Columbus, MS - Saturday night, September 10 the Mississippi State Championship Challenge Series for Super Late Models would make its way to "The Baddest Bullring in the South" for the 2005 series finale. While "The Ragin' Rebel" David Breazeale held on to first place over David Earl Gentry in MSCCS points with a tight grip going into the $2,500-to-win, 50-lap 6th Annual Columbus Nissan James Nickoles Memorial, Ronny Lee Hollingsworth looked hold off Neil Baggett in a close Rookie of the Year points chase.
The backstory, however, centered on "The Intimagator" Chris Wall. The 2004 MSCCS Rookie of the Year ended last season with a bang and held high hopes for a championship in 2005. The year did not go as planned, as the popular Louisiana alligator farmer was "snakebit" all year long. Though fourth in MSCCS points, Wall had suffered a tough year marked with bad luck at every turn, even missing the Talladega Short Track event due to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Wall would come into the last MSCCS race of the year without a series win on the season, something that no one would have predicted at the beginning of the year.
Hollingsworth would serve notice of his intentions to hold Baggett at bay in the Jay Dickens Racing Engines Rookie of the Year points chase when he qualified with a 14.33-second lap, good enough for fast time of the night. Wall, hungry for a win to finish the season, would follow up with a second-best 14.36, topping group 2 and earning the outside front row starting spot. MSCCS Brown Engineering Fast Gun award winner David Breazeale (an amazing 10 fast times over the 20-race season) would look very fast but run into trouble on both qualifying laps in turns 1 and 2, relegating him to one of the B-Mains.
Rodney Wing would outduel Mark Stokes in a great first B-Main earning the 9th starting spot on the grid for the main event. Breazeale would make a wild maneuver to cut through both front row starters on the first lap of the second qualifying race and go on to dominate and earn the 10th starting spot. The rest of the 22-car MSCCS field would also emerge from the two B-Main events.
The green flag would drop for the feature event with Wall heading for the top of the track, Hollingsworth diving to the bottom, and Chris McElhenney diving under Hollingsworth before Wall took off down the backstretch with the lead. As Hollingsworth and McElhenney raced door-to-door, Mike Boland charged in, shuffled McElhenney out of the battle and went after Hollingsworth. David Gentry would move into 4th place behind the door-to-door pair racing for 2nd place, then grab 3rd from Boland before a caution for Justin McRee stopped the action with Wall, Hollingsworth, Gentry, Boland, and Marlon Wild holding down the top five.
Action resumed, this time with Hollingsworth and Gentry going 3-wide with Wall for the lead, but Wall once again shot down the backstretch to hold on up front. Boland would dive back in under Gentry to resume their race for 3rd while Breazeale worked his way alongside Wild in a battle for 6th place. Gentry would run into trouble, getting extremely loose in turn 4 and dropping several spots as he gathered his car back up with Wall, Hollingsworth, Boland, Baggett, and Breazeale racing ahead in the top five.
By lap 8, Hollingsworth had reeled Wall back in, making a challenge for the lead that did not hold up on the next lap. Wall drove ahead on the rim as Hollingsworth worked the middle of the track and Boland chased them on the hub. Breazeale would go inside Baggett on lap 10, and the two would charge around the track door-to-door as the leader moved into lapped traffic. Baggett would dispatch Breazeale and challenge Boland, taking away 3rd place on lap 13 with Breazeale now picking up the battle with Boland.
It would take 3 more laps of close-formation, side-by-side action before Breazeale moved into 4th place. By then, Hollingsworth was once again dogging Wall for the lead in heavy traffic, nearly taking the position on at least one occasion before Chad Thrash slowed on the front stretch to bring out a lap 18 yellow flag. Wall, Hollingsworth, Baggett, Breazeale, and Boland would make up the top five for the restart.
Boland, Baggett, and Breazeale would race into turn 1 together as the action resumed, with Boland making his way back around Breazeale and going deep under Baggett. Boland would take over 3rd place once again on lap 20, and Breazeale moved in before a lap 22 caution for Larry Murphy halted the action once again with Wall, Hollingsworth, Boland, Baggett, and Breazeale filling the ever-shifting top five.
Boland would grab second place from Hollingsworth shortly after the restart, Baggett would follow to take third, and Breazeale would engage before his march to front was interrupted on lap 25 as he suffered a lap 25 spin and caution in close-quarters action and would have to move to the rear of the field for the restart with Wall still holding on to the lead. Breazeale's misfortune had not quite ended as he would find himself in the middle of a turn 2 pileup six laps later with Wall, Boland, Baggett, Hollingsworth, and McElhenney now in the top five under caution.
Boland's deep-diving attempts at wrestling the lead from a determined Wall with the race back underway would prove fruitless, as Marlon Wild ran the rim of the track trying to take 6th place from Gentry. The final caution of the event fell on lap 35 for Tombo Callahan as Boland closely chased Wall. A little "extracurricular activity" under caution between Callahan and Roger Shirley would mean Callahan's exit from the event via black flag.
For all the wild, action-packed racing of the first half of the event, the final stretch would be quite tame as the matter seemed to be settled up front. As Wall led Boland around for the final 15 circuits, Hollingsworth would close the door on McElhenney in the race for 4th, and Gentry would move around to take over 5th on lap 40. Breazeale, back up from the rear of the pack, would go outside McElhenney to take over 6th place on lap 41, and the final 9 laps were merely a chase to the checkers as the top five cars spread out and sped to MSCCS official Kevin Thrash's checkered flag.
