herman triumps wilkesboro calamity

The majority of the race was led by Deluso (99) and Douglas (21) until the final 25 laps with a late race yellow saw the leaders pit while half the field stayed out. The only driver to benefit from the gamble was Herman (15). Laying down his fastest two laps on the final GWC finish to hold of Hughes (7) and Douglas who charged from 6th to 3rd on the final restart. Herman wins on his first outing in FARCA at the North Carolinian historic short track.

            The race got underway with Robert Gentry (8) leading the field to the green to be immediately surpassed by Deluso (99) on the opening stage of the race. Aaron Douglas seen pulling off multiple late apex cross overs to advance position early in the race. Hughes (7) quickly moved up the field while Thomas (6) struggled on the opening paces of the race. Multiple wrecks would break out totaling 13 cautions.

On one particular restart, Hughes, cautioned himself of the battle between Gentry and Soukup (45), that they could end up getting him caught up in a wreck. Distracted, Hughes then spun out of Turn 4 completely on his own. Ryan up to this point had maintained a solid lead, totally 44 laps before his stint came to end. The 21 truck of Douglas had been slowly moving his way up the field and soon had found himself in the 2nd spot behind Deluso.

While the majority of the field was focused on crashing, Douglas and Deluso were in a tense battle for the lead across multiple laps and restarts. The slower 99 Exide machine was cautioned of the 21 truck who could fire out of the corners a lot faster than he could. Seeing that Aaron could exit low on the corners but not work the high side, Ryan would be smart to drive in deep and keep the bottom maintained in order to hold off the lead as long as he could. With excellent restart fire off the 99 kept the lead for another 15 laps on the 21 before 1 bad cold tire restart let the 99 drive up high and the 21 ducked underneath for the pass on the back stretch and secured the lead from the ill-handling Deluso. Aaron then went on to lead 22 laps before giving up the lead for a late race yellow flag pit cycle, giving the lead to the eventual winner, Herman (15).

          It's not an official FARCA race without these two finding their way into each other, the career long rivalry of Mire (29) vs Thomas (6) continues. On the final GWC restart of the race, Connor squeezed his Chunks Silverado into the R.I. truck of Thomas out of two, forcing contact with the wall. Additionally on the entry of 4 the 6 swung wide to avoid contact, but Mire hopped the curb and slid into the 6 creating the wonderful image we have next to us. The 29 ultimately stole a top 5 from the  6 of Thomas. Despite the situation, it was all laughs from the two ole' rival, laughing that of course they managed to find each other on a battle of the final restart. It'll be fun to see the eventual tempers flare between these two...because it will.

It was a great race to start off the local Carolina series. Following the race it was announced that Darlington would be the next race with a fixed setup. The final restart saw drivers gamble entire race old tires and the 29 went from 2nd to 5th. The Douglas machine went from 6th to 3rd finishing behind Hughes #7 Bud truck. Herman taking the checkered flag after his 24 lap leading stint of the race. The first race now complete!