By DAVID MILLER
Special to The Dispatch
If a race car driver grew up in the Golden Triangle or the state of Mississippi, there’s a good chance they cheered for Johnny Stokes at some point in time.
Stokes, who has raced since 1970, owns Magnolia Motor Speedway and has maintained a presence on the track by racing Crate Late Models and Street Stocks over the last few years. So when Steens-native Lee Ray found himself in the middle of a 10-lap fight with Stokes for the lead in the Street Stocks feature Friday at Columbus Speedway, he knew he’d get a clean race, but he also knew it was a special moment.
“He wasn’t gonna run over me, and I wasn’t gonna run over him,” Ray said. “I just knew I had to get some good runs off the corners, and we’d put on a good show for the crowd.”
Ray finally cleared Stokes until lap 10, which capped a half-dozen lead changes in which Ray ran the bottom of the track and Stokes took the middle-to-higher lines. The duel was intensified by a wide margin over the rest of the field and just one lap-car to navigate.
“After the race, [Ray] came over and said ‘man, I held my breath for 14 laps,'” said Stokes, who finished second. “I said ‘I enjoyed it … don’t you hope you drive like that at 63?’ That was a lot of fun.”
Stokes hadn’t planned to race Friday; he was in the middle of grilling chicken and pork chops when he received a call from Terry King, who owns a Street Stocks car driven by his son, TK. It was short-notice – 6:30 p.m. – but King needed someone to drive the car.
“I said [to King] ‘you drive it,'” Stokes said. “Me and Terry’s daddy were real good friends … I know them well, and they ain’t gonna accept ‘no.’ I said ‘I don’t know what time I’m gonna be there … I’ll come when I get through cooking and eating.'”
Stokes showed up to Columbus Speedway at about 8:30 p.m., about midway through hot laps, and later started on the front row. Stokes said he would have tried to run the bottom of the track, but the car was “too tight.”
“I figured Lee would just go by me if I did … I tried once and had to let off of it,” Stokes said.
The win was Ray’s second of the season at Columbus. He credited promoter Rod Taylor for preparing a race surface that offered two consistent lines.
“We had several races this year where we weren’t able to run side by side,” Ray said, “but Rod’s got the old track figured out now. We were really able to hammer down last night.”
Bryan Fortner, Andrew Earnest and Jamie Sudduth rounded out the top 5.
In other race action
n Hunter Carroll won the NeSmith Crate Late Model feature. Bryant Marsh, Blake Koenigsberger, Henry Pullen and Chad McCool rounded out the top 5.
n Wesley Green won the 602 Sportsman feature. Tony Shelton and Allen Simmons finished second and third, respectively.
n Ray Mauldin won the Late Model Stocks feature. Daniel Gann, Felix George, Hunter Whaley and Jackson McCool rounded out the top 5.
n Josh Holbrook won the Factory Stocks feature. Jason Byrd, Brandon Whitley, Kevin McWilliams and Scooter Ware rounded out the top 5.
n Bo Minor won the Mini Stocks feature. Tiny Coffman, Allen Gilreath, Matt Meadows and Mike Minor rounded out the top 5.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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