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Five Races, Five Faces- Sanders Takes South Alabama

Who could blame Ronnie Sanders if he begged Southern All Star promoter Ben Atkinson to schedule all of the series races at South Alabama Speedway? Since John and Sandra Dykes purchased the track in late 1997, Sanders has made 8 starts at the 4/10ths -mile oval. His record sparkles with four wins and seven Top 5 finishes. His latest win came Saturday night in a 125-lap event, the fifth race on the 2001 schedule. Sanders became the series fifth different winner of the 2001 season.

DuWayne Middlebrooks made his first All Star appearance of 2001 and turned the fastest lap in Garrison Racing Equipment Qualifying with a time of 15.402. Middlebrooks then retained the pole spot by rolling a one on the inversion die. As the 26 cars took the green flag, Jason Hogan got a good start from the outside pole and took the lead coming out of turn two, followed by Middlebrooks and Wayne Willard. Hogan set a fat pace early, but Middlebrooks ran him down and took the lead on lap 27. Others making early moves included John Wilkinson III, Terry Mason Jr., David Hole, Dale Little, Scot Smith and Tim Fryar. Sanders was running a patient pace in the top five.

Middlebrooks maintained his lead as the race wore on and the leaders began to pit. A caution around lap 65 brought the first group of leaders in, Including Ricky Turner, Hogan, Wilkinson , Willard, and mason. Middlebrooks and Sanders were in the second group that came in about 15 laps later. Turner assumed the lead when Middlebrooks pitted, and appeared headed to at least his fifth straight top 5 finish, but that came to an abrupt end on lap 103. Turner was coming up on a group of lapped cars when two of the slower cars got together. Turner had nowhere to go, and the resulting crash severely damaged the front end of Turner's Thunderbird, relegating him to a 19th place finish.

Sanders took over the lead and pulled away from the pack. But behind him, a couple of wars were raging. Middlebrooks was a rocket on a mission, picking off car after car. With three to go, Middlebrooks, moved under Willard for second, coming out of turn four. The two made contact, sending Willard sliding sideways down the front stretch as Middlebrooks moved on. The spin brought out the yellow, something Sanders didn't want to see. A very fast Middlebrooks was now lines up on Sanders bumper with two laps left to find a way past Sanders.

The opportunity never came, as Sanders pulled away on the restart to take the win. Middlebrooks finished second, with Dan Beddingfield third. Mason had a strong fourth place finish. David Hole lost a couple spots on the last lap but finished fifth. As the Top 5 finishers stopped on the front stretch, Willard showed his displeasure to Middlebrooks by ramming the front end on Middlebrooks car before heading to his trailer. Order was quickly restored as Sanders and his crew celebrated in Victory Lane. Scot Smith, Dale Little, and Doug Walker all turned in impressive performance, finishing sixth through eighth. Wilkinson and Hogan rounded out the Top 10.

"We struggled all day in practice", Sanders said later. " We should have came to practice last night. We put the car back like we had at the Rattler (which he won earlier this year at South Alabama), and it worked! We were catching Turner before he wrecked, about three tenths (of a second) a lap. These GARC cars speak for themselves."

Results

1. Ronnie Sanders
2. DuWayne Middlebrooks
3. Dan Beddingfield
4. Terry Mason Jr.
5. David Hole
6. Scot Smith
7. Dale Little
8. Doug Walker
9. John Wilkinson  III
10. Jason Hogan
11. Jeremy Rice
12. Johnny Henderson
13. Gary McMorrow
14. Wayne Willard
15. Sidney Minton
16. Kevin Dicks
17. J.R. Dudley
18. Mike Langston
19. Ricky Turner
20. Heath Hindman
21. Tim Fryar
22. Michael Crofford
23. Jimmy Henderson
24. Royce Johnston
25. David Harvey
26. J.R. Norris

SAS ASPHALT RACING SERIES POINT STANDINGS:1.Ricky Turner 440; 2.David Hole 406; 3.John Wilkinson III 400; 4.Jeremy Rice 386; 5.Jason Hogan 370; 6.J R Norris 364; 7.Ronnie Sanders 318; 8.Tim Fryar 292; 9.Ken McFarland 274; 10.Wayne Willard 268; 11.Mike Langston 266; 12.Johnny Henderson 252; 13.Dan Beddingfield 228; 14.J R Dudley 222; 15.Robbie Brown 216; 16.Heath Hindman 214; 17.Sidney Minton 212; 18.Johnny Wall 194; 19.Scot Smith 186; Terry Mason Jr 186

UPCOMING EVENTS: (ASPHALT SERIES)

MAY 11 ANDERSON SPEEDWAY--ANDERSON, SC 150 LAPS
MAY 26 LANIER NATIONAL SPEEDWAY--GAINESVILLE, GA 150 LAPS
JUNE 8 BIRMINGHAM INT'L RACEWAY-BIRMINGHAM, AL 100 LAPS