John Ruggiero Jr. knew he had the car to beat entering the ninth annual World Short Track Championship.
Leading the final 25 laps, the Lincolnton, NC driver earned his first FOX Factory Crate Racin’ USA Pro Late Models Championship Feature win on Saturday at The Dirt Track at Charlotte,
Clay Hill, FL driver Bubba Roling led the first laps of the 30-lap race, with Quick in second and Ruggiero in third.
Ruggiero got by Quick, then a mistake by Roling entering the top side of Turn 3 on the fifth lap gave way for the No.00 Longhorn Factory Team Late Model to slide down the bottom of the track to take the Feature lead.
On the first restart on Lap 11, defending champion Trent Ivey passed Roling around Turns 1 and 2 to work on chasing Ruggiero for the win.
Ivey closed the gap on Ruggiero until a caution with five laps to go, which involved seven cars, and a late-race dash in which new contenders attempted to dethrone Ruggiero’s lead.
Ruggiero got the perfect start to maintain the lead, while Layton Sullivan took over second from Ivey with a run on the bottom lane.
Cruising to his second World Short Track Championship win in four years, Ruggiero captured the win to begin the Saturday night of Feature racing from The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
“I came with (Longhorn) last year and thought we could win,” Ruggiero said. “I told Steve (Arpin) last night that ‘I feel like we had a car capable of winning tonight, no matter where we start.’ I drew the four on the redraw, things played well for us on the start, with Colby getting tight and Bubba opening it up for me.
“Once we got out in front, I got a little scared with Trent behind me because he’s won here so many times. This one goes out to all the Longhorn guys for giving me an opportunity to drive one of these. It’s been an awesome year, and I hope we can keep things moving forward from here.”
Sullivan, of Gaffney, SC, earned his first World Short Track Championship podium with his second-place drive from starting fifth in the early-going.
“It feels pretty good, honestly,” Sullivan said. “We’ve been coming here for a while, and this is one of my favorite tracks by far. It’s nice to finally get on a podium and have a run that shows this kind of speed that we’ve had. I think the best I’ve finished is eighth, and we’ve felt like we were better than that. When they wet the track before we went out, we kinda missed it on the adjustment. But other than that, we has a really good weekend and really fast car.”
Ivey, of Union, SC, took his third consecutive podium in the Pro Late Models at The Dirt Track at Charlotte with a third-place finish.
“It was my last chance to try something,” Ivey said. “I just couldn’t quite make it work this year, but congrats to John, they’ve done great, and we’ll have to come back again next year. We just needed a few adjustments. We were chasing the car after the track prepping and just didn’t do a good job.”
York, SC driver Jeremy Steele finished fourth, and Roling picked up the top five in his first attempt at racing in the World Short Track Championship.
Last Chance Showdown Winners: Travis Steele, Ricky Greene, Jimmy Thomas
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 00R-John Ruggiero Jr[4]; 2. 2S-Layton Sullivan[3]; 3. G4-Trent Ivey[5]; 4. 22-Jeremy Steele[10]; 5. 515-Bubba Roling[2]; 6. 5-Colby Quick[1]; 7. 22T-Jimmy Thomas[21]; 8. 55H-Benji Hicks[16]; 9. 98-Matt Dooley[8]; 10. 48-Hunter Kohn[13]; 11. 32W-Ethan Wilson[7]; 12. 11W-Joey Warren[18]; 13. 23-Beckham Malone[15]; 14. 7J-Dalton Jacobs[22]; 15. 24-Jacob Brown[24]; 16. 88D-Dalton Dowdy[28]; 17. 21-Mario Gresham[25]; 18. 22H-Matt Henderson[11]; 19. 5S-Travis Steele[19]; 20. 6-Dillon Brown[9]; 21. 127-Austin Yarbrough[6]; 22. 66-Jody Knowles[12]; 23. 17J-John Winge[27]; 24. 45-Nathan Dallas[26]; 25. 78-Blake Pryor[14]; 26. P4-John Price[17]; 27. 1B-Brent Trimble[23]; 28. 18G-Ricky Greene[20]
