Green Valley Speedway
Last-lap Green Valley tangle gives Michael win
From series and track reports
GLENCOE, Ala. (Sept. 15) — Slipping by on the final lap when race-long leader Randy Weaver and Wendell Wallace got together, Byron Michael grabbed a 75-lap victory at Green Valley Speedway for the richest payday of his career.
The Florence, Ala., driver pocketed $10,000 for his dramatic victory in the Crimson Laundry Man 100 on the Southern Regional Racing Series.
Weaver, gunning for his second career SRRS victory, was in control throughout the race and led the first 74 and a half laps. But Wallace got outside of Weaver on the final lap. As it appeared Wallace would surge ahead and take the victory, Weaver pinched Wallace and the frontrunners got into the backstretch wall.
Michael, poised in the third position, went underneath both of them and won the race to the checkered flag. Weaver recovered in time to finish second with Bo Shirley third and Wallace dropping two spots to fourth on the final lap.
Weaver, the day's fast qualifier and a heat race winner, led early over Wallace with Ray Cook, Billy Mayo and Ronnie Johnson in pursuit. Johnson moved up to third early in the race while Jason Smith dropped Mayo out of the top five.
Weaver had lapped traffic to deal with as Wallace and Johnson stayed right with him and Michael broke into the top five on lap 15 just before Jack Sullivan slowed with a broken shock.
The top five stabilized over the next 18 laps with Weaver, Wallace, Johnson, Cook and Michael holding positions before Anthony Burroughs' lap-33 spin.
During the next stretch of racing, Cook tried to make a move and slid high in turn four with Johnson, and Mayo came from nowhere to grab third. Johnson got past Cook and began pressuring Mayo and Wallace while Michael continued to ride in fifth.
Michael, though, began advancing in the second half of the race, getting past Mayo and then going to the low side to grab second from Wallace after a side-by-side battle.
On lap 72, Weaver and Michael were slowed by a lapped car and Wallace took advantage to make a high-side move. But Weaver got together with the lapped car of Mike Head, who went spinning, and Weaver was able to restart out front with Michael and Wallace lined up behind him.
Wallace regained second from Michael on the final restart and moved to the high side to challenge Weaver on the last lap. The frontrunners were dead even exiting turn two on the final lap when Wallace smacked the outside wall down the backstretch. Michael shot past both cars and grabbed the checkered flag.
Notebook
Michael drives a Rocket Chassis sponsored by TNT Fireworks ... Michael, 35 points behind SRRS leader Billy Mayo entering the race, tightened up the title chase with just four races remaining. ... The series heads to Duck River Speedway in Wheel, Tenn., for a $10,000 event on Sept. 21-22. ... Friday's wet conditions at Green Valley shortened the originally scheduled two-day event to a single car with preliminaries run during a daytime session on Saturday and the remainder of the event on Saturday evening.
Crimson Laundry Man 100: (1) Byron Michael, (2) Randy Weaver, (3) Bo Shirley, (4) Wendell Wallace, (5) Billy Mayo, (6) Jason Smith, (7) Ray Cook, (8) Garrett Durrett, (9) Tony Knowles, (10) Robert Gant, (11) Ronnie Johnson, (12) Dane Dacus, (13) Mike Head, (14) Aaron Ridley, (15) Mike Luna, (16) Eric Hickerson, (17) Royce Bray, (18) Tony Morris, (19) Gar Dickson, (20) Jack Sullivan, (21) Dingus Griffin, (22) Ronny Lee Hollingsworth, (23) Anthony Burroughs, (24) Todd Morrow.
Correction: An earlier version of this story reported that Michael drove a TNT Race Car. It's a Rocket Chassis.
