top of the car, a special moment in any racers career getting your first win. Behind him the Dalton gand were happy with their second place finish, and thought they had finished second in the division standings as Zimmerman came home sixth. Zimmerman begins to do donuts on the frontstretch in celebration, until it was finally made know to everyone what had happened, he didn't recieve any points for the race making Dalton the champion. then the Zimmerman group was steaming, as the Dalton bunch went wild.

Bassett nosed his car up to the wall and did a burnout to make Kyle Busch proud, as Dalton did his own donuts in turn one, all the while Zimmerman was loading up his car, feeling that he had been robbed. Yes, it was controversial, but tracks live and learn, the two best cars finished up front for the title, and new rivalries were born. Zimmerman has had a stranglehold on the track for some time now, but Dalton has shown he is the up and coming driver, and is going to give any competition he faces a run for their money. Zimmerman will not go down wthout a fight though, and next year looks to be something to see.

Best thing is that Zimmerman, Dalton and Coleman will all be racing in the Southeast Limited series race this weekend at Ace, and im sure sparks will fly once again between the three. Thanks to all the drivers for a great year, it's been a blast.

Limited Late Model Results:
Race #1
1. Mack Little
2. Jesse Little
3. Jacob Creed
4. Dillon Bassett
5. Boo Boo Dalton
6. Dan Discepoli
7. Steven Truell
8. Ziggy Zimmerman
9. Tony Ramsey
10. Cole Apple
11. David Sell
12. Johnny Stovall
13. Bethany Stovall
14. Patrick Coleman
15. Ben Walker
16. Marvin Oliver

Race #2
1. Dillon Bassett
2. Boo Boo Dalton
3. Mack Little
4. Jesse Little
5. Cole Apple
6. Ben Walker
7. David Sell
8. Patrick Coleman
9. Jacob Creed
10. Bethany Stovall
11. Steven Truell
12. Tony Ramsey
13. Johnny Stovall
14. Dan Discepoli
15. Ziggy Zimmerman
16. Billy Martin
 

Story by: Corey Latham ~ corey@RACE22.com

Altamahaw, NC(September 21, 2010) -- Ace Speedway ended the season with a bang this past Friday night as two more champions were crowned in the tracks featured divisions.

As Dustin Rumley and Ben Walker were crowned the week before in the Late Model and Extreme divisions amid much controversy, the Limited's, Mini-Stocks and Modifieds still had champions to be decided on the final night. And to keep true to form, more controversy was witnessed, and nobody could of scripted this one. We'll go ahead and get the easy one out of the way, as Randy Butner took home the modified title and the first championship of any kind in his long career.

Butner, a former NASCAR Busch Series competitor and current Bowman Gray and touring modifed driver finished his season off with a pair of second place finishes in twin events, both won by Richard Thomas. The mod title was close till the end, but was without the controversy that the other divisions had offered, and Butner winning the title was a popular one as he is one of the most respected racers in the region, and one of the nicest guys anyone could ever meet. Look for more on Butner in the offseason as we look deeper into his role as the program director at Forsyth Technical Community College's highly acclaimed Motorsports program.

The Mini-Stock's first 20 lapper was full of controversy, as point leader Micheal Tucker had the championship sowed up, his closest contender Chuck Wall was a no-show after experiencing many late season engine problems. But they still had a race to run, and his arch rival for many years, AJ Sanders was making an appearance on this evening. As Tucker moves into the early lead, Sanders makes contact and cars go flying. After a red flag, some pit road equipment throwing, on track punches and more racing carnage, Peanut Vernon picked up the win. Tucker would make repairs and come back to win the rather tame second 20 lapper and the championship, his third in a row at Ace.

Now, we go from a wholesome normal point battle in the mods, and a runaway in the Mini-Stocks, to crazy, angry, close and unbelieveable in the Limiteds. Coming into the night Ziggy Zimmerman had a 14 point lead, and a big grudge from the last race with his closest competitor Boo Boo Dalton. The pair had had many run in's throughout the year, and had easily been the class of the field, with the rivalry coming to a head the last time out as Dalton spun Zimmerman from the lead late to pick up the win. Zimmerman had the points in hand as he had been there for every event, Dalton had missed a few races alltogether, but as Ace announced a few weeks ago they were restructuring the points letting rivers drop their worst finishes. As Zimmerman was dropping second place finishes, Dalton dropped races he was not even at, and the points were tight once more opening the door for anything and everything.......and that's what we got.

A hefty field of 17 cars were on hand for the twin 20-lappers, and some new faces were among the mix. Mack Little was making his first appearance of the year, fresh off his Limited win at North Wilkesboro, and simply destoyed the field to pick up the pole by three tenth's over Zimmerman. Jesse Little, son of former NASCAR Cup driver Chad Little, timed in third followed by Dalton and Jacob Creed. Dalton would start from 12th for the race as ordered by the track for winning the last four races, and his championship hopes looked slim. But they got better before the green flag ever flew.

Ace is one of the few tracks in America that does "hot laps" before the races for the feutured events, as it gets heat into the tires to cut down on wheel spin on the opening laps, as the thought is that cold tires cause drivers to lose traction and cause wrecks early on. As the field paced around at speed all was well, until they came back to the caution to get lined up to race as Zimmerman ducked onto pit road. Zimmerman has always been the model of reliability, his equipment simply never fails him. But, all things can break, and it all came unraveled for Zimmerman in one night. As the field took the green he was coming off pit road, trying to fix a broken plug wire, but his worries would get worse.

