CONCORD, N.C. — A busy slate of racing was unleashed Friday at The Dirt Track at Charlotte’s 11th World Short Track Championship.
Heat Races for nine divisions, along with features for the DIRTVision Hornets, sent nearly 500 race cars on the four-tenths-mile. Drivers battled it out for transfer spots straight into Saturday evening’s features while the rest face a longer day starting with Last Chance Showdowns in the afternoon that give competitors one final shot to make the main events.
Hornet Feature No. 1
Eighty-three DIRTVision Hornets were divided into four 15-lap Showdown Features, with the top-five from each transferring to Saturday’s main event. The first Showdown Feature produced a finish with a surprise winner – and not the one that took the checkered flag.
Scootdog Wilson was the star of the show, leading the way for the first 15 laps until his pace slowed, bringing the field to his rear bumper with five laps to go.
Six-time World Short Track winner Newman Presnell was the first to catch him. Timing his move, Presnell turned underneath Wilson through Turn 2 and then powered ahead of him off the corner. Wilson fought back, though, diving into Turn 1 to pull even with Presnell again.
They ran side by side for the final two laps, allowing three-time World Short Track winner Jonathan Sarratt to close and shock.
Entering Turn 1 for the final time, Wilson entered low, Presnell in the middle, and Sarratt drove around the outside of them both. He pulled away and was the first to see the checkered flag.
However, after post-race inspection, Sarratt was found to have an illegal camshaft, giving the win to Presnell. All other drivers moved up a spot.
The finish:
Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. M34-Newman Presnell[3]; 2. 11C-Casey Towell[8]; 3. 33W-Scootdog Wilson[1]; 4. 48-Kayden Presnell[6]; 5. 58-Kason Bright[21]; 6. 13-Trent Blackwell[10]; 7. 4-Daniel Wright[13]; 8. 29-Darrell Moffatt[9]; 9. NC3-Nelson Cunningham[16]; 10. 11T-Tucker Quinn[17]; 11. 359-Michael Lambert[18]; 12. 11-Blake Pringle[4]; 13. 1W-Corey Harper[20]; 14. 417X-Shannon Barnhill[2]; 15. 34W-Justin Watts[11]; 16. 2-Kris Bobo[7]; 17. 313-Rick Dunmire[12]; 18. 89-Travis Boyea[15]; 19. 191G-Mike Slone[19]; 20. 2C-Tyler Capps[14]; 21. (DNS) 19-Willie Fowler; 22. (DQ) 311-Jonathan Sarratt[5]
Hornet Feature No. 2
“Hold on, I’m going to win this thing from fifth.”
That’s what Jamie Massey told himself on a restart with three laps to go and the leaders ahead of him.
Massey started fifth in the 15-lap feature and patiently worked his way forward.
Justin Harris was the class of the field for two-thirds of the race. He grabbed the lead on the first lap from his outside pole starting position and refused to let it go. Avery White kept pressure on him in the first five laps, including a slide job attempt in Turns 3 and 4, but Harris had the better run off the corner.
White faded after a restart on Lap 6, losing second to Massey and third to Joey King. He eventually retired from the feature during a caution on Lap 12 after making contact with Bentley Caudie.
When the race resumed, Massey talked himself up to “hold on,” throwing his No. N2 car to the top lane and drove around Harris to take the lead.
From there, he drove away while a four-wide battle to secure a top-five transfer spot raged on behind him.
“I told them, I told everybody down there (in the lower pit area), I was going to win this thing for Kenny Harris,” Massey said. “There was nobody going to beat me on that last restart. I had Kenny riding with me. Kenny is my step-father-in-law; he means the world to me. This win is for him.”
