Chuck Bowie of Welcome, Maryland, and Jeremy Pil-kerton of Loveville, Maryland, both took home victories in the Victory Lap Pro Late Model Twin 15s on Truckin’ Thunder Military Appreciation Night on Saturday at Virginia Motor Speedway in Middlesex County.
In the first Victory Lap Pro Late Model 15-lap feature, Bud Stinson and Billy Hubbard led the field to green, but it was Davis Lipscombe who led the opening lap. On a lap 6 restart, Bowie would rocket under Lipscombe in turn 1 for the lead. Bowie put some distance between himself and the battle for second. Jeremy Pilkerton took second and set out to catch Bowie with the laps winding down. Bowie scored the win ahead of Pilkerton, Billy Hubbard, Nick Davis and Curtis Hughes.
“This is only the second race on this car, after wrecking it at Hagerstown Speedway a couple of weeks ago; I can’t thank my wife for all the hard work she puts into making this car go fast,” Bowie said in the victory lane.
After the invert, Davis and Hubbard led the field to green. Davis took control out of turn 2 and led the first circuit. On the next lap, Pilkerton got under Stinson for second and set out to close in on the leader. By lap 6, Bowie’s lead was whittled down to two car lengths. With four to go, Pilkerton began to close in on Davis. Several times getting a nose to his inside only to be held at bay. Pilkerton would drive it deep into turn 1 on the final lap, closing the gap and looking inside as they raced out of turn 2. In turn 3, Pilkerton again drove it in deep, this time trying the outside of Davis. Pilkerton got door-to-door as the two raced to the line but lost by about a nose.
After going over the scales, Davis was found to be light and was DQ’ed, giving the win to Pilkerton. Rounding out the top five were Bowie, Stinson, Jarrett Edwards and Hughes.
“I hate winning this way; this is Davis’s win. But we will take the win and second-place finish in the first race and work to be better next race,” Pilkerton said.
Other winners on Saturday included Chase Butler of Mechanicsville (Budweiser Modified feature), Tim Shelton of Fredericksburg (Truckin’ Thunder Sportsman feature) and Johnny Brooks of Mechanicville (Limited Stock Car feature).
The speedway will take next weekend off and return to racing on Saturday, Aug. 5, to host the Modified Mafia Modified Series in a $2,500-to-win event. Week 8 of Dirt Series Championship weekly racing will also feature the Victory Lap Late Model, Truckin’ Thunder Sportsman, and Collision One Limited Stock divisions in action.