Sophia, NC - Saturday night the 2007 edition of the Whelen Southern Modified Tour kicked off at Caraway Speedway under beautiful clear skies and comfortable mid 80 degree temperatures. Thirty one cars were on jackstands on pit road ready for the opening round of practice with Michael Clifton being first on the track. Brad Robbins, who was sporting new colors on his Matco Tools #40 and John Smith were the only ones to encounter trouble as they both spun in separate, single car incidents in turns one and two. Unofficial timing by my stopwatch had Tim Brown clearly under the WSMT qualifying record set by Jay Hedgecock in 2005 by almost three tenths, and many others not too far behind.

As the cars went over the scales to line up for qualifying, the sun had begun to set and it was prime weather for a possible new record with the top 15 cars all eclipsing the previous record and Burt Myers rewriting it with a 15.792 lap time at 103.723 miles per hour. Tim Brown was second quick in his beautiful Hayes Jewelers #83, with Jason Myers third who was also sporting new gold colors on his DMC Auto Exchange #4 . Whelen Modified Tour invader Matt Hirschman would time Ed Bennett's #59 in fourth, with L.W. Miller coming home fifth in a brand new Chassis Dynamics Mustang bodied car.

Proving to be the most competitive field in the Whelen Southern Modified Tour's short history, two time and defending champion Junior Miller would have to use a provisional to make the race and highly toted Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender and 2006 UARA Late Model champion Brandon Ward would load up David Pinnix's #42 and sit out the season opener. Other notable entries who missed the show were Brad Robbins and new WSMT drivers Buddy Emory, Thomas Stinson, and Brad Trinchere.

Never one to like the redraw anywhere he races, Burt Myers smiled as he drew the #1 pill to put him on the pole for the first event of 2007. The top six redrew as well, with Brian Loftin drawing number 2, L.W. Miller drawing three, Jason Myers fourth, Tim Brown back to fifth and Matt Hirschman sixth.

A short meet and greet on the front stretch had the big crowd close to the new colors drivers were sporting for the new season and visiting drivers from the north as Ted Christopher, Chuck Hossfeld, Matt Hirschman, Jamie Tomaino, Bobby Grigas, Ryan Preece and J.R. Bertuccio all met with the fans who were ready for a night that promised to be exciting.

The green flag dropped just before 8:30 as Myers jumped out to the early led taking L.W. Miller with him and dropping Loftin back to third. The first caution would come on lap 24 as J.R. Bertuccio would hit the outside wall hard in turn four ending his night on the double hook. The caution would bring Brian King, Jamie Tomaino and Kevin Powell to pit road, with Tomaino losing a lap on pit road after getting lapped by the pace car on lap 33.

The race restarted on lap 38 with Myers still showing the way with L.W mirroring his every move. On lap 43 things would start to get touchy as Loftin made contact with the rear bumper of the silver 36 and ducked under L.W. for second. A disgusted Jamie Tomaino retired his Perth Amboy Spring #99 over a disagreement with NASCAR officials who explained that since lapping had not begun on the track, Tomaino would have to start at the tail of the line until the leader had passed a lapped car on the track. Tomaino disagreed and loaded up his car, not sure if he was making the trip to Nashville for the following week's event.

Back on the race track, things weren't much calmer as Myers, Loftin, Miller, Christopher, and Hossfeld would complete lap 50 nose to tail. It wouldn't take long for things to get interesting again as on lap 60, Hossfeld lost the air cleaner assembly from the Performance Technology motor in Roger Hill's Coors Light #79 bringing a black flag from officials as the parts sat at the top of turn one near the concrete wall.

Lap 70 would see another lead change as L.W. Miller would dive underneath Myers in turn three and take the lead for the first time. Burt would close the door on Ted Christopher who had passed Loftin for third, with Jason Myers moving up to fifth after Hossfeld finally came to pit road on lap 73 to replace the missing air cleaner. Hossfeld would lose ten laps after having his scorecard pulled for not answering the black flag, initially.

At Halfway, L.W. Miller still led the way over Burt Myers, Ted Christopher, Brian Loftin, Jason Myers, Matt Hirschman, Ryan Preece, Tim Brown, Junior Miller (who started on the last row of the 26 car field) and Bobby Hutchens rounding out the top 10. Lap 83 would see the second caution as Chuck Hossfeld crossed up the Hillbilly 79 in turn two in a single car spin. On this caution, Frank Fleming, J. Wesley Swartout and George Brunnhoelzl, III would hit pit road with Fleming retuning only to eventually park Talmage Thomas' #07 with overheating problems. On the following lap, Bobby Grigas would pit his Triple G Scaffold car after suffering electrical problems in his MSD boxes before qualifying and return to the race with Swartout right behind.

