---

Randy Weaver Crowned Aaron’s King of the Commonwealth; Walker Arthur Wins $3000 FASTRAK National Tour Event

Randy "Dream" Weaver (116) continued his dream season by holding off Jonathan Davenport (6) for the $20,000 victory. (Al Goudler photo)Jamaica, Virginia (April 11, 2015) – Coming into the ULTIMATE Super Late Model Series sanctioned Aaron’s King of the Commonwealth at Virginia Motor Speedway the name being talked about more than any other was the white-hot Randy Weaver of Crossville, Tennessee. After all, the 45 year old driver was off to his best season start of his career having won each of the 4 events he had entered thus far. So most of the dirt late model world was wondering if Weaver could keep his winning streak alive at a facility he had never even seen before. And what was Weaver’s answer? A resounding yes in the form of a dominating win that saw him set overall fast time, win his heat race and lead every lap of the sixty lap feature to garner the biggest payday of his career.

“The good Lord is being real good to me right now and I don’t know why. I owe everything to Him. But man what a race car and crew. I’m tellin’ ya anybody in them grandstands can drive this thing. It about drives itself. And Josh and Grant and my owners Chip and Rusty Stone are here this weekend. This awesome Cornett power. This Longhorn Chassis, everywhere we go…I mean I have never seen this place, I have just heard great things about it, and I can’t believe that my name is in history down here now.� said a very jubilant Weaver in his victory lane interview. Weaver picks up his second ULTIMATE Super Late Model victory of the season which is his richest to date. “What an incredible facility here. This is just an awesome place. For promoters to take a chance like this in our sport…we really appreciate facilities like Virginia Motor Speedway.�

In other action Walker Arthur of Forest, VA dominated on way to a $3000 victory during the 40 lap FASTRAK National Tour event. It was the inaugural race for the new FASTRAK National Tour.

At the drop of the green flag for the Aaron’s King of the Commonwealth Weaver surged to the lead. And while out front Weaver’s progress was only slowed as he encountered lapped traffic it was a very different story behind him. Davenport and Zeigler waged a battle for the runner-up spot from the outset. Davenport was able to slip into 2nd on the opening lap. However on the 4th circuit Zeigler was able to use his outside line to grab 2nd while Bloomquist and Chris Madden gave chase from the 4th and 5th positions. Davenport continued to stalk Zeigler and when Bloomquist jumped into the mix, Davenport turned up the wick. Bloomquist rolled by Davenport down the back straightaway but Davenport would have no part of it. He drove his Longhorn machine to the high side of turns 3 and 4 moving back by Bloomquist and setting up Zeigler for the slider through turns one and two to retake the 2nd position.

Up front Weaver was cruising but beginning to encounter back marker traffic. Weaver was able to negotiate the lap machines with relative ease as he was able to move his race car all over the track when he needed to. However Weaver’s only real scare of the event came as he was attempting to put Ricky Elliott down a lap. Weaver entered turn 3 hard in order to slide by the high running Elliott. Weaver’s machine began to hop wildly as he slid up the track. No harm, no foul for Weaver however as the yellow waved for the final time of the night when Earl Pearson, Jr. stopped on the track. Weaver was able to continue with no issues after the scare. “I thought I had knocked the tires off it there. I heard them call for the caution and I was checking up as it was sliding to the outside. I shook it back and forth and made sure everything was still under me.� Weaver added.

Under him it was as he powered away on the final restart and held on to win the $20,000 winner’s purse. Davenport settled for 2nd and Bloomquist finished in the 3rd position. In addition to the nice payday, event title-sponsor Aaron’s Inc. presented Weaver with a new 49� LG 4K Ultra HD Television as a part of the Aaron’s “Best Seat in the House� Promotion. The win was Weaver’s 5th in a row for 2015 and brought his 2015 winnings to over $45,000.

To say the first ever FASTRAK National Tour event was a success would be an understatement as 37 of the East Coast’s top Pro Late Model ushered in a new era in FASTRAK racing. Local favorite and former track champion Walker Arthur of Forest, VA etched his name into the record books by winning the first event FASTRAK National Tour event in dominating fashion. The first ever National Tour race was a companion event for the Aaron’s King of the Commonwealth sanctioned by its sister series the Ultimate Super Late Model tour.

“We’ve turned a lot of laps around this place but this has to be one of the biggest wins I have ever had here at VMS. The car has been so good all year and it ran just flawless tonight; event though we didn’t do as well as we want in the Super Late model tonight, we are super excited about winning the first ever FASTRAK National Tour event here at our home track,� commented Arthur in victory lane.

At the drop of the green flag Arthur rocketed to the lead from his pole position as David Smith, Jimmy Schiltz, Daniel Baggerly and Mark Parks went four wide to decide second. With the action behind him Arthur pulled away to a comfortable lead. By lap 11 Arthur began working lapped traffic while the battle for second continued between Smith, Parks and Schiltz.

