Story by: Corey Latham ~ corey@RACE22.com

Altamahaw, NC(August 2, 2009) -- Another night at Ace Speedway and another night of wide-open Late-Model action.

So far this year, while Ace hasn't had the car counts to rival other tracks, the action has been all that a race fan could dream of. Side-by-side racing, bumping and beating, and a occasional scuffle or two has kept the interest high. Speedy Faucette has been reeling the wins off, but after a few weeks he had new competition taking wins away in the form of Robert Turner and Rodney Cook. New surprises and challenges rise up every week there, and now the top 3 drivers have become 4, with the newest driver to start some domination of his own, Dustin Rumley.

The sky was very threatening Friday night, which may have played a factor in the field only being 11 cars long. But, knowing how the season had been here, they could have 3 cars and it still be a great race. RD Smith was on hand, and had raced here a few times already this season, and was back with a great looking 16 car that everyone had their eye on. And for good reason, as he went out late in the qualifying order, he took the pole on his first lap, and even bettered it on lap 2 beating the field by nearly 2 tenths. His pole status was short lived though, about 35 seconds to be exact, as he rolled across the scales 20lbs too light, putting him to the rear of the field for the feature. The top 5 was now Rumley, a great run by Jason Payne to start 2nd, Faucette, Cook, and John Moore rounded out the top 5.

The cars were lined up ready to start, but one regular name was not in the field. Robert Turner, who is 3rd in points, did not have his #13 machine at the track on Friday. He was in attendance, as he is an inspector for the lower divisions and stated that his weekly job had an extreme workload this past week, and he did not get to work on his car. "We just didn't get a chance to do anything to it this week, I thought it would be alright missing tonight. We have already missed 2 races, and unless Speedy has mechanical failure two races, we are out of the points. But after getting here and seeing the cars on the track, I'm starting to question myself", said Turner.

With Turner looking on, Rumley led the field to the green flag. Faucette quickly jumped under Jason Payne for second, knowing if Rumley were to get too far ahead, it would be over before it started. Faucette got a good run off turn 2, diving under the #9 machine of Payne, and almost "too" good of a run off turn 4, nearly spinning himself out exiting the corner. Speedy was able to make the pass on lap 5, and Rodney Cook was the next to work on Payne. John Moore, a rookie this year to the LMSC ranks was once again lurking right behind the leaders.

Rumley was in another zip code from the get-go. He pulled out to nearly a straightaway lead over the field, and pretty much held it the entire race. Moore was able to catch up and pass Cook on lap 15, and then set his sights on Faucette, and began to reel him in. RD Smith, who had to start from the rear, was making noise coming through the field, moving into the top 5 before the 20 lap mark. He was able to get by Cook and Moore, as all 3 flew by Payne in one lap, putting the #9 from 3rd to 6th in the blink of an eye. But Smith's run would fall off as the race wore on.

Up front, it was all Rumley on this night. His car had a noticeable great bite off the corners, and was stretching his already large lead out even further. Speedy was just hoping to keep him in sight, and Moore started to come back to Cook, who had put Smith back behind them all, just as fast as he had passed them. Smith ended up having a torrid battle with Payne for the last 20 laps of the race, and Cook was able to walk down Moore for 3rd, who had lost the handle just a few laps from the finish. Cook had started to gain on Faucette, but the laps ran out for another pass, and Speedy once again padded his point lead over the field.

Of all of the races this year, all have been close but three ... a dominating win by Speedy, one by Cook, and this Friday night by Rumley. Dustin is a welcome addition to the battle up front, he's been close, but not quite over that small hump. And as he stated, "We have hit on something", and until he "misses", the field is going to have their work cut out for them. Just think, add Turner back to the mix in 2 weeks, and it will be just that much better.
 
Unofficial Results
1) Dustin Rumley
2) Speedy Faucette
3) Rodney Cook
4) John Moore
5) RD Smith
6) Jason Payne
7) Dean Fogleman
8) Joseph Tucker
9) Kevin Parker
10) Coy Hedrick
11) Elliott Jewell