SEST: Kevin Leicht Finishes the year with a Bang at Tri-County Motor Speedway

The day started off with cool overcast skies in Hudson, NC as the Southeast Super Truck teams rolled into Tri-County Motor Speedway. The first two practice sessions showed that young Cole Glasson was going to be a driver to beat all day as he sat on top of the speed charts. It was also a very strange day for series veteran Tim Lollis. Lollis was in the top five in early practice sessions until his truck came to rest on the track near the end of session two. He found out that he had a broken ball joint / control arm. Lollis’ team, sitting second in points, went to overdrive mode and began thrashing on his truck to get it ready in time for the race.

As it came time for qualifying, there was a change for the top of the leaderboard. It was a young rookie,Ricky Bowers, that set the fast time, however, he rolled a “5” on the inversion die, so the top five inverted leaving Bowers starting the race in fifth spot. This now put 2015 series champion Lee Tissot starting on the pole.

When the green flag dropped on the 17 truck field for the Fallen Racers & Friends 200 Presented by Little Caesars Pizza, Kevin Leicht jumped out front to lead the race. Tissot fell back into second and tried everything he could to get back around Leicht, they made contact a once but both were able to save it.

The race went green for 60 laps before the first caution came out for Bennie Davis spinning around and coming to a rest on the front stretch. The field set up for the closing of the race but seven laps later the caution came back out again. Brandin Wrisley and Tim Lollis made contact on the front stretch ending Lollis’ fight for second place in points and ending both of their nights.

“The two of us just ran out of racetrack, I don’t know what to say, I got too much respect for Tim to run him up the track, I thought he bounced off the wall and come down into me, and he said I pushed up into him, the two of us was just racing hard and got together and I think the two trucks just hooked and it didn’t end well for us. Just racing hard I didn’t meant for that to happen and I know he didn’t either.” Wristey stated.

Lollis shared his side if the story with OnPitRoad.com saying, “Caution come out, we just sort of riding it out just trying to save our spot in points, I guess ole boys get trigger happy sometimes, don’t have no patience, got a little bit run over and put us out of the race. Its racing stuff like that happens just unfortunate for us tonight”

Leicht led the field back to the green flag and this time it was Cole Glasson who made a move around Tissot and was began to pressure on Leicht. Before the field could make a lap the caution came back out again when Matt Leicht and Ed Surrett got together in turn three.

“I went into the pits, I thought something was wrong with the rear end and it put us in the back. I jumped on the outside of Ed up off two and somebody got into him and put us both in the wall, I tore my stuff all to ****, I tore Eds stuff up, wasn’t neither one of us fault, it was just a bad racing deal. We’ll pick up the pieces and go to Concord” Matt Leicht commented about the incident.

“I dont really know what happened, it was just a restart in racing. I started off the corner I guess we was three wide I didn’t even know on the outside of me, me and the inside truck got together and I was in the center and I guess he got into the right rear of me” stated Surrett.

The field settled down and finished out the race with Kevin Leicht coming out on top and capturing the trophy. Leicht stated in his post race interview “I knew when Lee and I made contact the only way I was going down was on a roll back, that’s all there was to it. This thing just came to life”

“It was checkers or wreckers tonight, nobody got into me, and I dont believe I got into Kevin, except for when I was going into that first corner on the restart and overdrove it a little bit and slid up into him. It was just hard racing.” stated Tissot.

Ricky Bowers finished the night in fourth place to claim the 2015 Southeast Super Trucks Rookie of the Year Award “Thanks to Eugene, and Leicht Motorsports they gave me a great truck all year. This was one of our goals, one of our goals was to win Rookie of the Year and to place in the top five in points and we done both and ended the race in the top five.” stated Bowers

The Southeast Super Stocks was yet another wild and crazy race. When the field took the initial green flag before they could get it completed they wadded up a few cars resulting in another start to the race. The second caution came out on lap six when Luke Fox spun out in turn four. They once again went back to green but only for two laps when the caution came back out again, this time it was Sam Hurd who spun out on the back stretch.

When the race went back under green, everyone settled down and were racing their hearts out trying to chase down Jason Leatherwood. On lap 31, the caution came out for the final time when Fox spun again this time in turn three. Leatherwood went on to capture the checkered flag.

Steve Carver was your 2015 Southeast Super Stock Champion and Sawyer Frady was your 2015 Southeast Super Stock Rookie of the Year.

The Carolina Vintage Series put on a great show, with the biggest turn out of the year for the series with 17 cars taking the green. They battled it out until the end with Johnie O’Neil taking home the checkered flag.

The Front Wheel Drive division was yet another awesome action packed race. Mike Anderson was credited with the win and the 2015 series championship.

Brent Suggs caputred the victory in the Mini Cup division and Lee Gibson claimed the 2015 Mini Cup Championship.

Oficial Results:
Mini Cup
1. Brent Suggs
2. Jacob York
3. Lee Gibson – 2015 Champion
4. Brett Baer
5. BC Wright
6. Haley Baer
7. Anthony Price
8. Hannah Seal
9. Chuck Sims

Front Wheel Drive Division
1. Mike Anderson – 2015 Champion
2. Donnie Holland
3. John Ketron
4. Gary Willard
5. Dennis Stanley
6. Jared Willett
7. James Powell
8. Kayla Holland
9. Dean Slagle

Carolina Vintage Series
1. Johnie O’Neil
2. Herbie James
3. Danny Toney
4. Chuck Thorne – 2015 Champion
5. Ed Ritchey
6. Hutch Holiday
7. Wayne
8. Duffie Sims
9. Roger Sims
10. Joe Evans
11. Doug Meyer
12. Howard Scruggs
13. Jeff Myers
14. Tom Finn
15. Phil Terry
16. Don Moore
17. Neil Moore

Southeast Super Stocks
1. Jason Leatherwood
2. T.J. Lollis
3. Sawyer Frady – 2015 Southeast Super Stock Rookie of the Year
4. Alan Rich
5. Scott Franklin
6. Clint Watkins
7. Gregory Burgess
8. Steve Carver – 2015 Southeast Super Stock Champion
9. Jared Broadbent
10. Jamie Sutton
11. Sam Hurd
12. Luke Fox
13. Jacob York
14. Tyler Worley
15. Daniel Gunter
16. Adam Rogers

Southeast Super Trucks
1. Kevin Leicht
2. Lee Tissot – 2015 Southeast Super Truck Champion
3. Cole Glasson
4. Ricky Bowers – 2015 Southeast Super Truck Rookie of the Year
5. Luke Sorrow
6. Dakota Slagle
7. Chandler Sherman
8. Jay Norville
9. Cody Freeman
10. Houston Sullivan
11. Matt Leicht
12. Tim Lollis
13. Brandin Wrisley
14. Ed Surrett
15. Tal Davidson
16. Bennie Davis
17. Shawn McIntyre