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Willard's New Ride Just Peachy

Domination, v., 1. To control or rule by strength or power 2. To rise high above; hold a commanding position over. ex. Wayne Willard at Peach State Speedway.

The Southern All Star Asphalt Series made its first trip of 2001 to Peach State Speedway Saturday night and 22 drivers spent the evening racing to see who could finish second to Wayne Willard. It was just that kind of night for Willard, who was sporting a new Jerry Brown Chevrolet Monte Carlo that was seeing its first racing action. As the 24 cars on hand ran their qualifying laps, the bar kept dropping until it was Willard's turn.

Willard blistered the Georgia half mile with a time of 17.336 to take the UpFront Carburetion Fast Qualifier Award. Doug Walker broke a push rod, leaving 23 cars to start the 125-lap event.

Willard rolled a four, putting Bobby Hill on the pole. Hill and Johnny Henderson ran side by side into turn one, with Hill taking the lead out of turn two. But Willard made his way to the front quickly, going to the inside of Henderson on lap 4 to take second, then taking the lead coming out of turn four on the sixth circuit./ By lap 15, Willard's lead had grown to half of a straight away. Ronnie Sanders moved past Henderson for second, but John Wilkinson III was on the move and took second on lap 28. Sanders had problems with his right rear tire, bringing out the caution on lap 31, closing the field.

The restarts didn't hinder Willard, however, as he pulled away to a big lead each time. By lap 40, Wilkinson was chasing Willard, followed by J.R. Norris, David Hole, and Brian Smith. A lap 57 caution brought a group of the leaders to the pits for their fresh tires. Willard, Wilkinson, Norris, and Smith weren't in that group, opting to come in later.

Those four led the way until a lap 84 red flag condition enabled the group to pit, giving the lead to Tony Walls. Walls led for just one lap before Jason Hogan dove inside to take the lead on lap 86. There was a yellow blur coming from the back, though, as Willard was making his way back to the front. Picking off cars each lap, Willard moved into second on lap 107, passing Ricky Turner. Three laps later, it was time to retake the lead.

Going into turn three. Coming up on lapped traffic, Willard moved to the outside of Hogan, going three wide. Clear of traffic in turn four, Willard turned inside of Hogan to take the lead. Easy. Domination.

As the laps ran down, Hogan began to slide back, losing second to Turner on lap 115, then getting passed by Henderson, Sanders, and Norris in the next five laps. At the end, Willard took a half straight away win, followed by Turner, Henderson, Sanders, and Norris. Sixth through tent went to Hogan, Robbie Brown, Hole, Tim Fryar, and Smith.

Willard led 99 laps, while Hogan led 25, and Walls one. The race was slowed 6 times for 40 laps, and red flagged twice.

" This was a new car, first time it has been raced", Willard said later. " We tested two cars Wednesday and chose this car because it had better speed in the turns. It ran good all night"

The series moves to South Alabama Speedway on May 5 for a 125-lap event. For more information, contact the series at (256) 539-4484 or visit the series web site at www.southern-allstars.com/.

 Results
 1. Wayne Willard
 2. Ricky Turner
 3. Johnny Henderson
 4. Ronnie Sanders
 5. J.R. Norris
 6. Jason Hogan
 7. Robbie Brown
 8. David Hole
 9. Tim Fryar
 10. Brian Smith
 11. Joe Click
 12. Tony Walls
 13. Heath Hindman
 14. Bobby Hill
 15. Mike Langston
 16. John Wilkinson III
 17. Scot Smith
 18. Ricky Sanders
 19. Jimmy Henderson
 20. Jimmy Garmon
 21. Bobby Fain
 22. Jeremy Rice
 23. J.R. Dudley

          DNS Doug Walker