Holden LA's Wall would take the win, his first MSCCS win of 2005 and defend his James Nickoles Memorial championship as he ended the 2004 MSCCS season with a win in the same event. Wall would also be the 12th different Super Late Model winner in the 12 Super Late Model events held thus far at Columbus Speedway in 2005. Boland, Baggett, Hollingsworth, and Gentry would round out the top five, with Breazeale, McElhenney, Wing, Wild, and Anthony Burroughs earning top-ten honors. Breazeale of Four Corners, MS would be triumphantly crowed the 2005 MSCCS Champion and Ronny Lee Hollingsworth went home to Northport, AL with 2005 Rookie of the Year honors.
A strong 27-car field of Open-Wheel Modifieds would take the green flag for their feature race. Chris Smith would pilot his #88 machine to a win as Jeremy Shaw worked his way to a runner-up finish. Todd Gray, Bryan Brock, and David Honeycutt would round out the top five, and Brian Rickman, Mike Shaw, Jason Brock, Matt Price, and Trinity Wyers completed the top ten.
Terry Mosley would take the Late Model Stock feature win over Caleb Myers, with Donovan Henry, Pearce Dixon, and Andy Tyson in the top five. Jason Downs, DJ Pitts, Darrell Guess, Jerry Lucas, and Jason Sanderford finished in the top ten in what would be a rough-and-tumble feature event for the class.
David Honeycutt visited victory lane in the Street Stock division once again, followed by Trey Bright, Mike Barton, Jimmy Odom, and Danny Gable. Michael Pendley took the Mini Stock win over Greg Ruffin, Robert Sanders, Austin Broadaway, and Tommy Colburn. Wayne & Jamie Sudduth would win the clockwise-run Two-Person Cruiser event, and Blaine Davis would take the Hot Shot win.
Next weekend marks another Weekly Racing Series event at Columbus Speedway. Action starts at 7:00 PM starting next Saturday night and will continue to start at 7:00 for the remainder of the racing season. Super Late Models return to "The Bullring" on September 24th for the "Hurricane 30" paying $1,500-to-win. Stop by the Columbus Speedway website located at www.ColumbusSpeedway.net for full schedule and event details.
MSCCS Super Late Models
6th Annual Columbus Nissan James Nickoles Memorial
31 Entries - $2,500-to-win
50 Laps
1ST 71 CHRIS WALL
2ND 222 MIKE BOLAND
3RD 21 NEIL BAGGETT
4TH 18 RONNY LEE HOLLINGSWORTH
5TH 56 DAVID GENTRY
6TH 54 DAVID BREAZEALE
7TH 27 CHRIS MCELHENNEY
8TH 10 RODNEY WING
9TH 48 MARLON WILD
10TH 121 ANTHONY BURROUGHS
11TH 57 ROGER SHIRLEY
12TH 9 CLINT LOGAN
13TH 2 MARK STOKES
14TH 63 JOEY MCKINNEY
15TH 25 JUSTIN MCREE
16TH 77 GREG FORE
17TH 20 TOMBO CALLAHAN
18TH 27 LARRY MURPHY
19TH 1C CHAD THRASH
20TH 47 ROSS MARTIN
21ST 85 RAY MOTTZ
22ND 75 CHARLIE GARDNER
MODIFIED
Top 10
1ST 88 CHRIS SMITH
2ND 1S JEREMY SHAW
3RD 7 TODD GRAY
4TH 8 BRYAN BROCK
5TH 15 DAVID HONEYCUTT
6TH 90 BRIAN RICKMAN
7TH 1S MIKE SHAW
8TH 4 JASON BROCK
9TH 17 MATT PRICE
10TH X TRINITY WYERS
LATE MODEL STOCK
Top 10
1ST 7T TERRY MOSLEY
2ND 88 CALEB MYERS
3RD 17 DONOVAN HENRY
4TH 0 PEARCE DIXON
5TH 2 ANDY TYSON
6TH 8 JASON DOWNS
7TH 9 DJ PITTS
8TH 17 DARRELL GUESS
9TH H1 JERRY LUCAS
10TH 82 JASON SANDERFORD
STREET STOCK
Top 5
1ST 15 DAVID HONEYCUTT
2ND 82 TREY BRIGHT
3RD 27 MIKE BARTON
4TH 29 JIMMY ODOM
5TH 47 DANNY GABLE
MINI STOCK
Top 5
1ST 57 MICHAEL PENDLEY
2ND R1 GREG RUFFIN
3RD 1 ROBERT SANDERS
4TH 77 AUSTIN BROADWAY
5TH 7 TOMMY COLBURN
TWO-PERSON CRUISER
Top 5
1ST 11 WAYNE & JAMIE SUDDUTH
2ND 22 JOHN BEARD & LEE RAY
3RD 56 KEVIN MCWILLIAMS & ROBBY TILLEY
4TH 1 PIP & EUGENE BARTON
5TH 30 JOSH STOCKMAN & ANTHONY GUIN
6TH 00 JON STANFORD & PEE-WEE
HOT SHOT
top 5
1ST 8 BLAINE DAVIS
2ND 171 TREY WRIGHT
3RD 98 JAMES SMITH
4TH 11 ROBBIE TAYLOR
5TH 44 RUSS HUDSON
