Colt and Jimmy both win at Charlotte County

ASA Late Model Series PR
10/20/2008

Colt James wins the race, Jimmy Lang wins the Championship and it all happened at Charlotte County Motorsports Park on Saturday, October 18th. The Florida grand stands were packed with excited fans that got to see one of the best races of the season; spins, wins, side by side, lead changes, it was electrifying excitement.

The ASA Late Model Series presented by GM Performance Parts teams came out and put on a Championship Feature to remember. The fans got to personally meet all the teams during the pre race autograph session and that fueled their fire when it came to cheering on their favorite.

Colt James headed home with his 3rd win of the season and took a respectable 2nd place in the season point’s championship. Colt had a great night at CCMP but he needed to finish at least 3 positions in front of ‘Jack Rabbit’ Jimmy Lang to win the Championship. Colt took the lead at lap 110 of the 125 Championship race and Jimmy Lang fell back to 3rd for the finish.

Jimmy Lang had an up and down night on the track, he qualified 7th but the inversion of 10 put him in starting position 4. He was able to take the lead at lap 26 from Chad Pierce who had dominated the 1st 25 laps of the race; still he was only able to hold on for about 10 laps or so before Justin Larson cruised on by and held the lead for about a dozen Laps.

Jimmy determined to keep his points lead and position fought to get it back and he did at lap 48. He held onto that lead for 60 plus laps giving him the most lead laps of the event. At this point Colt’s win meter was on overdrive and he powered his way to the front to lead the last 15 laps of the event. Jimmy concentrated on keeping his position and making sure he finished within 2 spots of Colt to win the Championship.

The 88 Justin Larson from Clearwater, Florida had a great night, he was battling the 2008 Rookie of the Year title with two other top contenders; 75 David Odell and 59 Dustin Dunn. Justin qualified 2nd quick but the inversion put him starting 9th in the event with his closest contender David Odell starting 7th. The point’s battle was so close with Justin having only a two point lead over David going into the event.

Both Justin and David also had to worry about Dustin Dunn who was only 30 or so points behind them coming in. Dustin a Florida native had something they both didn’t, lot’s of experience on this track. Although Dustin did not qualify to make it inside the inversion draw, 125 laps was plenty of time to work his way to the front.

David had some tough luck that put him to the tail and he spent much of the evening picking of one car after another as he pursued both Justin and Dustin. All three had great finishes; Justin Larson 2nd, Dustin Dunn 6th and David Odell 7th. Justin Larson may have been hoping for his 1st win of the season, but the 2008 ASA Late Model Series South Division Rookie of the Year title put a smile on his face.

The Championship race had 12 cautions not unexpected when the stakes are so high. Luckily most of them were just spins without inflicting a lot of damage on the cars. One Caution however may go down in history for the fans watching at CCMP. The 51 Stephen Nasse went air born on lap 40 he flew into the fence and then proceeded to barrel roll back on to the track before he slid into the infield. The fans behind that fence got to see the bottom of Stephen’s Car as it was mid air. Stephen was looked over by the EMS and was found in good shape although the car may need some work.

Stephen Nasse a home town boy from Pinellas, Florida had a pretty good group of folks out to watch him. I can imagine that this was one electrifying moment for all of them. Stephen had a late start this season running just a handful of southern events and was hoping to bring home a top finish for his fans.

The 31 Brian Blum has a stellar night; Brian won the ARP Bodies Fast Qualify Award and even though he started tenth due to the invert he finished 5th for the event. Fountain Motorsports teams; 57 Chad Pierce and 3 Blake Lehr both had solid top ten finishes. Rounding out the top ten positions were 97 Patrick Staropoli who is our only teams to date attending Harvard University finished 9th and 127 of Kyle Maynard out of Weirsdale, Florida finished 10th.