Connor Hall overcomes adversity in chaotic Clash at Carteret

PELETIER, NC – Connor Hall raced his way from the back after his involvement in a mid-race skirmish to score the victory in the Christmas Clash at Carteret County Speedway on Saturday evening.

Hall qualified on the pole but Tristan McKee took the lead in the early laps of what was scheduled to be a 130 lap Limited Late Model race.  On a lap 50 restart, Brandon Clements was able to get past Hall for the runner-up position.  A lap later, Clements wrecked off the front bumper of Hall triggering a multi-car accident which swept up several contenders and triggering a lengthy red flag.

Hall was penalized for the incident and the race was then shortened to 99 laps due to track conditions in a race that had already been arduous – following an attrition-filled Legends feature.  Hall, however, quickly raced his way back into contention, running down Tristan McKee and storming past the teenager with just 12 laps remaining to score the win – his sixth at Carteret.

“Tristan caught me off guard because he went before the restart box,” Hall explained.  “I didn’t care.  And then that allowed Brandon to get in between us and I knew at the time that Tristan was motoring pretty hard so I wanted to at least try to stay with him.  I peeked a couple times on Brandon and he shut the door.  It’s so hard to pass here.  I was just going go in there and barely help him go in about a mile an hour faster than he wanted to so I could turn the bottom on him up off of two and, it wasn’t anything of his doing but I barely touched him and the thing just went around.”

Hall was not in a celebratory mood after the race, adding, “I really hate making boneheaded moves.”

McKee finished second while Rusty Daniels, Eric Winslow, and Thomas Beane rounded out the top-five.

The lap 51 incident sidelined several notable contenders, including Clements, Dylan Newsome, Trevor Ward, and Ayden Millette.  The incident was most disappointing for Clements, who looked poised to potentially challenge for the win at a track he has had a lot of success at.

“I guess [Hall] didn’t get going on the restart,” Clements said.  “We cleared down.  A lap and a half later, he just fuel celled us dude.  He said he didn’t mean to.  That don’t fix racecars.  It is what it is.  Wendell Davis brought us a hot rod.  Old outdated car running with them.  I feel like we had something to be there at the end but I guess we’ll never know.  I can’t seem to get to the end of these things without getting run over, it’s disappointing.”

The race’s six cautions took out other notable contenders such as Riley Neal, Zach Bruenger, and Michael O’Brien.  Clay Jones, Matt Tifft, and Michael Fose were also involved in on track skirmishes but continued.  In total, the race took two hours and eight minutes to complete.

Unofficial Results
Christmas Clash – Carteret County Speedway

1. #77H – Connor Hall
2. #7M – Tristan McKee
3. #16 – Rusty Daniels
4. #22 – Eric Winslow
5. #1 – Thomas Beane
6. #44JY – Jason York
7. #91 – Justin Carroll
8. #19 – Chris Burns
9. #9C – Charlie Watson
10. #81 – Sam Butler
11. #7W – Dylan Ward
12. #23 – Chase Murphy
13. #15 – Clay Jones
14. #50T – Matt Tifft
15. #54 – Michael Fose
16. #28 – Tony Cosentino
17. #4 – J.R. Goode
18. #07 – Riley Neal
19. #51B – Brandon Clements
20. #71 – Trevor Ward
21. #9AM – Ayden Millette
22. #44 – Dylan Newsome
23. #51 – Gator Williams
24. #52 – Zach Bruenger
25. #21MO – Michael O’Brien
26. #90 – Terry Carroll
27. #50 – Daniel Vuncannon