Story by: Mason Dunn ~ mason@race22.com
Photos by: Corey Latham
 
South Boston, VA(March 22, 2010) -- After the opening weekend was spoiled by a combination of rain and hail, the teams at South Boston Speedway were greeted with clear blue skies and comfortable temperatures for the second race of the 2010 season. Qualifying was fast paced for the Late Model Stocks as CE Falk would secure the pole with a 15.419 about a tenth off the track record while the separation from second place Philip Morris back to 20th place Lawrence Boan was about half a second.

Meanwhile in Limited Late Model qualifying, Tommy Peregory secured his first pole of 2010 by edging out last week's pole and race winner Justin Snow by 4 thousandths of a second running a 15.826 to Snow's 15.830. Much like in the opener, having the pole position would prove critical come race time.

Peregory would take full advantage of his first place starting position to open up a good lead starting on the very first lap. The race opened up with a 15 lap green flag run with Peregory showing the way by at least four car lengths over Justin Snow. The caution flag made its first appearance on lap 15 when contact from Darryl Carver resulted in Timothy Watkins going for a spin off turn two.

Peregory continued to lead the field while the hard racing was going on in the battle for second between Snow, Jeb Burton, Brian Pembleton, Joey Throckmorton and Danny Willis Jr. Willis was the man on the move as by lap 23 he had improved from his eighth place starting spot up into fourth. The best battle on the track continued to be that for second as Snow, Burton and Willis fought tooth and nail lap after lap.

The second caution came out with 10 laps to go for a three car wreck in turn 2 involving Matt Bowling, Jonathan Bailey and Joey Throckmorton. Throckmorton was the only one able to continue. Peregory got another great jump as the fight for second continued to rage resulting in Jeb Burton looping his machine on lap 46 for the third and final caution of the day. Pembleton made contact with Burton as he spun and had to visit pit road under the yellow.

Back under green Peregory continued to flex his muscle as Snow and Willis fought for second place. As the white flag flew Willis had a slight advantage over Snow and while Peregory cruised onto the victory, Snow and Willis drag raced down the front stretch with Willis winning the race by a few feet over Snow.

The Late Model Stocks took to the track for their 150 lap feature being lead to the green by an impressive front row with CE Falk starting first with Philip Morris to his outside. As the race started it looked like Falk had taken a page out of Peregory's book as he got out to an early lead and tried to run away from the rest of the field.

The green flag stayed out for the first 90 laps of the race during which Falk had been going on a tear putting car after car a lap down. The caution came out for Dustin Storm going for a spin in turn 3 saving Deac McCaskill from going a lap down while leaving only 11 cars on the lead lap. David Latour was one of those 11 running third but was relegated to pit road when his master cylinder failed causing him to lose his brakes.

Unlike the first green flag run, the second one didn't last near as long as Nick Smith went for a spin in turn 4 receiving a good bit of front end damage when Eddie Johnson rolled his right front over top Smith's front end. Smith was sidelined but Johnson was able to continue on.

As the field went back green the battle for the lead began to really heat up between Falk and Justin Johnson picking up where they had left off when the rain came during the season opener. Johnson continued to pressure Falk with a bump here and there until a minor wobble going through turn 2 gave Johnson a look underneath Falk which he used to take the lead on lap 124.

Falk then closed back in on the rear bumper of Johnson and on lap 125 Falk put a bit of pressure and with a bump going into turn 3 Johnson went for a spin bringing out the third caution of the day. Johnson displayed his displeasure with Falk under the caution while his team voiced their displeasures. Johnson was relegated to the rear of the field while Falk took the green flag as the leader but quickly received the black flag for his involvement in the spin handing the lead over to Philip Morris.

As Falk served his black flag the front of the field had a new look with Morris leading, Tommy Lemons Jr. in second, Lee Pulliam third, Stacy Puryear fourth and Rodney Cook rounding out the top five on the track. Lemons began to put more and more pressure on Morris and found an opening underneath Morris going into turn 3 on lap 148 but found his efforts stalled as Natalie Sather went for a spin down the front stretch bringing out the caution and setting up a green, white, checker finish.

Morris appeared to be in prime position to get the victory as they went back green but a flat right front tire going into turn 1 would be a huge road block and would hand the lead over to Lemons becoming the fourth different leader of the day. Morris would drop back to eighth as Lemons began to pull away with Pulliam running second but preoccupied with a hard charging Puryear in third.

Lemons would earn his first victory of 2010 followed closely by Pulliam, Puryear, McCaskill and Cook. Philip Morris would finish tail end of the lead lap in eighth after his misfortune while Justin Johnson and CE Falk would finish sixth and 13th respectively after their incident. The top five consisted of five different drivers than the first 75 lap race on March 13.

Late Model Stock Results
1. #27 Tommy Lemons Jr.
2. #3 Lee Pulliam
3. #17 Stacy Puryear
4. #08 Deac McCaskill
5. #14 Rodney Cook
6. #44 Justin Johnson
7. #57 Eddie Johnson
8. #26 Philip Morris
9. #11 Leigh Caruthers
10. #16 Dustin Storm
11. #50 Lawrence Boan
12. #77 Michael Hardin
13. #40 CE Falk
14. #07 Richard Storm
15. #94 Natalie Sather
16. #48 Jeff Oleen
17. #01 Jeff Shiflett
18. #88 Nick Smith
19. #89 David Latour
20. #03 Kenny Forbes
21. #5 Brandon Dean
22. #9 Bruce Anderson
23. #05 Doug Godsey