Quin Houff Opens CARS SLM Tour With Southern National Win

LUCAMA, N.C. :: Quin Houff opened the 2016 Championship Auto Racing Series (CARS) Super Late Model Tour in victory lane, outdueling defending champion Cole Timm to win the #CARSTour300 at Southern National Motorsports Park.

Timm gained the advantage over Houff on a lap 109 restart during the 150 lap race, but Houff quickly worked his way back to the lead to secure his second career CARS Tour victory.

“Cole Timm is a respectable driver, and I knew he would give me a hard time on that restart,” said Houff on the late-race battle. “That’s actually kind of my weak point. Pretty proud of myself today, I kept up with him.”

“I can’t thank these LFR guys enough,” added Houff in victory lane. “Duke Cancer coming on board to donate to cancer research, and the Alan Kulwicki colors, it’s very special for all of us. Putting them all in victory lane means a lot.”

For Timm, it was a hard-fought second place finish with a car that wasn’t handling perfectly, giving him a solid start to his CARS Super Late Model Tour championship defense.

“It just started getting tight on us,” Timm said after his runner-up finish. “It was tight all weekend, so I figured that’s what would happen. We were decent on the long run, just not good enough. All in all, it was a good start.”

After a long green-flag run to start the Super Late Model feature, both Houff and Timm wondered how well their respective competitor had managed tires. Ultimately, Houff had saved enough Hoosier rubber to make the final push to the victory.

“I was pretty confident,” Houff said. “I wasn’t sure how much Cole Timm had, I figured he was playing games with me. But I was pretty confident. We were running really smoothly, I was trying not to slip the tires. I felt like we were going to be up front.”

“I thought [Houff] might have used his stuff up, so I thought I was going to try to pounce and get around him,” Timm said about the restart. “But he saved just a little bit. I thought we might could race it out a little bit, but he was just better there, especially off the center.”

Trevor Noles started on the pole for the season-opening event, but Houff assumed the lead on lap nine after starting in the third position. The lone caution came on lap 108, when Jeff Batten spun in turn four.

Several front runners experienced mechanical issues, derailing strong runs in the top ten. Dalton Sargeant and Tyler Ankrum both retired during the 108-lap green flag run to start the race. Zane Smith was in position for a podium finish in the closing laps of the race before a flat tire brought him to pit road and relegated him to a 19th place finish.

Unofficially, Raphael Lessard finished third, with Trevor Noles and Matt Craig rounding out the top five. The unofficial results of the #CARSTour300 Super Late Model feature can be viewed below.

Short Track SCENE’s Andy Marquis contributed to this report.

1. #17 Quin Houff
2. #57 Cole Timm
3. #99 Raphael Lessard
4. #22 Trevor Noles
5. #54 Matt Craig
6. #2 Jared Irvan
7. #12 Harrison Burton
8. #45 Joey Mucciaciaro
9. #40 Jeff Fultz
10. #55F Kevin Floars
11. #6 Brandon Setzer
12. #51 Stephen Nasse
13. #44 Gus Dean
14. #97 Nicole Behar
15. #88 Garrett Jones
16. #49 Jeff Batten
17. #25 Stephen Leicht
18. #16 Lucas Jones
19. #77 Zane Smith
20. #67 Clay Jones
21. #41 Jake Crum
22. #58 Tyler Ankrum
23. #8 Tate Fogleman
24. #55 Dalton Sargeant