By Sara Page, Midlothian Exchange
spage@midlothianexchange.com

Friday the 13th brought its share of bad luck to the track at Southside Speedway on Aug. 13.

Several cautions kept a 75-lap race going well into the night, a fireball cruised around the track for several feet, a car was tossed from the race for intentionally bumping another car under caution, and an entire line accordioned on a restart. And that was just the Late Model division race.

The longest series of cautions came out mid-race. It started on lap 20 when the No. 43 car of Eddie Johnson and the 02 car of Greg Fernandez got together in turn two. Mike Kersey in the No. 7 car spun trying to avoid the mess. Fernandez prolonged the caution trying to bait Johnson afterward and was tossed from the race.

On the double-file restart, the entire top line got together to keep the caution flying.

Officials were forced to restart the restart after the fourth caution in lap 30, but drivers didn’t get far. Four laps later, the No. 6 car of Shannon Marano, which had lost its hood in the accordion incident, became a fireball in turn three. Marano dodged into the pits and jumped out of the car to grab his tools before medical personnel could get to him.

By the time the caution flag flew for the sixth time in lap 40, officials decided to count caution laps in order to get the race in, and the 18-car field had taken three casualties.

Drivers came out of the final yellow flag of the night with four laps to go and leaders Shayne Lockhart and Chris Hopkins battled for position.

With Hopkins on his bumper, Lockhart tried to keep the corners tight and the straight-aways fast.

Meanwhile, the crowd lost sight of the racers because the No. 86 car of Kevin Minter blew up as the pack crossed the start/finish line with one lap remaining. Spewing thick grey smoke, Minter make it around the track for the last time but rendered everything after turn one a fog.

“What got me was I was on the inside and they told me I was clear, but I didn’t hear that I was clear and I had all the smoke along the race track. I didn’t know where any cars were at, so I was just trying to get to the checkered flag before [Hopkins] did by a fender,” Lockhart said of the smoky finish.

All races gave drivers a chance to double their points and Lockhart made inroads on a big lead held by Chris Dodson, but Dodson finished third and maintains a 260-point lead over Lockhart in the standings.

“Chris has got a pretty good lead on us,” Lockhart said. “I’d just rather see us do it out there on the race track. We got caught too low one week during the race and early in in the season, that put us way behind, so we’re not really points racing. We’re out here to win races. We’ve been racing out here a long time and that’s all we’re trying to do is win the race.”

In the U-Car division, Jamie Hite picked up his third win of the season and jumped three spots in the point standings.

Starting second, Hite got a good jump on the start and took first immediately. By lap three, he held a ¼-track advantage and stayed in front for the win.

Still, despite three wins and six top-five finishes in the last eight races, Hite remains 1180 points off division leader David Kerns, who took second in Friday’s race.

“We couldn’t get the money together to get the car started at the beginning of the season, so we started late, but we’re going,” Hite said.

The Champ Karts gave, by far, the best finish of the night.

Jason Higginbotham and Brad Davis pulled ahead of the rest of the field with five laps remaining, but stayed nose to tail on each other.

On the white-flag lap, Davis took the bottom side of the track and the lead as the two crossed the start/finish line. He blocked Higginbotham in turn three to maintain the lead going into the final lap but spun in turn four and took second as he crossed the finish line backwards. Higginbotham got the win.

Top five in each division were as follows:

Champ Kart: 1. Jason Higginbotham; 2. Brad Davis; 3. Clint Gunn; 4. Hunter Ashworth; 5. Mike Matthews.

Modified: 1. Thomas Stinson; 2. Mike Rudy; 3. Warren Lipford, Jr.; 4. Stacey Wilbourne; 5. Brian Scott.

U-Car: 1. Jamie Hite; 2. David Kerns; 3. Mike Chapman; 4. Frank Silva; 5. Charlie Simons.

Late Model: 1. Shayne Lockhart; 2. Chris Hopkins; 3. Chris Dodson; 4. Eddie Johnson; 5. Jeff Oakley.

Grand Stock: 1. Shawn Hopkins; 2. Tommy Tatum; 3. Brian Myslivey; 4. Mark Simpson; 5. J.D. Eversole.

Street Stock: 1. Mike Ganoe; 2. Justin Groome; 3. Jason Beck; 4. James Loving; 5. Michael Sutphin.