Kayla Surles has been racing in the Alcova Mortgage Modified Division at Dominion Raceway since 2019 and has had several opportunities to get her first win. But just like any driver, bad luck, mechanical issues, racing incidents and just poor timing, the first one alluded her until this past Saturday when everything fell right and she drove away for her first career victory.
Surles was fourth fastest in qualifying but was able to start second following the redraw by Mike Rudy following his winning of the pole. Eric Fowlkes started on the pole. Surles was riding third only eight laps in when a caution came out from an incident between the cars running first and second, giving Surles the lead. Following the restart, she was able to pull away from the field, but another caution with 23 laps to go bunched the field back up. Surles was able to navigate the restart perfectly and drove away to pick up her first win in the division. When asked about how it felt to get the first win, Surles said “That first one is always the hardest to get so really glad we got it knocked out of the way and hopefully we can win a few more and come up through and make it a multi car battle for the championship”. Rounding out the top three were Chris Humblet and Mike Rudy.
The Truckin Thunder Virginia Racer division ran twin 35 lap features and Ryan Matthews and Chris Donnelly split the checkered flags. In the first feature Matthews started sixth after winning the pole and drawing a six for the invert, but it only took him six laps to get out front and take the win. Eddie Slagle finished second and Mike Ganoe finished third.
The second feature saw Donnelly, who started last in the field after not finishing the first feature, come from dead last and take his second checkered flag of the season. Matthews had assumed the lead only seven laps into the feature and was running up front but was unable to pull away like he usually does due to 3 cautions during the feature. This allowed Donnelly to work his way up through the field. With only nine laps to go, Donnelly made the pass on Matthews, but a late caution set up a green, white, checkered finish. Donnelly was able to get by Matthews down the back stretch on the green flag lap and help him off to get his second win in three tries. Slagle finished second and Matthews finished third.
The INEX legends and Bandos had features Saturday night. In the Bando division, Ryley Music and Trey Williams had a nose to tail battle through almost the entire feature until Music made a late race pass to take the win. Williams came home second and Brian Rundstrom Jr finished third. The Legends had twin 25 lap features that saw Cameron Bolin take both feature wins. Finishing order for feature one was Bolin, Gio Ruggiero and Layton Harrison. Second feature was Bolin, Ruggiero, and Cameron Murray.
Other classes in action Saturday night, saw Tyler Warriner win in the Mini Cup division with Zack Sprouse finishing second and Johnny Shonk coming home third and Ronnie Jones took the Mini Stock feature over Joseph Pittman.
This coming Saturday will be twin features for the Alcova Mortgage Modifieds, Truckin Thunder Virginia Racers and the Mini Cup divisions along with the Alcova Mortgage Dominion Stock class running a 30-lap feature. Gates open at 5, driver meet and greet at 6, and racing starts at 7.
