Jacob Heafner took his first-career Summer Shootout victory of any kind in the AAA of the Carolinas Semi-Pro main event, adding his name to a star-studded list of grassroots racers from all walks of the short track and national racing community.
Heafner started third but bided his time and weathered three attempts at the initial start, finally diving to the inside of polesitter Jordan Stillwell in turn two to seize the point and leading every one of the 20 laps completed despite five caution flags and a myriad of challenges on the restarts.
The final green flag came with five laps to go, set up after third-running Tyler Truex spun into the field on a late-race restart and shuffled the deck. It was of no consequence to Heafner, however, who fought off John Holleman on the last restart and beat Stillwell to the line in a dominant, wire-to-wire performance.
“I was really nervous at the beginning because we started out so tight … but man, this is a cool deal,” said Heafner. “This takes a lot of wait off my chest, considering it took me seven years to finally get one of these trophies here (at Charlotte). I’ve wanted this really bad for a long time, and we’ve come so close so many times, so to finally get this is really special.”
Heafner’s teammate Ashton Higgins wrangled in his first-career Legends Car victory at the Shootout after surviving a lap seven crash that eliminated the top two — Eddie Fatscher and Gio Bromante — from contention.
Fatscher and Bromante came together in turn two on a restart as they raced for the lead, nearly collecting third-running Higgins as the field piled in behind them. Higgins was able to keep moving and come away with a bumper that was “twisted up like a pretzel” but still functional as he inherited the lead and held on through a one-lap, caution-shortened final dash to the finish that saw a Roy Hayes spin end the race due to the time limit.
“It looked like the 51 and 77 made contact and when they did, it shot the 51 down the track and into my front bumper,” said Higgins, who scored his eighth career Shootout, first in the Young Lions class and becomes the 44th different driver to win in Young Lions as the division celebrates its 10th season at the Summer Shootout. “It all worked out pretty well, though. We were able to keep going and that gave us the lead, and then the caution came out after we’d hit the time limit. You always want to race it all the way out, but we’ll take these however we can get them. It’s pretty special.”
The Legends Car features were delayed by more than an hour due to a spectacular lightning show behind turn two of the NASCAR speedway, forcing speedway officials to throw the red flag for the safety of competitors and fans. While a drenching rain storm was expected to follow, the rains never came and the entire opening night program was able to be completed.
Prior to the delay, D.J. Canipe (Outlaws), Josh Kossek (Bandits) and Cameron Johnson (Beginners) all won Bandolero features against the setting sun at CMS. For all three, it was their first win in their respective divisions.
Canipe’s win was his seventh career Shootout triumph across all three divisions of Bandolero racing, while Kossek won a Beginner Bandolero feature at the Shootout in 2013.
Adam Fox of CTS Software scored the victory in the North Carolina Public Transit Association school bus slobberknocker, expertly using lapped traffic to pull off a last-lap pass of Transdev’s Jason Woznac and collect a replica Bruton Smith Trophy.
“Unbelievable, what an amazing day,” Fox said. “I’m glad I didn’t roll ‘er. This is amazing.”
The 23rd annual Bojangles’ Summer Shootout Series continues with its first doubleheader of the season during Week Two, with racing on Monday and Tuesday, June 20-21.
