Matt Leicht Scores Big on Have a Pepsi Day 100 Presented by Ken Wilson Ford

The Southeast Super Trucks Series hosted a special event at Tri-County Motor Speedway on Saturday August 27^th. Instead of the running the normal series, Owner and Founder of the SEST Series experimented with running a Limited Late Model show with support divisions of Street Stocks and the Carolina Vintage Series. Pepsi Cola and Ken Wilson Ford came on board to sponsor the event naming the race the “Have a Pepsi Day 100 Presented by Ken Wilson Ford”.

Although only a handful of drivers and teams showed up, they still didn’t disappoint the fans that attended. Eleven of the top drivers in the Southeast arrived, unloaded and went to work on dialing their hot rods in for the main event that night.

As the first practice concluded it was Colby Howard who showed the way and set fast time; he had a two-tenth advantage over the second fastest of Dillon Houser. The teams had an hour to make adjustments before the second practice started and once again nobody had anything for Howard as he set fast time again. As final practice rolled around, there were a lot of drivers making qualifying mock runs. Southeast Super Trucks Series two time winner this season Matt Leicht ended the final practice session on top of the speed charts in his Mitch West Ford.

Dwight Huffman Racing stables worked diligently on all three of the cars they brought to the event after the final practice resulting in their driver Chris Phipps claiming the Gerber Collision, Renegade Race Fuels Pole Award, while Kevin Leicht was the second fastest in qualifying. Phipps went on to roll a “3” on the invert dice now allowing Howard to start the race from the top spot with Kevin Leicht remaining on the outside of the front row.

Howard led the field to the green flag to get the race started. However, younger Leicht brother Matt who started the race in the fourth position quickly set his sights on Howard and took over the top spot with just a few laps on the board. Kevin tried following his brothers tire tracks with it taking him a few laps to take over the second place from Howard. Once Kevin took over second, he quickly started tracking down Matt and took a couple looks on the inside but wasn’t able to make it stick.

By Lap 30, Mitch Walker started heating things up and working his way towards the front, him and Howard raced side by side for several laps before he was able to take over the third place. The battle was heating up for the fifth position as Pole Sitter Phipps was having all he could do to hold off Sheflon Clay. However, Phipps remained in fifth and began to pull away from Clay.

The first and only caution came out on Lap 75 which was a Mandatory Caution to allow teams a five minute period to make adjustments on their cars and set-up for a 25-lap shootout to the end. Jeff Caldwell from Jeffs Auto Sales LLC also put up a bonus to the driver leading at Lap 75 which was Matt Leicht.

As the teams made their adjustments and lined back up on the track, Matt paced the field back to the green flag, and this time Walker wanted to get to the front but he had to pass both brothers. He made several attempts to get under Kevin for second but each time he came up short. As Matt took the white flag, he now had a half a straight away lead over second place. Matt Leicht made one final circuit around the speedway and crossed the finish line first for all the hardware, money and the bragging rights. He was followed by Kevin Leicht in second, Walker in third, Phipps in fourth and Howard rounding out the top five.

The Street Stocks seen Jesse Clark take the Pole award, however he rolled a “5” on the invert dice which now set him starting the race next to tail end of the field. Robbie Lewis should have started the race in the top spot but elected to start last, which set Jason Warsing as the leader with Roy Smith on the outside. Warsing quickly pulled away but not for long as Jesse Clark was charging hard towards the front and by Lap 10 had worked his way up to second. Warsing and Clark raced side by side lap after lap, both racing hard.

Christopher Werner now took advantage of the front two battling and made a pass on Clark and took over second. Werner then went to work on Warsing for the lead and took the top spot away. Werner pulled away to a tremendous lead over the rest of the field and went on to take the victory with Warsing coming home second, Clark in third, Smith in fourth and Carrol McKinney in fifth.

In the Carolina Vintage Series, it was Troy Burgess leading the field to the green with Herby James on his outside. James made several attempts at taking over the lead but came up unsuccessful as Burgess went on to win.

Official Results

Limited Late Models