SALISBURY, N.C. – Colby Horn and his father drew up a plan over the weekend to bring their equipment from Texas to North Carolina, leave it at Millbridge Speedway and become track regulars for the remainder of the season.
That quick decision paid immediate dividends on Wednesday night, with the 13-year-old winning the Open/Outlaw division feature in his debut as a weekly driver at the sixth-mile.
Horn started from the pole after a four invert and led all 20 laps, holding off a late charge from three-time Millbridge track champion Tom Hubert on a one-lap dash to the checkered flag to garner the top honors.
The win was Horn’s first at Millbridge. He finished 15th in the track’s big-money event in May.
“Man, this is incredible,” Horn said. “When we hatched this plan to come out here and do this on a regular basis, we never thought it would end with a victory on the first night. To come out here from Texas, get a win, lead every lap … I’m lost for words. I can’t thank my dad enough for all the work he puts into this for me.
“I heard Carson Kvapil and Tom both back there … and when the (caution) lights came on I just said to myself, ‘You know what you have to do.’ I gave it everything I had on that last lap and it paid off.”
Hubert tried to roll the outside lane on the final lap to catch Horn but didn’t quite have enough steam to pull alongside. He finished second by .298 of a second, despite starting from the tail of the field due to motor issues that caused him to miss his heat race earlier in the night.
“I needed the top in (turns) one and two to let me run in it a little better there at the end,” admitted Hubert. “It was just a little too bumpy and I couldn’t get it wound up enough. I hit three and four, but I didn’t get it as close as I did earlier on. If we’d had one more lap, I think it might have been a drag race.”
Carson Kvapil crossed the line third and was credited with the Open division win as the highest-finishing four-stroke driver in the main event. Nick O’Dell and Nick Tucker finished fourth and fifth.
In other racing action, Eli Adams – the 10-year-old nephew of NASCAR star Kasey Kahne – picked up his first Intermediate division win at Millbridge by wiring the field from start to finish.
Adams started from the outside pole, pinched polesitter Gray Leadbetter down into turn one to get the early advantage and never gave up the top spot after that. He then held off Brent Crews on two restarts inside the final eight laps to pick up the trophy.
In victory lane, Adams was adamant that he had a strategy – and he stuck to it perfectly.
“I knew I had to stay glued on the bottom,” said Adams. “I told myself, ‘There is no one that’s going to pass me on the inside tonight.’ I’m glad we finally got an Intermediate win. This is really cool.”
Crews, Leadbetter, Caden Kvapil and Wyatt Foss finished second through fifth, respectively.
The 20-lap Box Stock feature saw Sam Corry come out on top yet again, though he had to weather his stiffest challenge of the season to-date before he could celebrate in victory lane.
Corry started sixth but made it to third before the end of the first lap, while Hunter Kohn pounced to the early lead over Crews. Crew used a turn one dive-bomb to wrest the lead away from Kohn on the seventh round, bringing Corry with him in the process.
Crews and Corry then proceeded to swap rubber and paint over the final 13 laps, making contact several times as Crews threw every block in the book trying to hold Corry’s No. 14c at bay in the second half.
Finally, however, Corry’s persistence paid off. He powered to the inside in turn one with six laps to go and pushed Crews up the race track exiting turn two to grab a lead he wouldn’t relinquish.
Crews finished second, with Landon Sartain, Kohn and Caden Kvapil completing the top five.
There was also a $100 bounty on Corry Wednesday night as well. He has now won the last five Box Stock features in a row at Millbridge and has six wins overall this season.
Landon Totherow picked up his fourth Beginner Box Stock win of the year by leading all 15 laps from the pole, though he had to hold off a hard-charging Coen McDaniel in the closing stages to do so.
McDaniel, who was looking for his sixth win, came from fifth to second and had a shot on a green-white-checkered restart after a three-car crash in the battle for third behind him, but had to settle for second ahead of Ryan Zima, Brody Snyder and Wyatt Snyder.
For complete results, advance to the next page.