You could tell the intensity was beginning to pick up as the green flew again on lap 90, only to have it come out the following lap as Tim Brown found himself facing the wrong way in turn two after a chain reaction, stop and go incident and a tap from behind courtesy of Junior Miller. This was the restart that lit the fuse as Hossfeld and Loftin exchanged taps and a brake check on the front stretch under caution the following lap and NASCAR parking Hossfeld for over aggressive driving. Jay Foley and J. Wesley Swartout would hit pit road, with Foley's right rear smoking heavily from contact on the restart and retire his red and white #57. Swartout needed a push from his crew to return to the fight as the race went green again on lap 100.

NASCAR should have rang the ringside bell instead of dropping the green flag as the Miller (L.W., that is) would continue to show the way with Burt Myers running two laps side by side with Ted Christopher for second. Nerf bars were bent and sparks flew as the driver who uses "Dirty South" as a catch phrase would battle with the notoriously aggressive driver from the north and bring the fans to their feet as Teddy would dive into three and use a patented technique used up north as he drove Myers to the top of turns three and four and would take second from Burt. Myers, who obviously was not pleased with the tactic laid a heavy hit to the back of Joe Brady's 00 exiting turn two and almost spun himself out in the process. Burt would lose two spots trying to regain control of the All Star Truck Repair #1 as Loftin, Hirschman and Ryan Preece would sneak by.

The yellow flew again on lap 105 as Bobby Grigas would spin and come to a rest in turn two. Grigas and Brunnhoelzl would hit pit road and the race would go back green on lap 110. Myers was hell bent on getting back to the front after losing three spots and dove under rookie Ryan Preece exiting turn two and swept to the outside of Matt Hirschman on lap 111. Burt would drive into three making the outside work as he pulled up alongside Loftin for third with his sights clearly on the back bumper of Christopher.

Church was out on lap 119 as Myers pulled up to Christopher's back bumper and it was less than a friendly "Remember me?" as Christopher looked in his mirror and saw the fluorescent orange nerfbar. The two exchanged taps and locked bumpers on the frontstretch coming to complete lap 120. Burt would turn left, and Teddy would turn right with Myers not lifting off the throttle and turning the 00 into the outside wall just past the Start/Finish line. Madness ensued as Bobby Hutchens, Jason Myers, Michael Clifton and Gene Pack would all get collected in the incident with Junior Miller spinning past the wreck Joie Chitwood style in David Riggs' #69 on the low side and pulling away with no damage. Burt drove through the wreck, but Christopher climbed out unhurt and walked back to Brady's trailer who ironically was parked right next to Myers' trailer.

The red flag would sort out the field as the Christopher, Hutchens, Pack, and Jason Myers' cars all ended their night on the hook. Clifton would hit pit road and his crew would wait for the red to be withdrawn to see how much work they could get done to the Clifton Plumbing #50. NASCAR re-displayed the caution on lap 121 and the order was: L.W. Miller, Brian Loftin, Matt Hirschman, Ryan Preece, Burt Myers, Junior Miller, Brian Pack, Tim Brown, John Smith and George Brunnhoelzl rounding out the top 10.

Back to green on lap 124 and Myers wasted little time as he again disposed of Preece, Hirschman and Loftin using the outside lane and set his sights on the back bumper of the Baker 36. On lap 129, Bobby Grigas again had trouble with turns one and two and spun collecting Brian Pack and J. Wesley Swartout. A second red flag was displayed as the debris and speedy dry needed to be cleaned off, as the Pack car left on the hook. As the cars sat on the back stretch, L.W. realized his left front tire was going soft.

The race went back yellow at lap 141 with Brunnhoelzl, Grigas, and Clifton hitting pit road. Miller was feverishly working his tires back and forth behind the pace car trying desperately to keep the heat and pressure built up in his slowly fading left front tire.

The final restart would come at lap 145 with Miller doing all he could to hold back a hard charging Myers with Loftin, Matt Hirschman and Ryan Preece rounding out the top 5. Junior Miller came home sixth with John Smith seventh, Tim Brown eighth and George Brunnhoelzl the last car on the lead lap in ninth. Tenth was Kevin Powell.

Junior Miller came home with the PowerAde "Power Move of the Race" award for his drive from 25th starting position to finish sixth, while L.W. Miller took home the Featherlite "Most Improved Driver of the Race" Award for improving three positions from his previous finishing position at Southern National Raceway Park in the final race of last year. Ryan Preece took home the Sunoco "Rookie of the Race" award.

Next week the Whelen Southern Modified Tour heads to the fast 5/8ths mile Music City Motorplex located in Nashville, Tennessee for a Sunday afternoon event in conjunction with the ASA Late Model Series and the CRA Super Series. Bud Pole Qualifying for the Whelen Southern Modified Tour will begin at 6:30 PM, Saturday March 30th, with the Whelen 150 taking the green flag Sunday afternoon at 1:15 PM.

Mod Series Scene will be on hand to bring you live updates and all the news from Nashville.