the season while Davis held off McLain for the runner up spot.
The series returns to action this Saturday night (July 14th) at the East Lincoln Speedway in Stanley, NC. For more information, please visit the series website at www.carolinasprints.com. RaceSaver is a registered trademark of the RaceSaver
Sprint Series.
Official Results:
Brodix Cylinder Heads Dash (8 laps): #77- Mike Leraas (2), #67 Jake McClain (5th), #119 Ray Evernham (6), #44 Gary Troutman (3rd), #59 Johnny Petrozelle (4), #3 Scott Davis (1)
French Grimes Race Systems Feature (20 laps): Evernham, Davis, McClain, Troutmanm, Leraas, Perozelle