Altamahaw, NC(June 7, 2009) -- The weather once again looked awful, but Ace Speedway was not going to give up the fight on this day. After getting rained out the week before, the skies opened up Friday morning and caused much flash-flooding throughout the Piedmont area.

Things looked bleak, but the future radar was promising, and right after lunch the decision was made....we were going racing. Partly sunny skies prevailed the rest of the day, and on the track, something else was prevailing once more, Speedy Faucette. He once again had his hands full with Robert Turner, and behind them it got even wilder.

Thinking the worst on car count because of the weather and late call on the "go-ahead", it was a pleasant surprise to see 13 cars sitting on pit road. The only car not back from last week was Dennis Holdren who broke a hub in qualifying and had hard impact with the turn 1 wall. Things looked great, and once again for the 236th time this year, Speedy Faucette set fast time to pick up the pole award. His closest competitor this year, Robert Turner, would roll off 2nd, followed by Dustin Rumley, a great run for Brad Kurth, and another awesome run for John Moore who has moved up to the Late-Model ranks in 09' after running the Limited division.

Faucette would jump away at the green followed by Turner and Rumley. The top 3 would go single file at the beginning, but behind them they were dicing it up. Rodney Cook has never been a great qualifier, and he had his work cut out for him once again as he rolled off 7th. It didn't take long though, as by lap 5 he had moved into the 5th spot around Kurth. Brad's day was about to get a lot worse than just getting passed though.

As we clicked off lap 7, Kurth goes into turn 1 and something on the front right suspension breaks sending him extremely hard into the wall. The car gets airborne, burst into flames and comes to a rest as Kurth scurries out and lays down on the track. It was the hardest hit many had ever seen at the track, and later Kurth talked about it after he caught his breath. "I don't know what happened, the hub Isn't broke, I just went in there, it laid down and never turned. It felt like I gained 50mph after it broke. I think I broke my dagum jaw (smiling). I've hit very hard at Concord before, but I think that one is the worst I've ever taken". It indeed was a scary moment, we were all glad to see Brad walk away, he'll be back next week.

After the red flag for the cleanup, Faucette and Turner let everyone know they were the class of the field. It looked as if Rumley could keep up at first, but the front two were really hooked up, they pulled off and left the field. Cook was still coming, as he made his way around John Moore on lap 10 for 4th, and set his sights on Rumley. 10 laps later he was there, a lap later he was past, and it looked as if Cook would have something for the leaders before the end of the race. Behind them Ryan Wilson is mounting his own charge from his 10th starting spot. Little did all these charging drivers know how their luck would be on this night.

Faucette was leading as usual, but Turner was all over him for the lead. Every lap, their different driving styles being highlighted, it was close to contact. Faucette drives the corner smooth, breaking early and getting the good bit off the corner. Turner dives into the corner hard, nearly getting under the #37 each lap, but doing so let's Faucette pull him off the corner. It became evident that the only way around Faucette for the lead was to use the bumper, which Turner did a few times, but not enough to get Speedy from the top spot, the cars were just extremely close performance wise.

Rodney Cook looked to be a man on a mission early on, but after he got by Rumley for 3rd, it seemed a parachute was opened behind him. He started to come back to Rumley and Dustin made the move under Cook on lap 60, only to have his car slide up and make contact with Cook. The two cars slid around in turn 2, with Rumley's car sitting across the hood of Cook's. Both drivers were frustrated, and their cars looked to be done for the night, but after repairs both were able to continue without losing a lap under caution for the long clean-up. Cook knew his car was getting worse. "I thought I had something for the leaders at the first of the race, then I noticed my right front started to lay over. I would come off the corner and it felt as if the left front wheel was in the air, and it just started to push off more and more, I think the shock was starting to fail. Dustin came back to me and I gave him the inside, he just slid up and got into me. No big deal, it was just racing, we'll go on to the next one".

It was now going to be a 15 lap shootout, and if Turner had anything for Faucette, he had better use it now. One of two things happened then, either Turner had used everything he had already, or Speedy was holding back the whole time, because he just flat out left the field. Turner was comfortably in 2nd, but John Moore had his hands full with Ryan Wilson for the 4th spot. Wilson has had a few weeks of bad luck of late, and it continued on this night, as he had a right front tire go down inside of 5 laps. Speedy would win, Turner 2nd, and John Moore in a very strong 3rd.

Another wild night at Ace, and another victory for Faucette. It looks as if he could dominate the year, but every week the competition gets closer with adjustments. What's bad for them is Speedy works on his car every day too. Could we see some outsiders in the next few weeks knock him from his throne?