At the halfway point Arthur maintained almost a full straight lead over the field while masterfully working lapped traffic. With plenty of two, three and even four wide racing behind him Arthur continued to stretch out the lead. On lap 20 Kennie Compton Jr. joined the battle for second picking off drivers one by one until he finally claimed the spot from Smith on lap 30. With 10 laps remaining Compton tried to reel in the leader but Arthur was too strong going on to take the $3000 victory with Compton, Smith, Parks and Schiltz, Matt Long, 2014 FASTRAK World Champion Tim Dohm, Dillon Brown, Daniel Baggerly and Jared Powell rounding out the top ten.

In addition to Arthur’s $3000 payday, event title-sponsor Aaron’s Inc. presented Arthur with a new 49� LG 4K Ultra HD Television as a part of the Aaron’s “Best Seat in the House� Promotion.

The Fast Time Award went to Dillon Brown with a time of 18.563 seconds. Heat race wins went to Walker Arthur, David Smith, Daniel Baggerly and Jimmy Schiltz. B-Main wins went to Jimmy Duncan and Colby Cannon.

Virginia Motor Speedway will be back in action this Saturday April 18, 2015 for the opening night of VA Army National Guard Dirt Series action and WRAR / WNNT Night at the Races. The night will feature the Victory Lap Late Model, Aaron’s Pro Late Model, Truckin Thunder Sportsman, Budweiser Modified and Collision One Limited Stock divisions in action. Spectator gates will open at 5pm with on track action beginning at 6:30pm with hot laps.

Bill Sawyer’s Virginia Motor Speedway is a ½ mile dirt oval track is located on U.S. Route 17, eight miles north of Saluda, VA and 25 miles south of Tappahannock, VA in Jamaica, VA. The speedway is just a short drive from Richmond, Fredericksburg, Southern Maryland and the Hampton Roads area.

Race fans can go to www.vamotorspeedway.com to view the complete schedule Virginia Motor Speedway’s 2015 season, find detailed event information, get the latest news, and get complete ticket and camping information. In addition, fans can get social with Virginia Motor Speedway by following @vamotorspeedway on Twitter, clicking "Like" at www.facebook.com/VaMotorSpeedway and on www.youtube.com/VaMotorSpeedway.

Aaron’s King of the Commonwealth Summary of Results April 11, 2015:

Aaron’s King of the Commonwealth Official Finish:
1 – 116 Randy Weaver, 2 - 6 Jonathan Davenport, 3 - 0 Scott Bloomquist, 4 - 22 Gregg Satterlee, 5 - 44 Chris Madden, 6 - 101 Casey Roberts, 7 - 15 Steve Francis, 8 - 25Z Mason Zeigler, 9 - 22 Chris Ferguson, 10 - 5 Don O’Neal, 11 - 1S Gary Stuhler, 12 - 38S Kenny Pettyjohn, 13 - 51 Dustin Mitchell, 14 - 11 Austin Hubbard, 15 - 2 Dennis Franklin, 16 - 4 Amanda Whaley, 17 - 2S Dan Stone, 18 - 16 Matt Cochran, 19 - 1 Earl Pearson, Jr., 20 - 88 Ricky Elliott, 21 - 87 Walker Arthur, 22 - 281 Kyle Pierce, 23 - 44 Stevie Long, 24 - 157 Mike Marlar

DNS: Anthony Sanders, Jamie Lathroum, Jason Covert, David Watts, Tim Dohm, Kyle , ear, Joe Leavell, Tim Allen, Darrell Dow, Nick Davis, Brian Tavenner, Russell Erwin, David Zona, Mike Parker, Kevin Wilson, GR Smith, Jason Miller, Donald Lingo, Jr., Ross Robinson, Kenny Moreland, Les Hare, Pancho Lawler and Joe Cox.

Fastrak National Tour Official Finish:
1 – 87 Walker Arthur, 2 – 10 Kenny Compton Jr., 3 – 11 David Smith, 4 – 1 Mark Parks, 5 – 24s Jimmy Schiltz, 6 – 25 Matt Long, 7 – A1 Tim Dohm, 8 – 6 Dillon Brown, 9 – 16 Daniel Baggerly, 10 – 2* Jared Powell, 11 – 23 Corey Gordon, 12 – 8 Ron Parker, 13 – 42 Clay Knight, 14 – 30 Tyler Bare, 15 – 30a Darren Alvey, 16 – 55 Jimmy Duncan, 17 – 12 Ricky Weeks, 18 – 17 Ben Bowie, 19 – 71 Davis Lipscombe, 20 – 2 Colby Cannon, 21 – 100 Mike Wharton, 22 – 25m Paul McGinley, 23 – 24 Matthew Nance, 24 – 83 Tom Adams

DNS: Bobby Thompson, Joe Cox, Kyle Lukon, Craig Guido, Henry Hornsby, Ryan Adams, Brad Rigdon, Matt Gladen, Corey Almond, Brett Adkins, Phillip Wood, Darrell Adkins, Carl Vaughan

Back to News