Chakat Whitelion picked up the 1st last place finish of hir SCRL Short Track Division career in Thursday's Season 1 Race 8 at the Atlantic Rural Exposition Fairgrounds Track when hir #7 Coca Cola Dodge was involved in a multi-car crash without completing any of the 20 laps.
The finish came in his 8th career start. In the SCRL Short Track Division, it's the 1st for car #7 and the 2nd from a crash. Across all the series in the SCRL, it's the 17th for the #7 and the 289th from a crash.
Whitelion is undoubtedly the most successful driver in SCRL history, having competed in nearly every single race since the league debuted back in 2013 and has picked up an incredible 39 career wins as well as a record 7 championships. However, to go along with being the most successful driver in terms of wins and championships, Whitelion also has the record for scoring the most last-place finishes in a career, with a total of 20. With a brand new series added to the SCRL's lineup, Whitelion was one of twenty one drivers who signed up to compete in the Short Track Division, Whitelion finish a disappointing 15th in hir debut at Dayton but would quickly rebound with a runner up finishes at Charlotte and Greenville-Pickens before scoring hir league leading 40th career SCRL win at Hickory. Whitelion would struggle to a 11th place finish at Bowman-Gray and hir worst finish of the season, a 14th at Martinsville before finishing 7th in the last round at Monroe County.
In qualifying, Amber Mayhew would win her first career series pole, posting a time of 25.104 seconds. Whitelion would struggle in qualifying, posting a time of 25.497 seconds, 0.393 seconds behind Mayhew's time, which placed Whitelion 17th on the starting lineup. Starting last in the race was the #11 Dodge Boys Dodge of Dilan Ebrahimian, who posted the slowest time of 25.642, 0.538 seconds behind Mayhew's pole winning time.
On race day, Ebrahimian would trail for the first two turns when the battle for last came to a sudden end as Whitelion was battling with the #9 Coors Ford of Bailey Leigh and Monroe County last-place finisher the #74 unsponsored Chevrolet of John Joseph as contact between those three cars would force Leigh up into Bowman-Gray last-place finisher the #13 Smokey's Chevrolet Chakat Blackpaw and the #07 Bubba's Stumble Inn Ford of Savannah Line, giving Blackpaw severe damage to the left side of hir car. Further down the track, as Whitelion was trying to regain control of hir car, shi would misjudge and slam into the pit road wall and sent hir back out onto the track in front of two-time last-place finisher the #17 Carling Dodge of Rebecca Zeal as Hickory last-place finisher the #55 Bill-Tin Chevrolet of Alexa Lake, Blackpaw, Leigh and Ebrahimian would all be involved in the crash.
Whitelion's day would be done as shi was unable to drive back to pit road and was scored as last, while Zeal would make it past the start/finish line before pulling behind the wall to be scored 21st with Blackpaw pulling in the garage one lap later on Lap 2 to be scored 20th.
It would take only four more laps before 19th would be filled as the #57 Dew Drop Inn Ford of Chase Miller was riding around in 10th spot just before the race went back to racing, pulled onto pit road reporting of a flat tire. Miller's team would take the tires of the car, but it was determined that the tire had damaged the axle of the car and with nearly half the race completed, Miller's team would decide to retire from the event, with Miller being listed as "out" on Lap 9.
Rounding out the Bottom Five in 18th was the aforementioned #11 of Dilan Ebrahimian, who would finish as the last driver to finish on the same lap as the race leaders.
SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first time the #7 had finished last as well at Richmond.
*This was the first time the #7 had finished last as well at Richmond.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
22) #7-Chakat Whitelion / 0 laps / crash
21) #17-Rebecca Zeal / 1 lap / crash
20) #13-Chakat Blackpaw / 2 laps / crash
19) #57-Chase Miller / 6 laps / tire
18) #11-Dilan Ebrahimian / 20 laps / running
22) #7-Chakat Whitelion / 0 laps / crash
21) #17-Rebecca Zeal / 1 lap / crash
20) #13-Chakat Blackpaw / 2 laps / crash
19) #57-Chase Miller / 6 laps / tire
18) #11-Dilan Ebrahimian / 20 laps / running
SCRL LASTCAR SHORT TRACK DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
No comments:
Post a Comment