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17 Year Old Ryan Rhodes Gets First Late Model Win

KENLY _ So much for being content to gain experience against accomplished, veteran drivers. Rookie driver Stephen Rhodes of Goldsboro, instead, experienced the opportunity to celebrate at the ultimate level in the McCoy Contracting Inc. 275 auto racing program at Southern National Speedway on Saturday night.

Rhodes, a rising senior at Rosewood High, not only seized the pole but raced out front every lap in taking his first Late Model Stock checkered flag and joining Ryan Rhodes of Sanford as Late Model Stock rookies visiting Victory Lane this season.

Rhodes, who recently observed his 17th birthday, emerged the only victorious newcomer in SNS’s regular divisions.

Also triumphant were Freddie Query of Mooresville in Late Model Sportsman, Mike Stodder of Raleigh in Four-Cylinder Stock and Scott Davis of Goldsboro in Stock Look-Alike.

Query notched his fifth 2001 win and remained undefeated in races he has finished this season. Stodder and Davis each prevailed for the third consecutive race and boosted their 2001 win count to four.

The Virginia Modified Tour also stopped at SNS on Saturday night and taking the checkered flag was Mark Slye of Toana, Va., in an open-wheeled, modified Chevrolet. Slye’s fourth win of the year boosted his status as the points runner-up.

Since July’s outset, Stephen Rhodes has consistently finished in the Late Model Stock top five. And after one such finish, he commented he was satisfied to run well and gain valuable experience in a division that includes veterans Billy Ray Lucas of Wilson, Tony Grady of Raleigh, Jamey Caudill of Four Oaks and 2000 champion Jim Kelley of Newport.

“People are going to think that,” Rhodes said of the prospect that he’s no longer content to be competitive. “But I have gotten a lot more dedicated and my team is more dedicated. We hit it right on the dollar tonight.”

Rhodes gunned his Monte Carlo to a sizable lead and, after each of the three cautions, repeated the feat. “After the first caution, I said there probably goes my chance of winning,” Rhodes said with a grin. “After a caution, I car can go beserk. But it never once slipped and felt like it was getting faster.” Rhodes so dominated that the show was the battle for second between the Monte Carlos of Grady and Lucas and the Grand Prix of Steve Mendenhall, who started on the outside pole.

Grady wound up second and suggested his chances of winning were hampered by his problems getting around Mendenhall.

“He (Mendenhall) let the kid get away,” Grady said. “Sometimes, the fastest car doesn’t win. But I was glad to see the kid win one. I got caught up in some stuff. Steve was doing some things an experienced driver shouldn’t do. I got the tires too hot _ I was too polite. If we’d had 100 laps (the race was 75), I believe we would have caught him.”

Points leader Lucas posted another consistent, solid performance, salvaging third.

“We had a good run, but we qualified bad,” Lucas said. “That’s the way it is.”

Mendenhall wound up fourth, while Roanoke Rapids’ Tom Elliott, in a Grand Prix, surged to a fifth-place finish.

Query, in a Monte Carlo, continued his Late Model Sportsman dominance after starting an uncharacteristic fourth.

But by the 100-lapper’s midway point, Query owned second. His Monte Carlo and the Monte Carlo of pole sitter Mendenhall raced door-to-door for several laps until Mendenhall spun on lap 70 as the two front-runners approached a lap car.

Query then outraced the Monte Carlo of Plymouth’s Shelton McNair to the stripe. “There’s always a doubt in your mind,” Query said of his chances after starting fourth. “There’s always a doubt if you are a lap ahead. I screwed up in qualifying and I just had to count on the car being as good as it has been on long runs all year. And it was.”

Query enjoyed his new route to Victory Lane.

“This was more fun than leading every lap,” said the smiling Query. “I had to race hard for a while. I just knew I had to be patient because I felt like they (front-runners) were going to mess up.” Query and McNair were trailed, respectively, by Randy Renfrow of Fuquay-Varina in a Dodge, Dean Clattenburg and Bob Ward of Raleigh in a Monte Carlo.

“The car was a little bit better,” McNair said, “but not enough. Freddie has got a rocket once he hits the straightaways. I had to keep the car on the bottom; it was pushing like crazy.”

McNair, a former division champion, assured being repeatedly outrun by the same rival has become challenging.

“There’s something wrong with the car and we haven’t found it,” he said. “But we’ll keep working and keep trying.”

Stodder survived his third protest of 2001 to extend his Four-Cylinder Stock win string. The outcome after the first two protests did not favor Stodder.

“We think we’re OK,” Stodder said before the learning the outcome of the post-race inspection. “But we thought we were the other two times. We need a nice, clean victory.”

Stodder seized a dandy from pole sitter and points leader Andy Smith of Goldsboro. Stodder, who started on the outside pole, maneuvered his Mustang out front on the 13th of 25 laps. But Smith, in a Toyota, reclaimed the point on the next lap. After a side-by-side duel, Stodder moved into the lead for keeps on lap 18.

“It was just slip by either one of us _ we’re that close,” Stodder said of the crowd-stirring racing. “But my car seems to get better as the race goes on and his goes away. I have seen that all year long.” Smith was left stunned and frustrated.

“That’s all I’ve got,” Smith repeatedly said. “That’s the best I can do. I didn’t slip once.” Gary Poythress of Wilson, in just his sixth 2001 start, finished third in a Mustang. Lee Kozikowski of Zebulon placed fourth in a Toyota, with Pat Renfro of Warsaw fifth.

Racing resumes next Saturday night at SNS’s banked, .4-mile asphalt oval with the Back to School Night at the Races program.