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Super Late Models

William Sawalich Claims World Series Opener

It’s one win in one appearance for the Toyota Racing Development prospect.

Jason Reasin

William Sawalich has that rooster in him.

The Donnie Wilson Motorsports No. 2 struck first in the World Series of Asphalt Super Late Model division on Sunday night. Having posted the third fastest time in time trials and starting third with a six-car invert, Sawalich quickly drove to second and passed Jake Finch for the lead on Lap 15.

Casey Roderick posted fast time but just ran out of time to get back to the front in 35 laps despite posting the fastest times at the end.

To his credit, Sawalich needed to be perfect in hitting his marks to stave off Roderick in the Anthony Campi Racing No. 18, and he was just that.

“It’s super hard to pass here,” Sawalich said. “You have to go and get all you can early. I felt like I had a good race but still need to work on my timing a little bit.”

Sawalich is one of the emerging prospects in stock car racing and is starting to win with regularity against top level competition. His celebration in victory lane was subdued though and there is a reason for that, too.

“You have to stay humble,” Sawalich said. “You’re not going to win every race. You just have to keep your head down and keep digging.”

Jake Finch inherited the pole for the start when Roderick drew a 6 for the invert but says the set-up experiment they rolled with wasn’t entirely what they needed for a short run on Sunday.

“This was our first day out here and we only got that one round of practice,” Finch said. “We wanted to try something for the big race, the ASA race on Tuesday, and while it sucks for the guys who have been here throughout all the rainouts, but they got track time, too.

“We just tried something, and I think we figured out some things for tomorrow and Tuesday. Sucks to not win, but definitely a confidence boost to leads some laps and get a top-five having not been here over the weekend.”

Roderick had the best car all day and was ultimately just beat by the invert and was satisfied with his race all things considered.

“Fired off really well the first four or five laps and just didn’t have enough for the 2 there,” Roderick said. “Really happy with where the car is. Needed a few minor adjustments for tomorrow’s race and we’ll be just fine.

“It’s hard to pass here. Track position is very important. If we could have started up front, I feel really good about what we had tonight. Trying to pass on the high side a couple times, or the run we got off 2 was where we were really strong, but we’ll apply it and get ACR and Team Platinum the win.”

Meanwhile, it was a struggle for some of the expected contenders in two-time World Series champion Derek Griffith and Matthew Craig. The latter fell out of the race 22 laps into the race from starting eighth and the former finished seventh after starting ninth.

For Griffith, this was just the second race this car had started after the 2022 Snowball Derby Last Chance Race so they’re still building a notebook on the car.

“We just had so much ground to make up after qualifying,” Griffith said. “When everyone is so close, it puts on a good show, but it’s just hard to pass in these 35 lappers. We unloaded fast, was really loose in practice and went a little tighter for the race but just too much at night and in the cold. Just missed it.

“But that’s the value of Speedweeks. It’s like a whole season in two weeks, and it gets you a lot of time to get better.”

Super Late Model World Series of Asphalt Race 1
New Smyrna Speedway
February 12 2023

  1. William Sawalich
  2. Casey Roderick
  3. Gio Ruggiero
  4. Jake Finch
  5. Conner Jones
  6. Gabe Sommers
  7. Derek Griffith
  8. Brad May
  9. Connor Mosack
  10. Michael Hinde
  11. Nicholas Naugle
  12. Todd Stone
  13. Tommy Catalano
  14. James Lynch
  15. Billy VanMeter
  16. Tony Elrod
  17. Steve Weaver, Jr.
  18. Austin Teras
  19. Matt Craig
  20. Patrick Thomas
  21. Kris Wright

PRO LATE MODELS

A well-timed caution allowed Carson Brown to win in Pro Late Model competition.

Katie Hettinger had just taken the lead in the closing laps when a stalled car negated the pass. Brown was given lane choice and drove to the win as Hettinger battled to keep Conner Jones behind here.

This was just the second career start in a Pro Late Model for the 14-year-old Brown, who drives for Rackley WAR.

“Rackley WAR gave me a great a Chevrolet, and there was a ton of lap traffic from like lap 5,” Brown said. “We had a great race with Katie Hettinger. Something broke loose on our car around Lap 8 and I nearly couldn’t keep it off the wall. But we saved it and were able to close out for the win.”

Going into the week, Brown just wanted to get a win, and he did so in Race 2 of 7.

“Hopefully we can keep the momentum going forward,” Brown said. “We have some things to work on of course with what happened early on but hopefully that’s the worst of our luck and it’s behind us.”

  1. Carson Brown
  2. Katie Hettinger
  3. Conner Jones
  4. Hunter Wright
  5. Ryan Luza
  6. Charlie Keeven
  7. Jimmy Renfrew, Jr.
  8. Brent Crews
  9. Gavan Boschele
  10. Dakota Stroup
  11. Dawson Sutton
  12. Jeremie Whorff
  13. Nicholas Naugle
  14. TJ DeCaire
  15. Mitch Haver
  16. Ryan Kamish
  17. Gil Linster
  18. Kent Baledge
  19. Toni Breidinger
  20. Johnny Aramendia
  21. David Weaver
  22. Glenn Styres
  23. Mike Mayberry
  24. Chase Johnson
  25. John Weitz
  26. Gus Dean
  27. Cory Luciano
  28. Jeff Johnston
  29. TJ Monroe

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Matt Weaver is the owner and founder of Short Track Scene. Weaver grew up in the sport, having raced himself before becoming a reporter in college at the University of South Alabama. He also has extensive experience covering NASCAR, IndyCar and Dirt Sprint Cars.

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