Charles Stout over comes early crash and WINS!

[Troy Dalton]

iRacing News - Summit Point 50

This week the Champion Motorsports iRacing Series traveled to Summit Point, WV. for 50 laps of road racing in the penultimate event of the season. Charles Stout once again started from pole, after posting a blistering 59.858 in qualifying. Stout edged out Mike Swanson for his third consecutive pole award, by a mere .031 one-hundredths of a second.





Once again, the Late Model tour saw a rather small field take the grid at Summit Point, but that would not discourage the participates, nor would it disappoint the fans in attendance. The festivities would get kicked off right from the drop of the green flag, when there was contact between pole sitter Stout and Mike Swanson. Swanson, who had fallen to second place in the Championship standings after missing the Martinsville race, was eager to make up ground on series leader Troy Dalton. As the field raced down to turn one, Swanson was getting crowed by Dalton, who was poking the nose of his Monte Carlo to the inside, in an apparent effort to over take in turn one. Distracted by Dalton, Swanson missed his braking point and punted the leader Charles Stout. Mayhem ensued and Dalton, who was on a fuel conservation strategy, quite surprisingly found himself in the lead.







Both Stout and Swanson used their alloted "Quick Restart" and quickly reentered the fray. However, both were well down to Dalton, who was diligently watching his fuel. As the laps began to tick down, it was clear that Dalton would need to "Make" some fuel along the way and he began short shifting and gradually slowed his pace. This allowed the already quicker Stout, to make up quite a bit of ground over the final twenty-five laps. When Dalton took the white flag he had a six second lead, but with fuel still a concern, it was anybody's race. As Dalton exited turn six, it was clear that he was running on fumes and the engine began to cough and sputter. By the time the two competitors had reached the final turn, Dalton's car was barely chugging along and Stout blew by him for the win; a mere 300 yards from the finish!





It was an exciting and very interesting race that saw Charles Stout's earn his second win of the season. For Dalton, it was a bitter disappointment, but all was not lost, as he did manage to stretch his very slim championship points lead to six over Swanson. This setups up what should be a very interesting final race at Lime Rock Park, where the two contenders will ultimately decide the Championship.



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