THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 7, 1994 TAG: 9408070256
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VINCE SHAW, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
In the best Late-Model Stock race of the season at Langley Raceway, Roger Sawyer prevailed in his race-long duel with Eddie Johnson to win Saturday night's 100-lap feature.
Fans were treated to clean, competitive racing between evenly matched machines driven by two of their favorite drivers.
``Wow! What a great race,'' Sawyer said. ``That's about as much fun as I've ever had out here.''
Johnson, the defending track champion, and Sawyer started one-two and stayed that way for the first half of the race.
The real battle began on lap 51, when Sawyer pulled even with Johnson. The two would be door handle to door handle for almost the remainder of the race.
``The cars were so even,'' Sawyer said. ``He was able to stay with me running up top, and we were handling well enough to stay down low.''
Despite running up high, Johnson was able to keep his nose out front and led coming out of the three cautions during the second half of the race. After each restart, however, Sawyer was right back alongside Johnson within two laps.
The final caution came out on lap 88 to set up the final duel.
``Up until lap 65 or 70, we were just playing around, trying to see what the other had,'' Sawyer said. ``The last 12 laps, we had to really get down to it.''
Sawyer was able to nose in front on lap 90 and, for the first time in the race, was completely past Johnson two laps later. But as the white flag flew, Johnson tried to duck inside and touched Sawyer. Johnson had to brake and got a little sideways, allowing Sawyer enough room to take the win. Buddy Malish finished second after he, too, got by Johnson.
In Saturday's other races:
Roger Bress led start to finish to win his third Grand Stock race. Robert Dozier won a spirited battle with Gordon Weeks Jr. to finish second. Bress increased his points lead to 46 over John Hicks.
Brian Loving returned from a monthlong absence to capture his 10th win of the season. Loving started second, fell to sixth and fought his way back before finally catching Jim Adkins on the final lap. Adkins, going all out between turns three and four, lost his right rear tire and hit the frontstretch wall. He slid back down to the middle of the track, where second-place-finisher Trevor Falls slammed into him just in front of the start-finish line. Adkins slid across the line to finish third and maintain his points lead.
Bobby Spivey won his first Limited Stock race after leader Kevin Adams spun running by himself in turn 4. Adams, an eight-time winner, maintained his points lead by 34 points over Charlie Bryant Jr.
Chris Mull passed Jerry Scott on lap 6 to post his second straight Pure Stock win and sixth overall. Scott now has a 102-point lead over Gene Smith.
Jeff Callihan passed pole-sitter Jim Thorpe on the first lap and went on to post his first win in the Tri-Track Modified series, making its fifth appearance at Langley.
The first stage of the pit-crew competition was held July 30, with five teams advancing to the finals next Saturday. Each car was required to pull into the pits, have right-side rubber changed, and pull away. Shawn Balluzzo's crew was the only one not penalized and finished first at 26.11 seconds. Other qualifiers were: Craig Eastep (33.50), Eddie Johnson (37.61), Ashton Lewis Jr. (37.91) and Barry Strathmann (38.55, Mitch Sarvis driving). by CNB