SOUTH BOSTON, Va. — Judging from the looks of the first few races of the early season, it appears the championship chase in the Sentara Healthcare Late Model Stock Car Division at South Boston Speedway will boil down to a battle between six-time South Boston Speedway champion Peyton Sellers and young Carter Langley.
The pair split wins in the twin 60-lap Sentara Healthcare Late Model Stock Car Division races that highlighted Saturday night’s ABC 13 WSET Night Race event at South Boston Speedway.
Langley won the opening 60-lap race, leading twice for a total of 45 laps and edging Sellers by 1.686-seconds.
Sellers won the nightcap, leading the final 35 laps and edging runner-up Jacob Borst by 3.743 seconds as the field slowed to take the caution flag that flew due to rain that forced the race to end seven laps early.
Saturday night marked the second time this season that Langley and Sellers, who had entered the twinbill tied for the division point lead, had split a twin-race event at South Boston Speedway. Both drivers now have four wins at the quarter-mile oval.
“It was tough,” Langley said of his win over Sellers in the opening race that saw the lead swap hands twice between the two drivers. “Peyton definitely gave me a run for the money. We had a good car in the first race and was really rolling. We just didn’t make the right changes for the second race. All in all, it was a good night. We got another win and hopefully we can keep it going.”
Craig Moore finished third behind Langley and Sellers with and Austin Thaxton rounding out the top five finishers.
With an inverted start among the top finishers of the first race, Sellers started eighth and Langley rolled off from the ninth spot. It was Sellers that was better able to slice through traffic. He needed only 19 laps to grab the lead from the race’s pole starter, Brandon Pierce. Once in front, Sellers dominated the race and cruised to the win.
“We had a solid car in the second race,” Sellers remarked. “We just missed it a little in the first race. That’s just racing. These tires were used the whole race last week and we used them again this week. We knew it was going to throw us a little bit of a loop. We made some adjustments for the second race and got it dialed in.
“Brandon Pierce was up there leading and ran me clean,” Sellers added. “I was able to get by him and the car just hooked up and started driving better.”
Langley finished third behind Sellers and Borst with Pierce of Kernersville, North Carolina and Moore completing the top five finishers.
There was only one caution period in each of the two races.
Jason Myers grabbed the lead from Nathan Crews on the 17th lap and edged Crews by a narrow .381-second margin to win the 50-lap Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division race.
Saturday night was a special night Zach Reaves, who led the entire distance and earned his first career win in the 25-lap Southside Disposal Pure Stock Division race, edging his brother, B.J. Reaves by .480-second.
Cameron Goble took the checkered flag first in Saturday night’s 20-lap Virginia State Police HEAT Hornets Division race but the race results have not been declared official.
Bobby Griffin, driving a 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle, took the lead from Chris Hicks with eight laps to go and earned the overall race win and the Sportsman Division win in Saturday night’s 25-lap race for the regional touring Southern Ground Pounders Vintage Racing Club race.