Charlie Watson and Michael Bumgarner raced literally side-by-side in the first half of a Late Model Stock Twin 40 on Saturday night at Hickory Motor Speedway.
Ultimately, Watson prevailed over Bumgarner but they nearly used up their tires so much racing that way that it gave Blayne Harrison a shot to catch them both.
“I started out the year with an older car and realized that wasn’t going to get it done so we got this new one built and it wasn’t too bad for a car that hadn’t hit the track until this morning,” said Watson, the principle owner of PRW Chassis. “We just had a shake down test at Tri-County.
“Pretty proud of us to hit the track and win the race on the same day. I appreciate all the guys at PRW.”
Bumgarner said missing out on the pole to Watson was the difference.
“That put us behind,” he said. “It was tough to get around him because I just didn’t have enough drive when I couldn’t control the start.”
What was Harrison hoping for?
“We just needed a couple of more laps but couldn’t get there fast enough,” Harrison said.
Watson and Bumgarner continued their battle in the second race, this time trading paint for fourth, trying to race their way back through the top-5 and arguably used what was left of their tires that it allowed Graham Hollar to claim his second win of the season.
“We’re racing against some good cars,” Hollar said. “I couldn’t do this without Ryan Millington, who came back from a snowboarding trip to help us. Bumgarner was coming but we were able to match his time.”
This time, Bumgarner was left mad with Watson.
“I usually enjoy racing with Charlie but he needs to clean it up before I have to take care of it,” Bumgarner said. “He drove through me and jacked us up. Other than that, we made the right adjustments and had a good car after flipping our tires. Just ran out of laps.”
Twin 40 No. 1
- Charlie Watson
- Michael Bumgarner
- Blayne Harrison
- Thomas Beane
- Mason Walters
- Skyler Chaney
- Graham Hollar
Twin 40 No. 2
- Graham Holler
- Michael Bumgarner
- Thomas Beane
- Charlie Watson
- Blayne Harrison
- Mason Walters
- Skyler Chaney
