BRS: sonicphile Finds Way to Victory Lane at Lowe's
- Published ()
- Bellstar Racing Series
Charlotte, NC - Ugly. Disgraceful. A joke. These were just a few of the printable phrases used to describe BRS Southern Motorsports 360 held this past weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Perhaps the most amazing part of this race was the fact that most of the field did indeed have to make green flag pit stops despite 22 yellow flags that slowed the field to a crawl, averaging 104.028 mph. In the end, the were only four cars on the lead lap and some top contenders had once again dropped out of contention.
The incidents started early, with a big wreck on lap 2 when Tekoa80 lost it coming out of turn 4. This collected several cars, leaving JCauseyFD lying on his side in the middle of the track until the pace car helped right him. Three restarts later, JCauseyFD would trigger his own massive collection of sheetmetal when he clipped the apron and slid up into FlasH-BRS. That contact itself was not so bad, but the two cars lost so much momentum it set off a chain reaction through the rest of the field.
Yellows flew several more times for a variety of self-spins and drivers getting together with each other. The biggest problem the field encountered with the self-spins was the fact that most of these ended up collecting other drivers instead of being solo incidents. Finally, a brief respite from the yellow flags was achieved starting on lap 77 when the field started a green flag run of 69 laps.
The return to yellow flag racing was an unwelcome change, but one that would stick around. After a few more self-spins and other incidents, the field ended up with only four drivers on the lead lap - far less than those who were still around but laps down. Among some earlier casualties were -FlasH-BRS and shfty40 who retired early due to damage (and perhaps some frustration) and B_Helvey who suffered a disco, sending him to the garage for the night..
As the laps wound down, Hogar*PIK would manage to get back on the lead lap after Helvey's disco. However, late in the race both Chuwall66 and Hogar*PIK were damaged and no match for the cars of Runner-BRS and sonicphile. These two race much of the last quarter of the race nose to tail.
A final restart with five laps to go would yield an exciting battle as sonicphile worked to hold off the charging Runner-BRS. Runner was able to take several stabs at sonicphile as the laps wound down, but could not pull off a pass. The win kept sonicphile in the points lead for the Outlaw Series and he became the first two-time winner for the season.
After the smoke cleared, BRS officials indicated they were going to take steps to clean up the racing (or lack thereof) by implementing the Caution Reduction Initiative (see related story). The Outlaw drivers who made it to the end of this epic event that stretched nearly four hours will probably welcome the changes and the chance to get some green flag racing in.
- Southern Motorsports 360
- Race Winner - sonicphile
- Pole Award- ZXFLY
- Front Runner Award - sonicphile
- Hard Charger Award - Hogar*PIK
- Headache Award - shfty40
- Points leader after 4 events - sonicphile