Story by: Langley Austin ~ langley@RACE22.com

Hickory, NC(January 18, 2010) -- It was time again for the UARA-STARS Series to honor it's season long champion, rookie of the year and top ten competitors on Saturday night, January 16th in Hickory, NC at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

Matt McCall was honored as the series champion on the heels of an impressive season which saw the veteran driver capture four feature wins with Jerry Moody, one of his car owners accepting the Car Owner of the Year award. Brennan Poole was honored as the Rookie of the Year and was surprised with another award earlier in the evenings festivities and the rest of the top ten drivers were treated to a great night of food, entertainment, awards and fellowship with racing friends.

The awards seemed to go heavily to the champion as is to be expected at any level of racing as McCall picked up awards from many of the series sponsors including wheels from Circle Racing Wheels, a transmission from G-Force South and jackets from both Sunoco for the Most Pole Awards and from GoodYear. McCall was also honored with the first ever Championship ring as a gift from the folks at GoodYear Tire and Rubber company, it was a night McCall will certainly never forget.

The nights most memorable moment may have came when tenth place points finisher, Michael Rouse was awarded a brand new Holley Carburetor. What made that moment memorable was in Rouse's speech accepting the carburetor when he admitted that he had borrowed a 390 carburetor all season and that he could certainly put this new one to use. Rouse, one of the series most underfunded competitors certainly put together some solid performances despite going up against teams with much deeper pockets and it was cool to see him get that award, someone who could really use it.

McCall's championship acceptance speech was also another special moment of the night as a driver who had really been there and done that, having won the championship in 2005, got choked up and barely made it through his speech. For a driver who many think of as cocky or over confident, it was a moment of real emotions that showed the drivers respect for what he had accomplished and showed that he knew how special the moment was. For this champion it will be a moment frozen in time, he accomplished something that no driver ever has and that's winning the championship in the UARA Series twice.

McCall certainly is one of the greatest drivers in Late Model Stock Car, this championship is certainly a culmination of that fact. For him to not only once, but twice beat one of the most accomplished drivers to ever sit behind the wheel of one of these cars, Jamey Caudill is exceptionally special and he knew and all the people who attended the banquet respect what he accomplished and wish they had, had the season that he had in 2009. McCall's car owner, Moody also delivered a very heart felt, genuine speech when he accpeted the award on behalf of himself and McCall's other car owner, Tom Pistone from Performancenter Racing Warehouse.

While the night certainly belonged to Matt McCall overall, it was also a big night for UARA-STARS Series Rookie of the Year, Brennan Poole. Poole, who had a roller coaster of a season, but finished with the second half of the season seeing the young driver really begin to emerge from the shadows enroute to a season best second place finish in the season finale at Concord, after starting shotgun on the field when he blew an engine during practice. Poole's stats for the second half of the season rivaled those of the top points contenders and Poole was certainly honored with the Rookie of the Year award as the young Texan took home a large trophy for the accomplishment.

Poole and his family and team were also very surprised as the young driver was awarded the Most Popular Driver award after a 48-hour voting session on RACE22.com saw him pick up 31% of the vote. Poole beat out his new roomate, Coleman Pressley for the award as Pressley picked up 18% of the votes. Matt McCall, Michael Rouse and Paddy Rodenbeck rounded out the top five vote getters in the Most Popular Driver category. The Most Popular Driver poll also showed that the UARA-STARS Series has grown beyond being just a Carolina regional series as votes were cast in 27 of the 50 states.

Three of the top ten finishers didn't make the trip to the banquet this year and while every year some drivers don't, this writer takes it personal. It shows a total lack of respect to your competitors, the people who run the series and the people who contribute to the organization of the banquet. Of course, I'm sure all three had excuses that made them feel better about missing out, maybe they don't like to make a speech, maybe they had something else to do or maybe their just disrespectful. Either way it was a class-less act and I hope that if either three of them or others who choose not to show up for their competitors ever win a championship, that their peers treat them the same way and just opt out.

One of the best comments made on the night pertained to coming to the banquet as ninth place driver, Scott Turlington made his speech. Turlington had a tough season despite having several bright spots and he said that one of his crew members as him why he was attending the banquet. Turlington said that it was out of respect to his fellow competitors and the series that he came and that it wasn't about what he accomplished or didn't accomplish. Turlington's attitude proves that he is a true champion whether he can ever get the luck to go his way enough to be in a position to compete for a title.
 

OK, so before I type this next comment, I'll be honest and say I'm a little biased, but the videos prepared by RACE22.com's own, Kimberly Smith were certainly one of the highlights of the night. A video season in review was played during dinner while a seperate video for each of the top ten competitors was played before the driver was introduced and took the stage. The videos documented the good and sometimes not so good moments of the 2009 season for each driver and sometimes even created a comical moment or two.

The song "Stroker's Theme", the soundtrack to the Burt Reynolds movie was played along with Coleman Pressley's video intro to the delight of many of the people in attendance as "Stroker Ace" is the young third generation racers nickname. Another interesting moment was when third place points finisher, Brandon McReynolds video began to the tune of Kanye West's "Amazing" which drew the attention of everyone in attendance. It was certainly some of the more interesting moments of the nights festivities along with the enthusiasm of the Garrett Campbell crew, which was entertainment in itself.

As always the staff of the UARA-STARS Series did an excellent job with the banquet and I've been to a bunch of different track or series banquets over the years and while the UARA had already had the best banquets, they out did themselves this year. It's got this writer already looking forward to next years banquet!