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KartRacer63 Wins Longest Race of Year - The Bill DeVerville - Patch Memorial Charlotte 200
DusterLag | Tuesday, May 26, 2015 at 4:11pm EDT | ARL Racing, ARL Patch Cup Series
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The longest race of the 2015 Cup Series took place Saturday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway and KartRacer63 prevailed. The race was run in memorial of Bill DeVerville more well known as Patch. This week Bill's family and the Heat Community lost one of our top drivers. Patch drove the legendary red and white #26 Chevrolet during his NASCAR Heat Career. Patch is legendary, during his career in the Heat Community he has accumulated well over 1,400 league starts, more than any driver, and earned over 200 league victories. Patch was the one driver you could expect to be at nearly every scheduled event, if you saw "Patch: BRB Beer Run" in your chat window you knew it was time to race. Speedyman11 was the pre-race favorite and he began the night with a 29.557 pole lap time during open group qualifying. Speedy continued to dominate the race leading 103 of the 133 lap race, only relinquishing the lead as the field cycled through pit stops - that is until he suddenly suffered a disconnect on lap 114. From that point on KartRacer63, who started the race ninth, inherited the lead and captured his second series victory of the year. ltfireman1604 worked his way from thirteenth to finish second after having his qualifying time disqualified for leaving his pit box before the session began. BlackKnight finished third in his #92 Chevrolet and had this to say post-race... "[S]till hard to believe I made it up to 3rd place. [W]as a lot of cars better than mine ... some got booted early others had problems on pit road, myself every pit stop went well. ... I pushed the car as hard as I could and stayed patient and got spots as they came and finished third - great race - and congrats to my team mate [KartRacer63] for a great win. With all these great finishes it's just a matter of time before the #92 Coors car see's a victory." Fordly56 started and finished fourth after some trouble in the pits and benefiting from others trouble... "[I'm] one of the guys who had trouble in the pits. [The] wear factor wasn't put out until the day of the race, so I didn't have any time to check it out, so was playing it by ear. I was running OK, worked my way up to a solid second and the leader later dropped out. But figured out late that I was going to come up three laps short at the end. ... I was doing the math in my head trying to figure where I would come out compared to [BlackKnight] and [ltfireman1604]. [I] wasn't paying attention and got the black flag by about a mile an hour! [This] is what happens when you have to be the crew chief and the driver at the same time!" The league is having trouble getting wear factors announced in a consistent time frame, per league policy the wear factor should be posted 2-3 days before a race. New polices are being put in place by League Officials to ensure their own policy is followed regularly. BillyGood worked his way up two positions in his #22 Team Penske Ford to finish fifth. In addition to Speedyman11 disconnecting after starting on pole, both DusterLag and puttzracer, who started second and third respectively, suffered technological trouble leading to disconnects. "A blue screen, just a blue screen..." said an understandably frustrated DusterLag after his disconnect mid-race. puttzracer was interviewed post race... "What a race of attrition, several people dropped out with various computer issues. I've never seen that before. I had a decent run going, I made a couple of small mistakes in the pits during the first few stops (slowed down to below pit speed way too early, then came into my box too hot and slid through) that probably cost me 5-10 seconds, but still was running well enough for a potential top 5 when my screen went black ... then the graphics came back as nothing but dark shadows, couldn't see a thing. So I hit escape and disconnect to avoid messing anyone up." Ryano! and Affro740 made their first starts since 2013 and lead the return of the Online Bangers team to the ARL, finishing ninth and eleventh respectively. After race eight Speedyman11 holds the driver championship lead by twenty-five points over DusterLag after both drivers disconnected. GTSVip9 drops from second to fourth after missing the event. Fourteen races remain before the first championship reset. Donaldson sits thirty-three points out of the top twelve reset cut-off. NH Autosport doubles their lead over TMS Wolfpack in the team championship, leading by two points! Chevrolet continues their dominance and captures their seventh win of the season, leading the manufacturer championship over Ford with just one win. Dodge SRT and Toyota have not yet scored a win. View complete results here. Drivers will head to Dover International Speedway next Saturday, May 30th, for the Crash Dover 110. The event will begin at 9pm Eastern US with group qualifying.

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