Charlie Bradberry Wins PASS South “South Carolina Clash”

As the final laps of the “South Carolina Clash” PASS South event at Florence Motor Speedway (SC) clicked away, no one in the pit area or the grandstands of the 4/10-mile track had a clue who was going to win.

Charlie Bradberry looked to have the win in his hands before being forced to pit for fear of running out of fuel, handing the lead to Mike Rowe with five laps to go. Rowe and Super Late Model veteran Freddie Query then traded paint after the late restart, allowing Bradberry to make his way back into a position to still get the victory. Another late-race yellow resulted in a green-white-checkered finish and allowed Bradberry to take his first career PASS South win, making it three different winners in three PASS South events in 2006.

”I’m just tickled to death about winning this race,” said the 23-year-old hotshoe from Chelsea, AL. “If I finished second or third, I’d probably be upset because I had such a good car. It feels like I ran about 500 laps tonight, that’s how hard I worked, but it’s a great feeling to come out here and run with the best of the best like Mike Rowe and Freddie Query and come out on top. If I’m going to go race, I want to do it against the strongest competition. That way if I win, I know I beat the best guys out there, and that’s what I did tonight.”

Bradberry led Saturday night’s “South Carolina Clash” on six different occasions, but it seemed that all hope was lost for the former NASCAR Southeast Series Champion when his car began to sputter under caution just five laps short of the checkers. The race’s 15 caution periods left Bradberry’s car thirsty for fuel, so he brought his #78 to the attention of his crew. After a quick splash, Bradberry restarted fourth and worked his way into third behind Query and Rowe with two laps to go.

“I caught a huge break when I started hearing the engine miss. I was running out of gas and just coasted in to get some gas. It couldn’t have worked out any better. I thought our

chances to win were gone then. I didn’t know that there were only a few cars left on the lead lap at that point. When I went back out and saw that I didn’t really lose anything, I knew I still had a shot.”

With Query out front, Bradberry made a move by Rowe for second at the same time Rowe was going for the lead. The three cars made contact and Rowe’s #24 was sent spinning down the backstretch, bringing out the event’s final caution. Rowe came out of the spin unscathed and restarted third. When the field went to racing on the green-white-checkered finish, Bradberry made the best of his outside lane spot to jump ahead of Query into the first turn and cruised to victory.

“I don’t know if you can call that a race; that was more like a war,” added Bradberry, a former NASCAR Southeast Series champion. “Of all the races that I’ve run all around the country, I’ve never run a race that was that tough to win. It just boils down to the caliber of drivers in this series. Those top-five guys are the best of the best and that’s why it was such a good show. We all had equal equipment and it was fun trading the lead just about every lap there at the end.”

In a race that featured 17 lead changes, Preston Peltier was the first to set the pace at Florence. Peltier led the first 37 laps from the pole after winning the Dash race earlier in the evening. It didn’t take long for Bradberry to show his muscle, however. Bradberry set fast time in qualifying and quickly worked his way to the lead on lap 38. Rowe, Kevin Love, Query and local hero Hal Goodson, who was making his PASS South debut, each took turns in the lead through the middle stages of the 150-lap event.

But in the end, it came down to Bradberry and the winners of the first two PASS South events of the season, Query, who won at Southern National Speedway (NC) in May and Rowe, who was the victor of the series’ opener at Hickory Motor Speedway (NC) in April. Query was focused on making it two-straight PASS South wins in a row, but he was denied on the final restart by Bradberry.

“It was just a battle out there tonight,” said Query. “Every restart was a battle and I’m glad to have survived it. I had a lot of fun.

“Charlie ran out of gas, Mike Rowe ran out of gas and I don’t know how I didn’t run out of gas. But in the end, I had a third-place car. I had a hood popping up and I couldn’t see too well, my radio communication with Elaine (Query’s wife and spotter) went away, so I didn’t think that I had anything for Mike and Charlie. It was a great show for the fans and it’s fun to race like that, but I race for money. First place pays a whole lot more than second, so I wanted to win, but it was still some hard racing.”

Rowe had a shot at Query with just a few laps remaining, but lost his shot when he spun down the backstretch late. The Turner, ME-native recovered from his spin to finish third, but nearly didn’t even make it to the checkers, as his car was gasping for fuel at the end of the race.

“My guys hollered at me to come in, but we were already doubling up for the final restart so I couldn’t,” said Rowe. “We ran out of gas there at the end, so we didn’t have anything for Charlie or Freddie. We got into a little mishap there on the backstretch, but we still recovered for third which was good. I was trying to get underneath Freddie and Charlie went high. We just made contact. It was just good, hard racing. We all went for the same hole and I went around. There were three of us up front and we were all going for it.”

Tim Nooner captured his best-career PASS South finish with his fourth-place run. Clay Jones kept pace with Rowe in points by finishing fifth. Bradberry collected a $5,000 paycheck for his win in the “South Carolina Clash.”

The next race for the PASS South cars is the “Orange Blossom Special” at Orange County Speedway on Saturday night, June 17th.

For more information on the PASS South Series, contact Jeremy Troiano at DSG by calling (704) 455–2051 and be sure to visit the official website of PASS, www.proallstarsseries.com.

Race Results

PASS South

South Carolina Clash

June 10, 2006

Florence Motor Speedway, Florence, SC

Finish Position, Start Position, Driver, Hometown, Laps Completed

1. (3) Charlie Bradberry, Chelsea, AL, 151

2. (9) Freddie Query, Mooresville, NC, 151

3. (2) Mike Rowe, Turner, ME, 151

4. (6) Tim Nooner, Salisbury, NC, 150

5. (11) Clay Jones, Goldsboro, NC, 150

6. (1) Preston Peltier, Concord, NC, 148

7. (7) Ryan Lawler, Colleyville, TX, 141

8. (4) Ted Musgrave Jr., Mooresville, NC, 127

9. (13) Allen Gordon, Leesburg, GA, 127

10. (17) Wes Burton, Kannapolis, NC, 120

11. (14) Hal Goodson, Darlington, SC, 112

12. (8) Eddie Massengill, Goldsboro, NC, 94

13. (5) Kevin Love, Midland, NC, 83

14. (10) Dennis Schoenfeld, Concord, NC, 39

15. (15) Derek Ranstrom, Worcester, MA, 37

16. (12) Chris Dunn, Raleigh, NC, 37

17. (16) Randy Cobb, Stokes, NC, 16

18. (DNS) Justin Wakefield, Woodstock, GA

19. (DNS) Shannon Mines

Time of Race: 1:51:50.802

Margin of Victory: 0.353 seconds

Caution Flags: 15

Lead Changes: 17 among 6 drivers

Lap Leaders: Peltier 1-37, Bradberry 38, Rowe 39, Bradberry 40-42, Love 43-53, Bradberry 54-58, Rowe 59-62, Query 63-83, Bradberry 84-93, Query 94-97, Goodson 98-99, Query 100-106, Rowe 107-111, Query 112-123, Bradberry 124-145, Rowe 146-147, Query 148-149, Bradberry 150-151

Heat winner: Query

Dash winner: Peltier