Lucama, NC – A rare Sunday afternoon start at Southern National Motorsports Park led to some good racing and some big wrecks as the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series kicked off their season.

Tyler Hughes set fast time in individual car qualifying picking up a couple tenths of his fastest lap in the practice sessions. Adam Murray in the other 8 car couldn’t get his car to fire after setting the fastest lap in practice earlier in the morning.

The first twin of the day was mostly uneventful with Hughes and Mason Diaz racing each other close most of the race. Diaz got to Tyler’s bumper a couple times but couldn’t get him loose enough to slide him out of the bottom line. Tyler led from green to checkered to grab the first win of his 2017 NWAAS campaign.

In the second race things unraveled for a couple drivers. Seventeen laps in Ronald Rendfrow’s day came to an end after his car lost control and went shooting into the wall in turn-1, heavily damaging the front end of the car and leading to cleanup. Jonathon Findley found himself up front with a really good car but on lap 38 Louis White decided that his car wasn’t good enough as he got under his bumper sending him spinning into the corner. Originally he didn’t have much damage but Tyler Hughes had already committed to the bottom line and collided head on with Findley doing heavy damage to both cars. White was sent to the end of the longest line for the restart as a penalty.

Surviving through the wreckage, just barely, was Tim Allensworth who was moved earlier on in the race. He grabs his first late model win at SNMP and Chris Chapman was able to hold off Diaz for a second place finish.

In the chargers division Brian Obiedzenski led every lap of their 35 lap feature to put him on top of the standings to start the year off and the UCAR race had Ronnie “Buckshot” Jones making a last lap pass to steal the win from P.J. Flowers after it looked like maybe the handling fell off a little toward the end. Over in the INEX series the Bandoleros had a pass coming to the checkered flag as the leaders had to split lapped traffic and Ethan Johnson was able to grab the win from second place. Over in the legends Tommy Jackson Jr. led all 25 laps and won by over three second.

Photos from the Southern National Opener

Final Results – Race 1 – NWAAS Late Models

1. Tyler Hughes
2. Mason Diaz
3. Rusty Daniels
4. Louis White
5. Jonathan Findley
6. Ronald Renfrow
7. Chris Chapman
8. Tim Allensworth
9. Paul Williamson
10. Paul Wark
11. Gerald Benton
12. Adam Resnick
13. Michael Schwietering
14. Adam Murray
15. Brandon Hobbs

Final Results – Race 2 – NWAAS Late Models

1. Tim Allensworth
2. Chris Chapman
3. Mason Diaz
4. Rusty Daniels
5. Adam Resnick
6. Paul Williamson
7. Louis White
8. Paul Wark
9. Jonathan Findley
10. Tyler Hughes
11. Ronald Renfrow
12. Gerald Benton
13. Michael Schwietering