Randy Weaver Crowned ULTIMATE King of the Commonwealth at Virginia Motor Speedway

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Randy Weaver Crowned ULTIMATE King of the Commonwealth at Virginia Motor Speedway

Jamaica, Virginia (April 11, 2015) – Coming in to the ULTIMATE Super Late Model Series sanctioned Aaron’s King of the Commonwealth at Virginia Motor Speedway the name being talked about more than any other was the white-hot Randy Weaver of Crossville, Tennessee. After all, the 45 year old driver was off to his best season start of his career having won each of the 4 events he had entered thus far. So most of the dirt late model world was wondering if Weaver could keep his winning streak alive at a facility he had never even seen before. And what was Weaver’s answer? A resounding yes in the form of a dominating win that saw him set overall fast time, win his heat race and lead every lap of the sixty lap feature to garner the biggest payday of his career.

“The good Lord is being real good to me right now and I don’t know why. I owe everything to Him. But man what a race car and crew. I’m tellin’ ya anybody in them grandstands can drive this thing. It about drives itself. And Josh and Grant and my owners Chip and Rusty Stone are here this weekend. This awesome Cornett power. This Longhorn Chassis, everywhere we go…I mean I have never seen this place, I have just heard great things about it, and I can’t believe that my name is in history down here now.” said a very jubilant Weaver in his victory lane interview. Weaver picks up his second ULTIMATE Super Late Model victory of the season which is his richest to date. “What an incredible facility here. This is just an awesome place. For promoters to take a chance like this in our sport…we really appreciate facilities like Virginia Motor Speedway.”

Weaver picked up the M&W Transport Haulin’ It Fast Time Award of $500 by best the stellar field of 47 Super Late Models with his lap of 16.518 seconds around Bill Sawyer’s big half mile. Only 4 other drivers dipped below the 17 second mark on the evening including Chris Ferguson, Steve Francis, Scott Bloomquist and Earl Pearson, Jr. Weaver, Pennsylvania’s Mason Zeigler, defending Aaron’s King of the Commonwealth champion Jonathan Davenport and Bloomquist all picked up Schaeffer Racing Oil Heat Race wins. While Ferguson and Dan Stone each took a win in the last chance qualifiers. ULTIMATE Series point leader Casey Roberts was forced to take a provisional start after suffering engine problems during his heat race. DirtonDirt.com Rookie of the Year leader Dustin Mitchell also took a provisional start after falling from a transfer spot in his heat because of suspension damage.

At the drop of the green flag Weaver surged to the lead. And while out front Weaver’s progress was only slowed as he encountered lapped traffic it was a very different story behind him. Davenport and Zeigler waged a battle for the runner-up spot from the outset. Davenport was able to slip into 2nd on the opening lap. However on the 4th circuit Zeigler was able to use his outside line to grab 2nd while Bloomquist and Chris Madden gave chase from the 4th and 5th positions. Davenport continued to stalk Zeigler and when Bloomquist jumped into the mix, Davenport turned up the wick. Bloomquist rolled by Davenport down the back straightaway but Davenport would have no part of it. He drove his Longhorn machine to the high side of turns 3 and 4 moving back by Bloomquist and setting up Zeigler for the slider through turns one and two to retake the 2nd position.

Up front Weaver was cruising but beginning to encounter back marker traffic. Weaver was able to negotiate the lap machines with relative ease as he was able to move his race car all over the track when he needed to. However Weaver’s only real scare of the event came as he was attempting to put Ricky Elliott down a lap. Weaver entered turn 3 hard in order to slide by the high running Elliott. Weaver’s machine began to hop wildly as he slid up the track. No harm, no foul for Weaver however as the yellow waved for the final time of the night when Earl Pearson, Jr. stopped on the track. Weaver was able to continue with no issues after the scare. “I thought I had knocked the tires off it there. I heard them call for the caution and I was checking up as it was sliding to the outside. I shook it back and forth and made sure everything was still under me.” Weaver added.

Under him it was as he powered away on the final restart and held on to win the $20,000 winner’s purse. Davenport settled for 2nd and Bloomquist finished in the 3rd position. In addition to the nice payday, event title-sponsor Aaron’s Inc. presented Weaver with a new 49” LG 4K Ultra HD Television as a part of the Aaron’s “Best Seat in the House” Promotion. The win was Weaver’s 5th in a row for 2015 and brought his 2015 winnings to over $45,000.

Official Finish

1 – 116 Randy Weaver
2 - 6 Jonathan Davenport
3 - 0 Scott Bloomquist
4 - 22 Gregg Satterlee
5 - 44 Chris Madden
6 - 101 Casey Roberts
7 - 15 Steve Francis
8 - 25Z Mason Zeigler
9 - 22 Chris Ferguson
10 - 5 Don O’Neal
11 - 1S Gary Stuhler
12 - 38S Kenny Pettyjohn
13 - 51 Dustin Mitchell
14 - 11 Austin Hubbard
15 - 2 Dennis Franklin
16 - 4 Amanda Whaley
17 - 2S Dan Stone
18 - 16 Matt Cochran
19 - 1 Earl Pearson, Jr.
20 - 88 Ricky Elliott
21 - 87 Walker Arthur
22 - 281 Kyle Pierce
23 - 44 Stevie Long
24 - 157 Mike Marlar

DNS: Anthony Sanders, Jamie Lathroum, Jason Covert, David Watts, Tim Dohm, Kyle Lear, Joe Leavell, Tim Allen, Darrell Dow, Nick Davis, Brian Tavenner, Russell Erwin, David Zona, Mike Parker, Kevin Wilson, GR Smith, Jason Miller, Donald Lingo, Jr., Ross Robinson, Kenny Moreland, Les Hare, Pancho Lawler and Joe Cox.

[jog49]

I was impressed by Weaver. There's was plenty of "heat" in the feature but his car looked like he was out on a Sunday cruise with the family. He, literally, just drove away in a perfectly handling car!

[Ralphy]

Watching Davenport's heat race was worth the price of admission alone.

[CrankedUp90]

Watching Davenport's heat race was worth the price of admission alone.

Yes it was!!!! Overall a great night of racing! Ran a little late but was due to the car count, which is a good problem to have! lol.. Probably make my way back down next month for their only other Super Late model show of the year..