The finish:
Feature 2 (15 Laps): 1. N2-Jamie Massey[5]; 2. 1-Justin Harris[2]; 3. 88-Joey Kelly[7]; 4. 44-Jordan Webb[10]; 5. 8-Gavin Bright[6]; 6. 511-Bentley Caudle[3]; 7. 513-Greyson Coley[21]; 8. B6-Wayne Taylor[14]; 9. 21-Brandon Greene[15]; 10. 87X-Josh Cody[12]; 11. 41-Gage McFadden[4]; 12. 01-TJ Hill[16]; 13. 2W-Bradley Williams[8]; 14. 122-Ashley Parker[17]; 15. 18-Phillip Taylor[11]; 16. 27M-Keitha Martin[19]; 17. 78-Ethan Fowler[9]; 18. 327-Warren Hill[18]; 19. 18M-Joshua McKinney[13]; 20. (DNS) 211-Drew Banks; 21. (DQ) 81-Avery White[1]
Hornet Feature No. 3
Since joining the DIRTVision Hornet division last year, Coby Lambert has yet to see what finishing a race outside of Victory Lane looks like.
The Gaffney, S.C., driver picked up where he left off, taking the lead on the first lap and holding it to the end. He won by nearly three seconds to pick up his third straight World Short Track Championship victory.
“We’ve been working on this thing the last two weeks trying to find problems; we found a bunch,” Lambert said after winning the Feature. “Still lacking on the motor side, but I think we’ll be alright this weekend. Hopefully we can capitalize tomorrow and run away with it.”
The finish:
Feature 3 (15 Laps): 1. 33-Coby Lambert[1]; 2. 23-Lane Crow[2]; 3. 777-Jeffrey Erb[3]; 4. 3C-Scott Cloninger[9]; 5. 41H-Bryson Harper[4]; 6. 95-Jacob Bright[6]; 7. 22-Phillip Gee II[12]; 8. 145-Braydon Lancaster[5]; 9. 21A-Adam Asbill[11]; 10. 28-Tyler Langley[13]; 11. 135-Carson Taylor[15]; 12. C2-Caden Massey[10]; 13. 31M-Danielle Myers[8]; 14. 96-Kevin Brazell[16]; 15. 4T-Tyler Smith[17]; 16. 20-Daniel Reynolds[7]; 17. 4Z-Isaiah McClure[14]; 18. 328-Chris Gardner[18]; 19. 1C-Brad Cox[20]; 20. A53-Austin Haskin[19]
Hornet Feature No. 4
Marc White is a World Short Track Championship veteran, having participated in the event for seven years, including the first edition in 2016. In that time frame, he’s finished second twice, but never visited victory lane.
That changed Friday night.
Travis Lankford led most of the feature with White consistently on his tail. He turned that consistency into a shot at glory by the halfway point of the feature. Building a run lap after lap, White used a run off Turn 2 to propel him ahead of Lankford going into Turn 3.
Lankford tried to fight back on a late restart, but White kept his foot to the floor and drove his No. 81M Hornet to victory for the first time.
“I’ve been racing over here since the first one of these; I’ve finished third, second, fifth; I’ve never won one,” White said after picking up his first World Short Track Championship win. “I said when I went out there, we had a good car, I knew the car was good, I knew the high side was going to work for us, and that’s where I usually run here. That’s where I put it, and it stuck. It’s awesome.”
The finish:
Feature 4 (15 Laps): 1. 81M-Marc White[2]; 2. F1-Travis Lankford[1]; 3. 39-Brian Barfield[5]; 4. 2L-Kylee Laws[7]; 5. 212-Mitchell Coggins[8]; 6. 91Z-Zack Slone[11]; 7. 44S-Randy Shaw[19]; 8. 5T-Reggie Twing[12]; 9. 2B-Addison Bragg[15]; 10. 1B-Brandyn Warren[13]; 11. 151-DJ Moffatt[16]; 12. 121-Kayden Murray[10]; 13. 22G-Michael Grogan[6]; 14. 84-Michael Lawson[9]; 15. 214-Eric McGahee[3]; 16. 3W-Tristen Woody[4]; 17. 1T-Dale Bennett[20]; 18. 15-Kenneth Colf[14]; 19. 4H-Austin Hatton[17]; 20. 48L-Carson Laws[18]
