ROCKINGHAM — When the checkered flag waved in the second race of the Crown 9 Champion Series at Rockingham Speedway Saturday evening, the top results were the same.
Veteran driver and driving instructor Sergio Pena earned another win in the series, with Mark Dysart again coming in second, followed by Doug Horn in third.
Pena said the multiple cautions during the final showdown was the biggest challenge of the night.
“The cautions were back-to-back-to-back there, was just trying to keep heat in the tires, heat in the brakes,” Pena said. “I’ve been playing with air pressure pretty much every practice session.”
It was one of those cautions that led to Dysart leading a few laps.
“The 76 (Jon Morton) gave Mark a huge push on that restart, he got the lead and I was like, ‘Man, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to get it back,’” Pena said. “But, thankfully we had another caution and I was able to make a move on that first turn on the outside.
“From there, everything was good, and I started feeling a sputter in my engine when I came out of the last turn and I was like, “Oh, what’s that?’”
Pena said he thought he had enough gas in the tank.
“Well, that wasn’t enough, apparently. I guess the fuel sloshing around was causing it to fuel-starve a bit,” Pena said. “Mark was right on my bumper coming out of all the corners, taking advantage of that.”
When he saw the white flag, Pena said he felt like he’d be OK if he could hold on for one more lap.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
The second race in the series fielded eight drivers — including three making their first appearances — with varying degrees of experience behind the wheel.
Cooke Boys Septic Services entered a second car in the series with Andy Cooke, of Hamlet, in the No. 65 car joining Eli “Otis” Russell, of Rockingham, in the No. 45 on the track.
This was Cooke’s first time driving on a road course, though he did compete in the lawnmower series in Ellerbe. Russell also competed in the first Crown 9 race, placing fifth.
Alex Bradley, also of Rockingham, filled in for Steven Franklin — who was attending a wedding — in the No. 13 car from Franklin’s Rod Shop. Bradley has been getting seat time at the track with the MB Drift grassroots series.
Franklin said there will be another driver in the car for the Oct. 5 race, giving each driver seat time before the other cars for the team hit the track. The plan is to have a team of four cars in the 2025 season.
Steven “Smokey” Gaskins, of Rock Hill, South Carolina, made his debut in the series — marking his first time behind the wheel in 30 years.
Gaskins started racing at the age of 13 and spent a decade on dirt tracks — once winning two races in the same day at separate tracks.
His son, Derick, has competed in the MB Drift series for the past three years and ended the season in a three-way tie for seventh place with Nathan McDuffie and Dan Stoneburner.
“That’s where I get my driving from,” Derick Gaskins said about his father.
Click here to read about the MB Drift season finals at the Rock.
Derick Gaskins, McDuffie and Brett Dysart — brother of Mark Dysart — offered ride-alongs during the breaks between races, as did drivers from Warriors in Motion.
Also making his first appearance in the Crown 9 series was Kaleb Brown of Winston-Salem, driving the No. 11 car owned by Morton. Brown has a few races under his belt.
Morton, of Arcadia in Davidson County, started racing when he was 20 years old and has driven at Caraway Speedway in Sophia. His experience includes enduro racing — where any car is allowed — and running late models.
“I kinda like this grassroots racing,” Morton said.
Last year, Morton won 15 races and the season championship in a Crown Vic series at Caraway — the stickers plastered near the back driver-side window — although he’s used to making left turns on an oval track instead of the right turns at the Rock’s infield road course.
“She’s been through some battles,” he said of his No. 76 patriotic-themed car.
Pena, of Winchester, Virginia, got his start racing go-karts and moved up the racing ladder, placing 8th in the K&N Pro Series at Rockingham in 2012. He also runs a driving school, with Army Special Ops veteran Horn, of Winston-Salem, as one of the instructors.
Click here to read about the first Crown 9 race.
Dysart — a Wisconsin native who grew up in Illinois and now lives in Aberdeen — drove in regional road races from 1987-1996, before switching gears to dirt-track racing.
RACE HIGHLIGHTS
Just before the final showdown, Track Manager Dustin Russell had a group of kids kick off the race with: “Gentlemen, start your engines!”
Although Pena kept the lead during the first heat race, Gaskins nearly overtook him on the inside coming around the next-to-last corner in the first lap.
“I need to do something about my power,” Pena said. “I tuned my car from the last race to this race and felt like it was a bit quicker, but I’m feeling like I’ve got the guys in the corners, but I’m feeling, on the straightaways, some of these guys will be able to pull from me a little bit.
“He (Gaskins) got a great run coming out of … Turn 3 down the backstretch, got inside of me, gave me a little love tap.”
Pena said he tries to keep the car from sliding “and slowly but surely I can inch away.”
Gaskins held a solid third-place during the showdown until spinning out after Turn 1 and getting hit by Russell.
The No. 5 car left the race with a blown tire and returned to the parking lot pit, with the family thinking it was over for the day.
“All we had was a bent rim and a junk 10-year-old tire in the pits,” Derick Gaskins said. “My dad got out of the car and was still in high spirits. But I decided to become a tire machine and man-handled the tire back on the bent rim. We got it pumped up and on the car with no time to spare.”
Russell and Brown also left the race, but Russell returned.
One of the first cautions in the race came after Pena overtook Russell in the final turn and Dysart did the same down the frontstretch.
During one of the early bunch-ups, Russell and Bradley went door-to-door, knocking the driver-side mirror off the No. 13. Bradley said it was just hanging for a few laps before he pulled it off and threw it out the window on the frontstretch.
Like deja vu from the first race, Horn and Morton battled for position during the showdown. Bradley, at times, went head-to-head with both Russell and Cooke.
There are three more races in the series for this season: Oct. 5; Nov. 2; and the championship on Nov. 16.
“It was great racing,” Pena said, thanking the speedway for hosting the series and those who came out to watch, adding that he hopes the next race will bring more of a crowd out to the Rock.
Cooke echoed Pena’s sentiment.
“The more people that hear about it, the bigger and better it gets,” Cooke said Monday. “So tell all your friends about it.”
