RINGGOLD, Ga. – Randy Weaver led every lap of the Valvoline Iron-Man Late Model Southern Series Stars and Stripes 40 Friday evening at Boyd’s Speeday to earn a trip to victory lane and $5,000.
Weaver would take the lead at the start of the Stars and Stripes 40 feature event, with Jensen Ford, Sam Seawright, Pierce McCarter and Donald McIntosh in pursuit. McIntosh would take fourth from McCarter on lap three while Weaver would pull away from second place Ford just a bit. The first caution of the race waved on lap seven when Jordan Rodabaugh would slow on the backchute and be pushed off, done for the night.
The next restart would be called back, with the next attempted restart not seeing a lap completed as Tommy Taylor would contact the outside the retaining wall in turn four and be done for the event. Action would finally get back in underway, with Weaver, Ford, Seawright, McIntosh, and McCarter still holding down the top five positions. Dalton Cook would challenge McCarter for the fifth position and would work past McCarter for the spot on lap eight.
Weaver would extend his lead and start working traffic on lap 14 and put some lapped traffic between himself and second place Ford. A spin by Farrell Skelton on lap 18 and draw the caution to slow the action and restart would also see the caution appear once again when Robby Mason made heavy contact with the outside retaining wall in turn three and see his race be finished.
The top five would remain the same on the restart and Weaver would again pull away from the field and began working traffic again on lap thirty-one. Weaver would settle in and ride at this point, allowing Ford to begin to close the gap on Weaver, however, Weaver would maintain the lead and see the checkered flag first, with Ford settling for second, and Seawright completing the podium finishers in third.
McIntosh and Cook would complete the top five. Pierce McCarter, Wil Herrington, Tyler Millwood, Heath Hindman, and Jed Emert would round out the top ten finishers of the event.
The finish:
Randy Weaver, Jensen Ford, Sam Seawright, Donald McIntosh, Dalton Cook, Pierce McCarter, Wil Herrington, Tyler Millwood, Heath Hindman, Jed Emert, John Ownbey, Dillon Tidmore, Billy Franklin, Jeff Neubert, Dusty Carver, Jason Croft, Andy Picklesimer, Robby Moses, Todd Morrow, Tim Thornton, Farrell Skelton, Jordan Rodabaugh, Tommy Taylor.