NEWTON, N.C. - Canadian ace Raphael Lessard powered to his first career CARS Racing Tour victory in just his third start in Saturday night’s Race To End Hunger 250 at Hickory Motor Speedway in Newton, North Carolina.
Meanwhile, former Hickory track champion Josh Berry took the win in the Late Model Stock portion of the event.
In the Super Late Model feature, Christian Eckes and Quin Houff brought the field to the start of 125-lap contest. Eckes quickly set sail and settled into a comfortable lead with Houff in second.
But behind the leaders, it was anything but calm. David Gilliland Racing Toyota drivers Lessard and Alex Guenette were on the march forward, along with Steve Wallace.
Wallace, who started 14th, eventually caught Houff, Lessard, and Guenette. Contact amongst those drivers sent Houff up the track and allowed Guenette to take fifth while sparking an in-race rivalry between them. More contact off turn four after a later restart caused Guenette to bobble, stacking up the field and resulting in an accident that involved Jeff Batten, Cole Timm and Vinnie Miller.
The race turned into a battle of teenagers as 14-year old Lessard moved his way to the runner-up spot with 40 laps to go after he passed A.J. Frank. As Eckes caught slower traffic, Lessard, who hails from Quebec, ate away at the lead and quickly caught the leader.
On lap 105, Lessard swiftly made a move around Eckes for the lead and checked out to score the victory. Eckes came home a career best second, with Brandon Setzer in third, Wallace in fourth and Houff in fifth.
“This is a dream come true for me,” said Lessard, whose native tongue is French, in victory lane. “First off, I can’t thank my team enough, David Gilliland Racing, we had an awesome car and my Toyota Camry was very fast. It’s awesome, a dream come true and I can’t thank them enough.
“It was just time to go and I had to go pass him. He did a very good job and it was a fun race. I don’t know (where the party will be), but I’m sure we will. This is very exciting.”
Not to be outdone by their Super Late Model counterparts, the drivers in the Late Model Stock Car portion of the Race to End Hunger 250 took part in an even more intense race than the first. Landon Huffman, a weekly Hickory regular and first-time starter in the CARS Racing Tour, earned the pole ahead of Deac McCaskill.
On the initial run, McCaskill quickly cleared Landon Huffman for the point and began to set the pace. It didn’t take long, however, for defending track champion Matt Piercy to work his way up to the lead. After a ten lap door-to-door battle with McCaskill, Piercy moved to the point on lap 25.
After starting seventh, R.D. Smith worked his way around Piercy for the top spot on lap 42. Following a quick pair of caution flags, including one for rain, Smith’s dominant run came to a screeching halt on lap 67. While in a battle for second with Josh Berry, the two made contact exiting turn two and Smith crashed hard into the outside wall. The contact damaged the nose and left-front of Berry’s car to where the crew questioned pitting for repairs but did not.
With 25 laps to go, Piercy went after McCaskill for the lead once again in a side-by-side battle. But as they came off the second turn, Piercy lost control of his Ford and went for a ride that brought out the caution once again. By rule, Piercy was sent to the rear of the field where he later was involved in another incident that destroyed the cars of Justin Crider and Ronald Hill.
As the checkered flag drew closer, the lead battle stacked up side-by-side and sometimes three-wide before Berry cleared McCaskill and began to pull away. Berry drove to his fourth career CARS Tour win and his second consecutive Hickory triumph. McCaskill came home second, followed by Tommy Lemons, Austin McDaniel, and Huffman.
“That was one of the wildest races I’ve ever had here, that was crazy,” said Berry. “I definitely want to apologize to the 16 car, we just got together and got hung. I mean, the last thing I want to do is rip the left-front off of it.”
“We were a little worried at that point. I didn’t realize how bad (the damage) was, and I’m glad I didn’t, but I guess the fender flew off of it,” he said when asked about the effects of the damage. “We struggled a little bit at the beginning of the race and I wasn’t sure we were going to have the car. The track changed a lot on us and got really slick. We were all sliding around. Man, we just had to race hard. That was fun, but that was hard. Racing Deac McCaskill is always a pleasure. I look up to him and we race hard. He kinda got me on that restart and I knew I had to dig deep and get back by him becauuse these guys deserve to win and we got it done.”
Prompted to discuss the rash of restarts towards the end of the race, Berry said, “We were just a little bit better off the corner, just enough where I could lean on him a little bit and run high until I could get the drive to clear him. I knew if we could clear him we’d be in good shape. On those restarts, every time you think you get clear and catch your breath, you’d think ‘we’re there now’ and another caution would come out and we’d do it again. Man, those guys raced hard and that had to be a hell of a race to watch. Thanks to Speedco for supporting me, and it’s always fun to win in this series, but especially here because this place has been pretty special to me.”
The next event for the CARS Racing Tour takes is set for Saturday, May 21, at Southern National Motorsports Park.
For more information, visit CARSRacingtour.com.
CARS Racing Tour
Hickory Motor Speedway – Newton, NC
Hickory Soup Kitchen Race To End Hunger 250 (Unofficial) – May 7, 2016
Super Late Models
1. Raphael Lassard
2. Christian Eckes
3. Brandon Setzer
4. Steve Wallace
5. Quin Houff
6. Jake Crum
7. A.J. Frank
8. Clay Jones
9. Preston Peltier
10. Matt Craig
11. Trevor Noles
12. Lucas Jones
13. Tanner Berryhill
14. Gus Dean
15. Tyler Ankrum
16. Alex Guenette
17. Jeff Batten
18. Tyler Church
19. Cole Timm
20. Joey Mucciacciaro
21. Vinnie Miller
22. Stephen Leicht
DNS: Nicole Behar
Late Model Stock Cars
1. Josh Berry
2. Deac McCaskill
3. Tommy Lemons, Jr.
4. Austin McDaniel
5. Landon Huffman
6. Chris Hudspeth
7. Chris Davis
8. Craig Stallard
9. Christian Eckes
10. Matt Piercy
11. Thomas Beane
12. Stefan Parsons
13. Justin Crider
14. Ronald Hill
15. Jake Ruggles
16. R.D. Smith
17. Ryan Wilson
18. Chase Purdy
19. Ryan Repko
