Max Reaves claimed his first World Series of Asphalt victory in a Pro Late Model in a thrilling race on Night 4 at New Smyrna Speedway.
The 35-lap feature saw the top four cars battle for the win over the final 10 laps and crossed the finish line nose to tail. Reaves held off veteran Alex Labbe, World Series defending champion Hunter Wright and Isaac Kitzmiller to take the win.
“That was the most nervous I’ve ever been in one of these cars,” Reaves said in victory lane. “We’ve struggled all week from wrecking and just sucking. I’m just so thankful for my team and my dad and everybody, and cookout, cookout makes it possible. This is awesome. That’s all I can say. This means as much to me as a CARS Tour win.”
While Reaves is still young, he has a veteran in his corner. NASCAR Hall of Famer Bobby Labonte has been helping the Cumming, Ga., native for the past year.
“I’ve been helping Max for a little bit over a year, and he’s done a great job,” said Labonte. “He just turned 15 and they grew up in my neighborhood. [I watched] Abbey and Jeremy [Reaves’ parents] rush these kids around in a stroller [and] now watching them come to this is really awesome. I never raced there, so to see Max win tonight is great.
“I’m not a ‘coach’ but I’m definitely very proud of everybody and the hard work he’s put into it. He’s got so much to learn, but he’s got a great future in front of him.”
Finishing just behind Reaves was Labbe. The Quebec native and 2017 NASCAR Canada Series champion has been in racing for more than 15 years, even running full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2018, as well as 2020-22.
He started on the pole and led the first three laps until Reaves passed him on the outside on a restart. Labbe kept the youngster honest though, racing him hard but clean throughout the race, but came up .125 seconds short.
Labonte offered his praises to Labbe, chatting with him post race.
“He just thanked me for racing [Reaves] clean and teaching him a couple of things,” said Labbe of Labonte. “I’m a veteran now so I was not gonna rough him up there at the end. It was good racing with him and [Hunter] Wright behind me, and [it was] a three- or four-car battle. It was a blast.
“I wish I’d kept the lead at the start but he used me a little bit, but that’s racing. I should have got a little better job on a restart. I feel like that’s what cost me the race.”
Hunter Wright scored another podium, finishing in third and extending his points lead even more.
“We got messed up a little bit in qualifying,” said Wright post-race. “Had to start pretty deep and just kind of picked them off one by one [and] got up to the front. I’m thankful it’ll be here. [I] got ran over there trying to race for the lead. I guess that’s what happens when you try to race clean around here, but had a lot of fun racing. Us and [Labbe] had a good show. [Ran] side by side for a while. [I] had a lot of fun.”
While the finish was great, the race got off to a rocky start. Labbe and Reaves made up the front row, but the field didn’t even get off of turn 2 before a large wreck. The 25 of Taylor Reimer lost momentum on the start and got tagged by the 11 of Randy Sargent. Travis Stearns in the 153 had nowhere to go and t-boned Reimer hard. All drivers were okay.
After a lengthy red flag, the field got back going, but not for long.
One lap was completed before Connor Jones, one of the fastest drivers of the week, came to a halt due to a broken control arm.
“After that big wreck, I knew I hit something,” Jones said in the garage. “It felt like a chunk of lead. It broke the lower control arm. [Going] to go to the backup car because it killed the front clip.”
Labbe led the field back to green, and got two more laps in before Jimmy Renfrew Jr. went spinning off the nose of T.J. DeCaire, who was getting pushed by Isaac Kitzmiller. Larry Gelinas also spun in the melee.
Reaves took the lead from Labbe on the ensuing restart and the pair raced each other hard.
On lap 22, Wright grabbed second from Labbe, and started applying the pressure to Reaves. It wasn’t enough though, and Wright fell back into the clutches of Labbe, who passed him on the outside with five laps left, which is how they stayed until the checkered
Kitzmiller finished fourth with Brody Monahan, who sits second in World Series points, rounding out the top five.
Pro Late Model World Series of Asphalt Race 4
New Smyrna Speedway
February 10 2025
1. Max Reaves
2. Alex Labbe
3. Hunter Wright
4. Isaac Kitzmiller
5. Brody Monahan
6. Jimmy Renfrew, Jr.
7. Jade Avedisian
8. Anthony Bello
9. T.J. DeCaire
10. Cole Robie
11. Brody Whorff
12. Raphael Lessard
13. Mike Scorzelli
14. Eric Gelinas
15. Diogo Moscato
16. William Roberge
17. Brandon Lopez
18. Augusto Tonialo
19. Derrick Kelley
20. Glenn Styres
21. Conner Jones
22. Taylor Reimer
23. Randy Sargent
24. Travis Stearns
Updated championship standings
- Hunter Wright
- Brody Monahan -24
- Jade Avedisian -26
- Jimmy Renfrew Jr. -28
- Isaac Kitzmiller -48
- Cole Robie -64
- Anthony Bello -64
- Max Reaves -72
- Mike Scorzelli -84
- Brandon Lopez -90
- Alex Labbe -96
- Conner Jones -96
