Story by: Mason Dunn/RACE22.com Reporter

South Boston, VA(August 6, 2009) -- Twenty-three cars made the haul out to famed South Boston Speedway on August 1 for the Imagine Halifax 150 lap Whelen All American Late Model Stock feature including Motor Mile regular Philip Morris and Langley regular CE Falk who were attracted by the possibility of earning the maximum NASCAR points to improve their respective rankings in the State and National points.

Current State points leader Morris took the pole by the smallest of margins as his time of 15.930 was just under a hundreth of a second faster than the 05 of Doug Godsey who turned in a time of 15.939. CE Falk, Ronald Hill and Nick Smith would complete the top five of the line up all running times under the 16 second mark.

On the start of the race it was a tight battle for the lead between Morris and outside pole sitter Doug Godsey as Morris would lead the first lap by a nose. The front three had put some separation between themselves and fourth place Jonathan Cash before the caution would fly for a big wreck as the 47 of Mike Looney would spin and get heavy contact from Justin Johnson. David Quackenbush, Josh Oakley, Lee Pulliam and Rick Gdovic were also involved in the accident but did not receive much damage.

Godsey took the lead from Morris on lap 16 after pulling a successful bump and run technique. Falk looked to follow Godsey through on the low line but Morris seemed strong on the outside and was holding Falk off. The battle would continue for laps until Morris would wiggle and Falk would clear followed by Cash, Hill and Smith and Brandon Butler would fill the spot underneath the 26 machine battling for the sixth position.

By lap 50 Godsey would be enjoying a half straightaway advantage over the second place machine of Falk while Cash and Smith began to battle for the third place on the track. Smith would make the pass going into turn 1 and take over the third spot on the track. The caution would reappear on lap 56 as Lawrence Boan would spin just as the leader was about to encounter lap traffic. This would bunch up the front of the field with Godsey continuing to lead over Falk, Smith, Cash and Morris.

Falk would use the restart to his advantage and make the pass on Godsey for the lead on lap 63 and soon after trouble would strike Morris as he would appear to have a tire down but would stay on the track with the hopes of a quick caution. Morris would bring his car to the attention of his crew after being put a lap down on lap 69. Morris would be multiple laps down and after going another down to Falk would begin to race him pretty closely.

While the front two of Falk and Smith remained pretty much unchanged the rest of the top ten became a battleground and positions were changing hands a lot. The car on the move towards the end of the first 100 laps was the 57 of Eddie Johnson who started 18th on the field and by lap 90 had moved up to sixth place after bypassing the backtracking machine of Godsey.

Smith decided it was time to get the lead as he caught the 40 of Falk and after some contact Smith would take the lead on lap 116. The third caution of the event came out on lap 119 after the track points leader Deac McCaskill looped his machine and was promptly put a lap down by new leader Smith. Chaos on the ensuing restart as the 74 machine of Hill would spin and Boswell and Forbes would both make hard contact with the outside wall. As the field went for the restart on lap 131 only the top 9 were still on the lead lap.

Falk would once again use the restart as a platform to launch his campaign for the lead and would make contact with the 88 of Smith but Smith would hold strong and continue to lead. Falk would get back underneath Smith on the following lap off turn 4 and would lead lap 134. As Falk cleared Smith's machine his tracks were immediately filled by the oncoming 57 of Johnson who would take over second on the track and immediately set his sights on Falk.

Falk would begin to pull away slightly from Johnson but with 5 to go that margin got smaller and smaller by the second. The two would then have a hard fought battle that ended with the two cars crossing the start finish line at virtually the same time with Falk taking home the win by only a bumper over Johnson. Smith would bring his DA Motorsports Chevy home in third and due to problems for many others in the top five in track points would inherent the lead by nine points over second place David Quackenbush. McCaskill fell to third in the standings 13 back of Smith and only one ahead of fourth place Justin Johnson.

"Eddie's good, Eddie's the man at the long run and especially when it's hot out, he makes me look like a little kid," said an obviously exhausted Falk after the hard fought battle for the win. "I wasn't going to give up its been two years since I won here, I was going to put it in the fence or come home with the steering wheel or come home with the trophy and we got the trophy."

Falk would use the win to replace a seventh place performance in a 15 car field at Langley Speedway on June 20 which is a 33 point boost in the National standings vaulting the young driver up to fourth ahead of Matt Buller from I-80 Speedway in Nebraska. Morris however would be using one of his drops on this event as his 19th place finish only worth 10 NASCAR points was one of his worst of the season.

Final Results
1) (40) CE Falk
2) (57) Eddie Johnson
3) (88) Nick Smith
4) (90) Jonathan Cash
5) (29) Brandon Butler
6) (74) Ronald Hill
7) (22) Laura Hayes
8) (1) Scott Worley
9) (05) Doug Godsey
10) (64) Rick Gdovic
11) (3) Lee Pulliam
12) (50) Lawrence Boan
13) (91) David Quackenbush
14) (00) Richard Boswell
15) (77) Michael Hardin
16) (44) Justin Johnson
17) (03) Kenny Forbes
18) (08) Deac McCaskill
19) (26) Philip Morris
20) (83) Eric Winslow
21) (8) Josh Oakley
22) (47) Mike Looney
23) (28) Chad McCoy