By DAVID MILLER
Special to The Dispatch
Chase Washington navigated Columbus Speedway as if he’d raced there last week – fast, smooth and dominant.
He was the fastest car in Crate Late Model heats Saturday and turned a front-row start in the feature into his latest win at a track he called “one of his favorites.”
Normally, by mid-November, the track would have held nearly 20 races, but a closure earlier in the year shuttered the doors and tamed “The Baddest Bullring in the South.” Businessman and veteran racer Rod Taylor struck a deal to lease the track for Saturday’s race and through next year, just in time for Washington, who’d taken some weekends off recently, to hold off Justin McCree and Jeremy Shaw for the win.
“We’ve really enjoyed this track over the years,” Washington said. “It’s one of my favorites because it’s an old-school, bull ring, get-up-on-the-wheel and drive kind of tracks. It’s fun.”
Washington elected to start on the outside of Row 1 and held off a couple of challenges from McRee in turn 1 before extending a three-second lead by lap 5. McRee reached his bumper whilst in lap traffic but never got a strong enough run to get underneath him.
“The track was one-lane dominant later on in the night, and I knew it would be our start to whether or not we won the race tonight,” Washington said. “We got a good start, raced a couple of laps and finally got the bottom like we needed to and just held on from there.”
McRee said he anticipated a tackier surface Friday, which would have allowed for two lines of racing. He wouldn’t be the only racer to underestimate the effects of the current drought.
“We made some adjustments as soon as we got here for the track being black,” McRee said. “We really never got tightened up enough where we needed to be. We made some adjustments for the feature, and it freed me up a bit too much getting in on the entry. It helped me on exit though.
“Chase was a little bit better out in the race track than I was. I was worried about that after watching the heat. He just out-powered me out down the track.
Mcree, like Washington, has won at the track previously. He said he “cut his teeth” racing late models at Columbus and won his first ever Super Model Race there.
“When we heard it will open back up, I said it doesn’t matter what they pay or what they have going on, let’s go support it,” McCree said. ” They have good ideas and plans for next year. We’re gonna try to come here as much as we can next year, especially if they sanction.”
McRee added a win to his runner-up finish immediately after the Crate race, holding off Lee Ray and Spencer Hughes in the Street Stock feature.
Both McRee and Washington were impressed with car counts Saturday, given the time of year, cold weather and college football season. He said success next season will hinge on management and how the track is “presented in the pits.”
“Let’s face it, there’s not 300 people coming to watch Justin McCree,” he said. “There might 15-20 glad to see me. People come to see the bigger guys. And it’s not all about that -they like to see this Street Stock series, people like me and Spencer, have a close race.
“If you don’t have the people in the pits, you won’t have them in the stands.”
Other race results were not available by press time.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.