By DAVID MILLER
Special to The Dispatch
Eric Cooley has been racing Late Models for nearly 10 years, a span that has included many starts in Mississippi State Championship Challenge Series races.
But for all of the wins he’s achieved in his career, there’d been a void in the State Series column – until Saturday night.
Cooley held off a late charge from friend Dane Dacus to win the 50-lap State Series feature at Magnolia Motor Speedway. Cooley’s team banked $2,500 with the win, but the victory will have a greater impact on his crew and car owners, Norman and Tonya Bryson.
“It couldn’t happen at a better time,” Cooley said. “My car owner and his wife, her mother passed away. It felt good to get the win on their behalf in this down time of losing a family member. I’m glad we could pick up their spirits and get a win like this.”
Cooley had a fast car all night, starting on the pole and leading nearly half of the laps. But his early strategy off the pole was to set a pace, as David Breazeale took the lead on lap 3. Cooley didn’t threaten until the second caution on lap 21, which saw the race red-flagged briefly and Chris Brown thrown out of the race for a wreck with Ray McElhaney.
“I just tried to bide my time, set a good pace to run with them,” said Cooley, who’d fallen to third before the caution. “It went longer than I expected, but I knew there’d be a caution or two, and once we got it we fired up good. I was able to drive my line.
“The hot rod was good tonight. My crew did a fantastic job of getting this thing dialed in.”
Cooley passed Jimmy Cliburn for the lead on the first lap of the re-start and built a two-second lead in the next half-dozen laps.
Cooley appeared comfortable driving the highest line possible, as did half of the field throughout the feature, but as the field reached the last seven laps, Dacus, who’d exchanged second place with Cliburn for nearly five laps, reached Cooley’s bumper.
“I started losing my right front tire,” Cooley said. “I was running the top and would start pushing and couldn’t turn, rotate and get it to come off. I kept trying to change my line, and when I would, I’d screw myself up. I just about ran out of talent, but managed enough to pick up the win. We’ll take it.”
Cooley adjusted by sticking the car to low-end of the track to hold off Dacus. He said it was difficult to get the car to hold and that he was over-driving the car at that point after running wide open on the top side.
“I wasn’t taking the time to do my job at that point,” Cooley said. “There are some mistakes I made that I know we could have done better, but we’re just fortunate enough to do enough to win the race.”
Dacus said he thought he had the fastest car Saturday but spent too many laps battling Breazeale and Cliburn for spots in the top 4.
“We wasn’t good on re-starts, so we left a couple of holes open on those, but me and Jimmy raced there for a bit and it probably cost me a bit,” Dacus said. “Eric’s a friend of mine, so if I have to run second to somebody, I’m glad it’s him.”
State Series points leader Brian Rickman finished ninth, a result that, given his ambition to win his first points title, would normally be disappointing.
But considering the circumstances, he’ll take it.
Rickman broke an oil pump belt in a heat race and made the feature field through a points provisional. But his car couldn’t be repaired in time. He’d planned to drive nephew Trey Rickman’s Crate Late Model car for the State Series feature, but he instead drove Billy Franklin’s No. 17 Super Late Model car.
Strange? Not really, only in how the arrangement came about.
“Breazeale, he came up to me after I broke and said that I could drive his car,” Rickman said. “But he was starting on the front row, so I said I won’t do that. Him and Billy are friends, and I guess Breazeale worked that out for me. Breazeale’s wife came down there and said I could drive Billy’s car.
“That’s the first time I met (Franklin) was last night,” Rickman said Sunday morning. “I’ve raced with him and know who he is. I thanked him this morning. The racing community is a big family.”
Cliburn finished third, while Dylan Ames and Jason Hiett finished fourth and fifth.
In other race action, Jeremy Shaw won his second NeSmith Crate Late Model race of the season. Evan Ellis, Hunter Carroll, Jamey Boland and Grant Pearl rounded out the top 5.
Spencer Hughes won the Street Stocks feature, his 17th win of the season. Lee Ray, Jamie Sudduth, Brian Rickman and Rodney Wing rounded out the top 5.
Logan Lux won the Factory Stocks feature. Brad Gable, Jennifer Byrd, John Beard and Brandon White rounded out the top 5.
Todd Robinson won the 602 Late Model feature. Tony Shelton, Jessie Smith, Justin Carter and Chad McCool 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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