After two years away from Super Late Model racing, Neil Baggett is back and “feeling it.”
The Shannon native and Columbus resident piloted his No. 21xxx car to a win Sunday at Magnolia Motor Speedway, holding off a strong push by Chad Thrash along the bottom of turns three and four late in the race.
Baggett now has two wins and a runner-up finish at Hattiesburg. He plans to step outside Mississippi to compete in COMP Cams races before returning to Magnolia for the Clash at the MAG in mid-June.
“We got this car at the end of last year and raced it maybe 10 times,” Baggett said. “It didn’t fit me at first, but we worked on it and worked on it, and I finally got comfortable in it. We haven’t qualified no worse than second. We should have won at Hattiesburg and Greenville.”
Baggett was fast on top, venturing off the line briefly once Thrash began to make a push midway through the race. Thrash ran the top in turns one and two, but he dove deep along the bottom in turns three and four to reach Baggett’s door twice.
“I’ve raced against Chad every week for 10 years, so I knew he’d race me clean,” Baggett said. “The track was slowing down so much up top, but I knew that if I just hit my mark, there was enough traction off (turns) three and four that I could beat him to the chute. I ended up having enough to get the win.”
The 2018 race season could have been a farewell tour for Baggett, who after two years of driving Crates and Street Stocks off and on for various car owners, was “burning out” with racing. He sold all of his Super Late Model equipment two years ago due to the expense of the sport, but in late 2017 he linked with Prate Montgomery, for whom he’d previously raced a Crate Late Model car.
Prate bought a new Rocket XR-1 and Jay Dickens motor and said, ‘let’s give it one last hoorah,’ ” Baggett said. “(Montgomery) said, ‘I want you to race, and if you don’t like it, we’ll do something else.’ I put a little bit in it, and he bought the car and motor. We have a situation here where, every week, we can go somewhere and win. That race car is on keel right now.”
Thrash finished second, while Brian Rickman, Jason Hiett, and Jamie Tollison rounded out the top five.
Ellis continues to dominate
Evan Ellis led from front to back and won his sixth-straight Durrence Layne Late Models race at Magnolia.
Ellis, who drives a Club 29 car, opened up large leads on the field before and after the race’s only caution on lap 10.
“I can’t complain,” Ellis said. “The car is great and everything is running good. Everything’s flowing my way.”
Klint Byars finished second, while Randall Beckwith, Chase Washington, and Andy Picklesimer rounded out the top five.
Ellis isn’t chasing Durrence Layne series points — he’s 28th — but he leads the series with five wins in five tries.
Ellis said his hot streak hasn’t affected his attention to detail and maintenance schedule, and that his win Sunday is a reflection of his team’s focus.
“Running good and getting some wins definitely makes the wash day a little bit better,” Ellis joked. “But you can’t just sit back and say, ‘it’s OK.’
“There’s a couple of shocks on my car I haven’t been running in previous wins. That’s (attributed to) testing and trying to stay on top of it because there’s always something else there.”
n In other race action, Jamie Pickard started on the pole and won the Durrence Layne Sportsman feature, his second in six races at Magnolia. Pickard has won twice and finished second in two other races at Magnolia. He leads the track points table.
Pickard was passed early by Terrell Harris, but he regained the lead immediately on a lap two restart. Chace Pennington finished second and Harris took third. Dalton Hood and Wiley Williams finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
Justin McRee won the Street Stocks feature. Lee Ray, Bryan Fortner, TK King, and Jason Hollis rounded out the top five.
Cody Chism won Factory Stocks feature. John Beard, Scooter Ware, Bill Sudduth, and Seth McNeill rounded out the top five.
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