CONCORD, N.C. – Audio and recap by Race Chaser Online Managing Editor Jacob Seelman – Chris Seelman photo –
In an upset special, Picton, Ontario’s Tim Kerr made Sunday evening a memorable affair after he charged past Pete Britten in turn one with 10 laps remaining and pulled away down the stretch to score his first-career Super DIRTcar Series main event win at the Dirt Track at Charlotte.
The Canadian made the race-defining move stick on the bottom of turn one, and never looked back en route to the score that he called “the biggest win” of his career.
“This is phenomenal, man,” Kerr said in victory lane. “We picked up our first big block modified win period earlier in the season and now, to come and pick up my first Super DIRTcar Series win at a place like Charlotte and dominate the way we did is just awesome.”
“Battling with Pete there at the end was tough – I didn’t want to get in anyone’s way, but I still wanted to race hard for the lead and the win. I’m just thankful we were able to run it clean there at the end and bring it home.”
Billy Pauch Jr. led the field to the green flag for 40 action-packed laps, but he was overhauled on the top side as Britten and Larry Wight moved to the top two spots early on.
Britten moved high and low to hold off the advances of Wight through the first 10 laps, but the lead duo encountered traffic on lap 12 and Britten nearly made contact with Danny Johnson Jr. in turn one – barely holding onto the lead. The top two continued to run in that order, dicing through traffic until lap 18, when Keith Flach slapped the outside wall exiting turn four and stopped to bring the caution flag out.
That would be the one and only time that the field was slowed during the 40-lap distance, and when the field returned to racing action, it was Britten in front of Wight with points leader Matt Sheppard up to fourth and charging – Sheppard only needing to finish 20th or better to claim the series championship. While Kerr made the move for the win at the three-quarter mark, it was “Super Matt” who was the star of the final moments of the season.
Sheppard charged past Wight for third with five laps to go and then made contact with Britten as he moved past the Australian for second the next time around. He could not, however, track down Kerr – coming 2.347 seconds shy of closing his fourth Super DIRTcar Series championship season with a victory.
“Timmy was really good tonight; I’m not sure we really had anything for him,” Sheppard admitted. “We got rolling there but got into it a little bit with Batman (Britten) and Tim got away.”
“All in all, though, we had a great race car and a great season. It feels good to be back on top. We were so close last year, and it got away from us on the last night – but this year it seemed like nobody wanted to win this deal for a while. I’d get hot for a while, and then Billy or Brett would get hot, but we finally started to pull away down the stretch despite some heartbreak at Syracuse. Coming here to Charlotte and doing what we had to do to bring this championship home feels really good.”
Wight, Friday winner Danny Johnson and Britten were the balance of the top five; with 1995 World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series champion Dave Blaney finishing a strong sixth at the final checkered flag.
Billy Pauch Jr., Larry Wight, Kenny Tremont, Billy Decker and Pete Britten claimed heat race victories earlier in the night, and all 32 cars started the main event – meaning no Last Chance Showdown was necessary for the Big Block Modifieds.
For more information on the Super DIRTcar Series, visit www.superdirtcarseries.com.
Audio with race winner Tim Kerr:
Audio with runner-up and series champion Matt Sheppard:
RESULTS: Super DIRTcar Series; Bad Boy Buggies World Finals; The Dirt Track at Charlotte; Nov. 8, 2015
- Tim Kerr
- Matt Sheppard
- Larry Wight
- Danny Johnson
- Pete Britten
- Dave Blaney
- Billy Decker
- Duane Howard
- Billy Pauch Jr.
- Tim Fuller
- Kenny Tremont
- Pat Ward
- Mat Williamson
- Jimmy Phelps
- Gary Tomkins
- Rich Scagliotta
- Vic Coffey
- Frank Cozze
- Carey Terrance
- Max McLaughlin
- Yan Bussiere
- Brett Hearn
- Jeremiah Shingledecker
- Tyler Dippel
- Tyler Siri
- Jessey Mueller
- Dave Rauscher
- Chris Hile
- Danny Johnson Jr.
- Stewart Friesen
- Keith Flach
- Mike Mahaney
About the Writer
Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network. Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s.
The 21-year-old is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for both the United Sprint Car Series and the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.
Email Jacob at: [email protected]
Follow on Twitter: @Speed77Radio or @JacobSeelman77
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