STORY COURTESY SOUTHERN PRO CHALLENGE
In his debut to the Pro Challenge Series, Late Model ace Russell Fleeman went to victory lane at Lanier Saturday night, passing Anderson Bowen on the final lap. With this being the final points event of the season, the South Region shows that adults can compete in this series and run up front as well. However, Russell stated these kids are very competitive and was impressed as to how they handle these very fast race cars.
With nine cars showing up for the final points race, heat races were divided into two events. Fleeman, starting from the pole in heat number one, was given chase by the 6 car of John Morgan Tullis and the 11 of Nick Hazelwood. The two of them stayed right on his tail for the 10-lap event and crossed the start/finish line in this order. Heat number two had the 18 truck of Jesse Hoek on the pole with the 29 of Bowen on the outside and newcomers Michael Buckner and Jacob Cochran behind them. The drop of the green had Bowen taking the lead going into turn one with Hoek and Buckner right on his tail. With Hoek doing battle with Buckner for the 2nd spot Bowen took the checkered flag, thus setting up the front row for the 25-lap feature.
With Fleeman on the pole and Bowen outside, racing got interesting at the drop of the green. Fleeman took the lead going into turn one. Bowen let him know he was there and ran him hard with Tullis, Hazelwood, Hoek and Buckner right behind them. As Bowen dogged Fleeman through each and every corner, he showed Russell that this kid can drive a race car and made the pass on him going into turn one on lap 3. With the event going caution free, Bowen lead until the final lap when his car slipped just a bit coming out of turn 4 allowing Fleeman to get under him coming to the white flag, thus giving an adult the first victory of the season in the South Region.
While in victory lane Russell made comment as to how quick Anderson gets around this track and that he would not have been able to make the pass had Bowen not slipped coming out of 4.
"I had already settled for second, but when the hole opened I had to plug it," stated Fleeman. "It's amazing how fast these cars are in comparison to my Late Models. For a scale car to be so close in times to what we run with our full size cars is impressive. I'm preparing this car for my daughter and look forward to seeing her compete in the future. And it looks as though Michael did a good job for his first time out in my second car."
Special notes of interest: Austin Raines once again showed his driving skills as his throttle stuck at the start of his heat race and he looped the car without any damage. After finding the problem and making repairs he ran the entire feature. This shows his determination for driving one of these cars. Newcomer Jacob Cochran did a great job on the speedway. Having never been on the track before he made laps and stayed out of the leaders way giving him the experience he needs to compete in this series.
Now that the regular season of racing is over, we still have 3 non-points events at Lanier National Speedway beginning on September 11 for the RaceCiever Shootout. We look forward to these special races and invite everyone to attend. Our thanks go out to all of the ones that have supported us this season.
