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World Classic 200 - Classic Carlson

MOBILE, AL--Scott Carlson knows Mobile International Speedway as well as anybody, scoring many feature wins at the track over the years. Among his wins are victories in the Gatorade All Pro Series and the track's KIA Series earlier this year. Sunday afternoon, Carlson made an impressive charge through the field and took home the winner's trophy, and the $10,000 winner's check, after the Southern All Stars 12th Annual World Classic 200.

Fifty-three cars were in the pits for Saturday night's qualifying, with some of the biggest names in Late Model racing among them. Names like Carlson, Bobby Gill, Wayne Anderson, Eddie Mercer, Freddie Query, Ronnie Sanders, Stanley Smith, Charlie Bradberry, Clay Brown, Jason Hogan, John Wilkinson III, Tony Walls, Dan Beddingfield, and last year's Classic winner David Hole. But after qualifying, 2000-2001 series champion Ricky Turner was on the pole with a time of 17.587. Local driver William Wambles was just a tick slower and occupied the outside position. The 26 drivers that were locked into the starting line up were separated by just .566 seconds. The biggest surprise of qualifying was Carlson. The first car out, Carlson turned in a surprisingly slow 18.294, 34th of the 45 cars to time, and relegating the Pensacola driver to the last chance race.

In Saturday's Last Chance race, Clay Brown looked headed to the win until a tire started going down, leaving the battle to Carlson and Larry Raines. Carlson won the battle and transferred to the main event along with Raines, Bob Green, T. Wade Welch, Justin Smith, and Tim Baker. Brown was given a provisional starting spot along with Graham Moore, J.R. Norris, and Mike Langston.

Bright, sunny skies and warm temperatures greeted the 36-car field Sunday afternoon, but a dark cloud must have been hanging over Wambles. As Turner and Wambles brought the field up to speed out of turn four, Wamble's Grand Prix suddenly turned right and slammed into the outside wall. Wambles, winner of seven features at Mobile in 2001, was done before he started. Norris was also involved in the accident and done for the day.

Bradberry slid into Wambles spot, but Turner beat him to turn, taking the initial lead. Turner led the first 22 laps before Freddie Query charged into the lead coming out of turn four. Meanwhile, Carlson was picking off cars at the rate of about one per lap. By lap 30, Carlson had moved from his 27th starting spot to 13th.

By lap 50, Query was leading Anderson, Bradberry, Gill, and Turner. Carlson had moved into ninth. On the 68th lap, Jason Hogan got by Query to get back on the lead lap, and Anderson followed him through the hole to take the lead. The field was slowed on lap 75 for the first of two competition cautions with Anderson leading Query, Gill, Mercer, and Beddingfield. Carlson was still slicing his way through the field and was up to 7th, and still not ready to slow down. At the half way point, Carlson was in third behind Anderson and Query. Eight laps past the crossed flags, Carlson moved inside of Query for second. On lap 126, Carlson completed his charge to the front, getting past Anderson exiting turn two.

The second competition yellow waved on lap 150 with Carlson in command, followed by Anderson, Query, Gill, and Mercer. After the restart, Anderson seemed to have the fastest car, looking several times to get inside of Carlson coming out of turn four. He completed the pass on lap 155, only to have the caution wave, sending him back to the runner-up spot. The pair broke away from the field to settle things among themselves. But that battle was over quickly as Anderson began to fade around the lap 170 mark with a blistered right rear. While Anderson was desperately trying to hold everybody off, Carlson was pulling away. On lap 191, Query tried to get inside of Anderson for second, but got off the track going into turn one, spun, and lost a lap. Anderson finally gave way when he got very loose in turn four on lap 195, allowing Gill, Bradberry, Mercer, and Turner to get by in a mad rush for position.

Carlson took the well-deserved victory a half straight-away ahead of Gill, Bradberry, Mercer, and Turner. Sixth through tenth went to Anderson, Hole, Tim Fryar, Hogan, and Beddingfield. Thirteen of the 18 cars running at the end were on the lead lap. The race as slowed 14 times for 80 laps.

This was the final race of the 2001 season for the All Star tour. Turner won his second straight title over Hole, Hogan, Sanders, and Norris. Norris was the series Rookie of the Year. The series will open its 2002 season at Birmingham with the annual Earlybird 100 in February. Stay tuned to the series web site, www.southern-allstars.com, for future information.

Results

1. Scott Carlson
2. Bobby Gill
3. Charlie Bradberry
4. Eddie Mercer
5. Ricky Turner
6. Wayne Anderson
7. David Hole
8. Tim Fryar
9. Jason Hogan
10. Dan Beddingfield
11. John Wilkinson III
12. Donald Long
13. Tommy Ruff
14. Johnny Brazier
15. Freddie Query
16. Larry Raines
17. Justin Smith
18. Clay Brown
19. Mike Langston
20. Richard Fincher
21. Bob Green
22. Bubba Gale
23. Brian Smith
24. Dale Little
25. Tony Walls
26. Reed Sorenson
27. Stanley Smith
28. Rodney Landrum
29. Dennis Schoenfeld
30. T. Wade Welch
31. Tim Baker
32. Gary Nix
33. Ronnie Sanders
34. Graham Moore
35. William Wambles
36. J.R. Norris

DNS

Keith Rankin
Bobby Hill
Frank King
John Cadman
Heath Hindman
Wolfgang Hohlchuh
John Silverthorne
Tommy Hill
Lee Hansard