Story by: Corey Latham ~ corey@RACE22.com

Altamahaw, NC(August 11, 2010) -- With the Late Models taking the night off this past week, the warriors of the Limited division were the headliners at Ace Speedway with a 40 lap affair. The race was exciting and had plenty of action as Boo Boo Dalton took the win, but the big story was the car pushing him sideways across the finish line. In a division that has been dominated by Ziggy Zimmerman and Dalton, Patrick Coleman has come on to be a new player in the game.

Coleman paced the 11 car field in qualifying, followed by Zimmerman, 12 year-old Dillon Bassett, 15 year-old Dalton and Jacob Creed completing the top five. Coleman was fast all day and backed it up with the fastest time, and later let the secret out to his success. "Ziggy(Zimmerman) came over and set the car up this week" said a smiling Coleman. "I could have been faster but I left some on the table, it is just fine and will be awesome in the race". Could this be something Zimmerman would regret? One thing was for sure, Ziggy really made a difference in the #81 of Coleman on this night.

After a redraw of the top four cars, Dalton and Basset were your new front row. After a false start from the two youngsters jumping early, Dalton and Bassett raced side-by-side for the entire first lap before Dalton moves ahead. Coleman, Zimmerman and Jake Creed take advantage of the open inside lane and quickly put the youngster back to fifth.

The first caution of the night would come out on lap five for a violently blown motor by Johnny Stovall in his first appearance in the Limited division in a brand new car. Stovall may be new to the asphalt Limiteds, but is no stranger to racing as he has long been a fierce competitor in dirt Late Models for some time. This night was not a kind introduction in the division for the elder Stovall, but looks to be back this week to race once again with his daughter Bethany who has ran the entire season.

As the cone was brought out for the ensuing restart, the only ones to bite were Zimmerman and former Bowman Gray stadium competitor David Sell. It would not work for Zimmerman as he falls in behind Dalton and Coleman to pick up his previous spot, and a few laps later Bassett was able to get around Creed to move back into fourth. But the story was what was going on up front, as the top three began to check out on the rest of the field.

As the field settled into a long green flag run, it was hard to tell exactly what the leaders had or what they were showing. Coleman would make a run on Dalton, then Dalton would pull away immediately, as Zimmerman did the same. It looked as if each driver was saving their stuff till the end, with periodic spurts to assure themselves they still had something for the car in front of them. The top three did get evenly spaced by 5 car lengths and looked to be on the way to finishing that way until the rear end of Sell's car goes out putting grease on the track with eight laps to go. If Coleman had something left this was the time to show it.

Jake Creed takes advantage of the cone restart and moves from fifth to start on the outside of Dalton for the lead along with Steven Truell. Dalton and Coleman are able to get by Creed immediately, and Coleman gets to the inside of Dalton entering turn three. The progress is stopped once more as Creed tries to squeeze in front of Zimmerman for third but the room just isn't there, and Creed goes for a loop to bring out the caution once more.

As we get to seven to go, Zimmerman and Creed try the outside once more, Zimmerman trying to get by Dalton for the lead and Creed intent on getting to Zimmerman as he wasn't pleased with the previous spin. Dalton and Coleman are shot out of a cannon as Creed dives to the inside of Zimmerman to take over third with a little aggression. It lasted all of one corner though, as Zimmerman does a crossover move and takes it right back. Two laps later Basset Gives Creed the bumper and knocks him up the track and back to fifth. Meanwhile Dalton has gotten a few car lengths on Coleman and looks to be home free.

Turned out that Dalton was anything but safe up front, as Coleman steps it up as they cross the white flag. He gains all the ground up by turn one and as they enter turn three he is there, and jacks the rear of Dalton sideways while getting sideways himself. He could of continued the push and spun Dalton but let him gather it back up as Dalton takes the win with some dramatic driving to get to the checkereds.

Dalton picked up his second win of the season, but now the Zimmerman/Dalton duo looks to have a new player in Coleman, and it gets even worse for the top two dogs. Coleman drove the entire second half of the race with his transmission stuck in high gear, and the last ten laps with a tire going down. I'm betting Ziggy won't be beating the door down at the Coleman residence to give more tips this week, but then again these guys love competition no matter how it comes.
 
Results:
1 - Boo Boo Dalton
2 - Patrick Coleman
3 - Ziggy Zimmerman
4 - Dillon Bassett
5 - Jacob Creed
6 - Steven Truell
7 - Tony Ramsey
8 - Bethany Stovall
9 - David Sell
10 - Christian PaHud
11 - Johnny Stovall