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Tink Reedy Takes First Win of Season

 By Diane Brinkley
 NRVS Writer

RADFORD, VA- There was no lack of action in this week’s Checkered Flag Sports/Carquest Road to Charlotte 200, the third race of the New River Valley Speedway’s 2001 season.

Caution was the word of the night in the NASCAR Late Model Stock Car division. A total of seven came out in the 100-lap race. The first caution occurred on lap two and resulted in Anthony Barnes losing the sheet metal from the front of his car. Lap 84 brought the fans to their feet when Tink Reedy completed a well earned pass around Chad Harris. Reedy held onto the lead from there to take the win.

After the race Reedy said, "It was an unexpected win. I’ve won a lot of races here, but I didn’t expect to win this one tonight. All I wanted was to get my number on the scoreboard, once we were there it just kept coming, like the Energizer bunny."

Former NASCAR Busch Grand National driver Wayne Grubb made his first appearance in the Late Model division at NRVS this season. This season Grubb has raced at the South Boston, South Hampton, Concord and Caraway tracks. Tonight he finished in fourth place.

Grubb said, " We seem to be doing all right (here), we have to qualify and figure out what kind of race setup we need. We’ll definitely be back for the all the 200-lap races, including the TV race, and several 100-lap races."

The H & H Carpet Late Model Truck race was a hard battle, and resulted in only two cautions. The caution on lap one involved the trucks of Rick Sigmon, Don McCreary, and John Griffin when Bo Howell spun coming out of turn two. The only other caution of the race was for debris on lap nine.

Winner Joe Lucas said, "It feels pretty good, it was our third different setup in three weeks, it worked pretty good. Didn’t it?"

The pure stock division was clean racing, with the only incident involving Chester Linkous and Irvin Phillips. Linkous got loose in turn two and pushed Phillips into the backstretch wall. Both cars were unable to return to the race. Dean Sutphin went on to win.

"We’ve been running good, we’ve done good tonight," said Sutphin.

The scariest moment of the night occured in the New River Valley Mall Mini Stock division when Burton Martin’s blown engine caught fire, engulfing the car in a thick smoke.

Martin later said, "It (the engine) blew up."

Ron Thomas took the Mini Stock win, saying, "It feels so good to finally get what we’ve been waiting for."

The night opened with the running of the Future Stars and Super Mini Cup cars. These miniature cars provided a fun start to the evening. The Future Stars cars are for drivers 16 and under. The youngest driver in the field was eight year old Corey Johnson. Justin Martin won the Future Stars race, and Mitchell Saville won the

Super Mini Cup race in his first start in the division.

Next week Wilton Cromer will be returning to the H & H Carpet Late Model Truck race after recovering from a season opener injury. April 28th is the South Main Auto/Marshall Concrete 200 with Twin 50’s for the Late Model Stock Cars. The night also features the Roanoke Valley Mopar Club Cruise-In.