Mack Little would jump to the early lead with Jacob Creed falling in behind, Jesse Little had got stuck on the outside and drop kicked back to fifth by Patrick Coleman and Dillon Bassett. Coleman was trying out a brand new car and looked good in the first event, as he moves by Creed for second on lap five. Meanwhile, Dalton was picking his way steadily through the field while Zimmerman's troubles got worse, as he caught back up with the field the backmarker car of Billy Martin came down on the #23 knocking the right front toe out severely, he was just hanging on for the rest of race one.

All day long the talk had been about Mack Little, as he was fast in practice and qualifying, many were wondering if anybody could run with him at all. Coleman let it be know that he wasn't going to walk off and leave him, as he stayed 2 car lengths behind Little for the majority of the event. He would not finish there though.

As the race wore on with Ace's "cone restart" through a few cautions, Dalton made his way up to third behind Coleman. On lap 12 Dalton jumps under coleman and the two wage a war, beating and banging side-by-side lap after lap until Dalton moves ahead three laps later. Coleman regroups and immediately dives back under Dalton to take the spot away on lap 16 as they cross the line and race into turn one. As they come off turn two, Dalton sticks his nose back under Coleman and contact is made, as Coleman goes spinning bringing out the caution once more. Under caution the fireworks start to fly, as Coleman comes around the field and drives hard into the rear of Dalton as they crawl around under caution. Coleman then exits his car and walks down the backstretch to meet Dalton as officials attempt to drag the 6ft+, 240lb+ plus driver to the infield without much success. Coleman finally gets brought in the confines of the retaining walls but not before showing his displeasure with Dalton with gestures made popular by some wrestlers from the WWE.

As Coleman was still fuming, Dalton recieved the black flag putting him to the back of the field. Dillon Bassett would line up on the outside of Mack Little for the restart, but would never get a chance to show what he had out there as the caution would wave once more a lap later. Now it was Jesse Little's turn on the outside, and he gave the elder Little a run for his money.

As the green waved Jesse Little hung tough tot he outside, with Mack L. clearing him entering turn three. A lap later Jesse Little would get intot he back of Mack off turn four, causing both cars to swerve towrds the inside wall. Mack Little would hold on fending off Jesse Little for the win, followed by Creed, Bassett, and Dalton coming back up to fifth. After some fisticuffs between Coleman's and Dalton's fathers on the spotters stand, the tone was set for race two, everyone was on edge, fans included.

Mack Little would draw a five out of the bag putting Dalton on the pole for race two. Zimmerman had made repairs and said the car was ready to go, he would have to start from the back but with the restarts being plentiful on this night, he was confident he could get to the front rather quickly. Once again hot laps were run, and once again Zimmerman hits pit road. The field would line up, but unlike last time Zimmerman never made it back out, ignition problems ending his night in the red and white #23......but not ending his night completely.

As the field goes green the caution is immediately put out for an incident in the first turn, and the field lines back up how they started as it would be a full restart, the scoreboard was still on lap zero. Coleman had his second car starting and parking the event with Extreme champion Ben Walker behind the wheel, and he was ordered to pit road immediately and Zimmerman climbed in, and took the green flag to complete lap one......or so he thought.

As the field raced early on, it was announced over the PA that Zimmerman would not be recieving any points as Walker took the green to start the race, even though Zimmerman completed the first lap. Had he know this, we might be telling a very different story about the rest of the evening, but Zimmerman was without a radio, as he barely got buckled in completely to take the green flag.

The race up front was a youth movement for the second 20 lapper, as 12 year-old Dillon Bassett and 15 year-old Dalton put on a fierce show up front. Dalton had been one of the cars to beat all year and has a season already under his belt, and Bassett was in his first season ever in full-bodied stock cars, and while being consevative all year his father, Ronnie Bassett Sr. took the reigns off of him for the last night. Bassett would settle into the lead with Dalton in tow, but Mack Little was trying his all to get to them.

At lap six Mack Little gets by Jake Creed for fourth and immediately starts to work on Jesse Little for third. Behind them Zimmerman is starting to figure out Coleman's car, as he jumped in it and went on track to a green flag, and moves into the top ten. His last minute car owner, Patrick Coleman, has his night go from bad to worse as he gets into a skirmish with Creed and Steven Truell to bring out another caution.

Jesse Little jumps to the outside of Bassett for the restart, and Dalton times it exactly right
from the third spot and dives under Bassett and Little to make it three wide for the lead as they go into turn one. What looked like a wreck waiting to happen becomes and amazing sight as they exit turn two still three wide before Bassett inches ahead with Dalton going back into second. Basset would begin to inch away, but the caution would fly once more with five laps to go for tony Ramsel having problems in turn four, and it would get wild again.

They take the green for the final time and Dalton begins to give Bassett shots to the rear bumper, but the youngster hangs tough and withstands every challenge. Dalton gives him one final shot entering turn three, but Bassett holds on, and picks up his first ever stock car win. Mack Little manages to get by Jesse Little for third to make his second podium appearance of the night.

As Bassett emerged from his car in victory lane, a big crowd was waiting on him, and he jumped wildly on the