SHORT TRACK: Broken gearbox gives Chakat Blackpaw hir first career last-place finish at Bowman-Gray

Chakat Blackpaw picked up the 1st last place finish of hir SCRL Short Track Division career in Monday's Season 1 Race 5 at the Bowman-Gray Stadium when hir #13 Smokey's Chevrolet fell out with gearbox problems after completing 8 of the 25 laps.

The finish came in her 5th career start. In the SCRL Short Track Division, it's the 1st for car #13 and the 1st for gearbox issues. Across all the series in the SCRL, it's the 4th for the #13 and the 16th for gearbox issues.

Entering the SCRL's newest series, Blackpaw was still looking to make a name for hirself in this league as shi had previously only competed in one series in the SCRL before this one, Season 3 of the Busch Series. Driving for Frank Dickerson, Blackpaw would compete on a part-time schedule, competing in 17 of the season's 29 races, scoring a best finish of 10tj at IRP and finishing 42nd in points at the end of the season. After nearly a year of having not competing in a race, Blackpaw this time would sign up to compete full time in the Short Track Division, with hopes of scoring hir first career win and possibly a championship. Blackpaw's season would begin on a high note as not only did shi win hir first career league point, but shi would lead every single lap and scored hir first career win at Dayton, becoming the sixth chakat to win a race in the SCRL. Following the win, Blackpaw would back up the win at Dayton by finishing 9th at Charlotte before struggling to finish 16th at Greenville-Pickens before finishing runner up to Chakat Whitelion at Hickory in the last round.

In qualifying, rookie R.T. Smith would win his first career series pole, posting a time of 16.576 seconds. Blackpaw would actually post a identical time of 16.576 seconds, the same as Smith, but would be placed second in the lineup due to Smith being higher in points. Starting last in the race was the #98 Super America Ford of Amber Mayhew, who posted the slowest time of 16.962, 0.386 seconds behind Smith's pole winning time.

On race night, Amber would trail for the first two laps around the 0.250 mile short track, before knocking the #9 Coors Ford of Bailey Leigh into last on Lap 3. Much like with Amber, Leigh would trail for two laps before knocking Dayton last-place finisher the #17 Carling Dodge of Rebecca Zeal into last on Lap 6. At this point in the race, Zeal would trail the field for two laps around the track, while at the same time, Blackpaw was in second just seven tenths of a second behind Smith when hir car suddenly started to smoke and slow coming out of Turn 2. 

Blackpaw would quickly move to the high side of the track to get out of the way before pulling onto pit road, which was on the outside of the track entering Turn 3 and then into hir pit stall as the crew looked under the hood, seeing what the problem was at Blackpaw would fall back to last on Lap 8. Blackpaw's team would look over the car for a couple minutes before putting the hood down, Blackpaw done for the day, listed as "out" on Lap 13.

The remaining Bottom Five would finish on the same lap as the race leaders; 21st was the #58 Designs Mods Racing Dodge of Joshua Miller, 20th was the #51 Guy's Plumbing Ford of Blaise Zebrataur, 19th was the #28 LaFayette Ford of Kaitlyn Coyne and 18th was the #07 Bubba's Stumble Inn Ford of Savannah Line.

SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first time the #13 had finished last as well at Bowman-Gray.
*This was the first time a driver trailed due to gearbox issues.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
22) #13-Chakat Blackpaw / 8 laps / gearbox
21) #58-Joshua Miller / 25 laps / running
20) #51-Blaise Zebrataur / 25 laps / running
19) #28-Kaitlyn Coyne / 25 laps / running
18) #07-Savannah Line / 25 laps / running

SCRL LASTCAR SHORT TRACK DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP