Backyard Stomp – Coble Dominates Friendship Legends Event
By Jason Buckley
When a driver dominates a racing event, it makes them feel superior to the competition. When that driver dominates and wins at their home track, it makes the win even more special. Mitchell Coble knows that feeling after his performance Saturday at Friendship Motor Speedway (Elkin, NC). He won the Legends event at the track just 30 minutes from his home.
“It feels real good to win here because it is in our backyard,” said Coble. “We usually do not get a good race like that. Most of the time we have to drive two hours to Charlotte, so it feels good to do it in front of friends and family here.”
By finishing second in the heat race to Kyle Beattie, Coble started his #4 Legends from the outside front row for the 30-lap feature event. At the start of the race, some thought Coble would drop back and have to settle in behind Beattie as the inside groove is usually the fastest way around the track. But Coble had other plans, thanks to a Late Model race the night before.
“I knew at the start I needed to get down (to the inside line),” said Coble, who beat 13 other cars on Saturday. “Kyle Beattie is such a great competitor. Those first three laps were great running alongside him.
Mitchell Coble had them covered at Friendship Motor Speedway, taking an easy win. (LN Photo)
Like at Hickory (Hickory Motor Speedway), the outside groove came in. I guess they ran the Late Models here last night because there was a lot of rubber up top, which allowed us to get by him.”
Beattie tried to hold serve at the front of the pack, but couldn’t hold off the hard-charging Coble.
“I tried to hold him out there on the high side,” said Beattie. “I was going to let the third place guy catch up so we could freight-train him back there a bit, but that kind of backfired when I started hitting the rev limiter on the back straightaway. I just had the wrong gear in the car. Every time we went down into turn three he pulled me a solid car length.”
#88 Steven Ross. (LN Photo)
Behind Coble and Beattie, the racing stabilized as there was not much movement in position, except for Steven Ross. The Semi Pro driver rocketed through the field from his eighth-place start to third, and then passed Beattie for second on the track.
“I started about eighth because they put all the Masters and Pros in front of us,” said Ross. “I had a lot of cars to pass. I got up to third and the car got tight on me. Towards the end I ran down Beattie and got around him, but I didn’t have anything for Coble unless the caution would have come out.”
Coble crossed the finish line first ahead of Ross and Beattie to claim the overall victory and the Pro division win. Ross claimed the Semi Pro division victory. Shawn Parker finished fourth with Masters driver John Birilka crossing the line in fifth, which gave him the honor of the Masters division win.
“We just want to win races,” said Coble. “We aren’t really chasing points. Championships are nice, but if you win races you will do well in the points. It is just good to build some momentum going into the Summer Shootout (at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway, beginning on June 12th).”
For Birilka, it was a solid race considering the loss in power for the last few laps.
“The race went really well for us,” said Birilka. “The car was really fast. I think I hurt the motor with 10 laps to go and it started pushing oil out of it. I think I would have had something for those Pros in front of me. We were running some good lap times until then.
“I am surprised there aren’t more cars here. This place is good on tires and it is plenty wide to pass. It is fast for a Legends car, but not terribly fast. This track is the most fun track I have raced on.”
LEGENDS FEATURE – 30 LAPS
1. Mitchell Coble (overall and Pro division winner)
2. Steven Ross (Semi Pro division winner)
3. Kyle Beattie
4. Shawn Parker
5. John Birilka (Masters division winner)
6. John Ellenburg
7. Tim Craver
8. Gene Kirila
9. Kara Clark
10. Todd Johnson
11. Bruce Little
12. Derek Humula
13. John Davis
14. Scott Rigney
