Sean Rayhall and his team under the guidance of Tom Pistone celebrated for the first time in UARA-STARS Victory Lane following the Racing Electronics 150 event at Caraway Speedway Saturday, July 28th. Rayhall’s win was certainly what the young driver needed as he still physically recuperates from his big legends wreck in June.
Caraway’s former 4-time track Champion Travis Swaim jumped out front early and led the majority of the race, awarding him Tilton’s Most Laps Led Award. After qualifying second, Rayhall floated in the top five for the entire race. When it was coming down to crunch time Swaim got the jump on Rayhall at the restart of the second to last caution. The two were neck-in-neck after the first lap, but once Rayhall got out front it was smooth sailing on his part.
While the crowd was watching those two swap paint, the Bassett Brothers and Ben Rhodes were also putting on a good show. The three cars were battling for 3rd position when Ronnie Bassett Jr. turned Rhodes around on the backstretch. Ronnie Bassett Jr. and Rhodes made contact earlier in the race and was warned by UARA officials about the contact. After the second incident, Bassett Jr. was black flagged. Rhodes made a clean 360 degrees turn and blended back into the top five.
Not only did Rayhall get his first career win, he was also awarded the Circle Wheel/Xtreme Trophy Rookie of the Race award. Devin Jones won his first career Sunoco Pole. Jones had suffered his third engine failure in as many race weekends during practice on Friday. The team took the car back to their shop for an engine exchange and returned on Saturday morning ready to get the job done. Jones floated around the top five all night. After being in a Bassett Brothers sandwich, Jones was awarded Pigwire’s Electrifying Move of the Race for his ability to hold on the to his racecar during three-wide racing.
Rookie challengers Brodie Kostecki and Brandon Jones had a rough night during the Racing Electronics 150. Brandon Jones made contact with teammate Will Gallaher during the parade laps of the race. The field was setting pit road speed, when Jones ran into the back of Gallaher. Jones seemed to never fully recover all night. Kostecki brought out the first caution when he spun in turn two. Although he was able to fire his machine back up and drive it to pit road, his numerous visits to pit road left him many laps down.
Trey Marcham had a rough night as well giving the fans a big scare. As he was coming down the front stretch, his motor broke resulting in a fire under the hood. Marcham safely exited his car, but was done for the night.
The STARS will continue the action this weekend at Concord Speedway on August 4th. Entries are coming in for the City Chevrolet 150. Buster Bennett, Bobby Measmer, Michael Rouse, Beau Foust and Joey Bryant are some of the early entries that will be joining the UARA-STARS. Bennet is very familiar with his hometrack and has been to victory lane 13 times and should give the STARS a good run for the money. The local Street Stock cars, Fast and Furious Fours and the Carolina Vintage Racers will be part of the racing action to be held at Concord.
For more information on the UARA-STARS, visit them online at www.uara-stars.com or call (828) 692-3833. Fans are also encouraged to “like” them on Facebook under the United Auto Racing Association and follow them on Twitter @uarastars.
Unofficial Results Racing Electronics 150:
Position Car # Driver
1 14 Sean Rayhall
2 28 Travis Swaim
3 44 Dillon Bassett
4 35 Devin Jones
5 99 Jake Morris
6 23 Roger Powell
7 81 Chandler LeVan
8 8 David Garbo Jr.
9 58 Scott Turlington
10 07 Tyler Church
11 7 Taylor Stricklin
12 17 Julia Dawson
13 6 Will Gallaher
14 18 Sammy Jasper
15 4 Ronnie Bassett Jr.
16 16 Tyler Laing
17 20 Cory Joyce
18 2 Tim George Jr.
19 40 Brodie Kostecki
20 32 Trey Marcham
21 33 Brandon Jones
22 5 Tyler Brown
DQ 9 Ben Rhodes