Published: July 19, 2008 11:37 pm         

Hawkins surprises field, wins Thurman Memorial

When Jared Hawkins rolled into the pits at Beckley Motor Speedway Friday with his Late Model riding on an open trailer pulled by a pickup truck, he wasn’t considered a favorite to upset the drivers with the high-dollar big rigs or the wily track regulars.

That’s just what the 21-year-old Fairmont native did — in dominating fashion — winning the fourth annual Randy Thurman Memorial 40 presented by Little General.

Hawkins jumped to the lead from the outside of the front row as the field rolled into turn one and never looked back. Hawkins carved his way through lapped traffic in the early going and then held off the challenges of Mike Faykus Jr. late in the event to grab the $3,000 winner’s check.

“It helped starting on the outside pole,” Hawkins said. “I knew that if I could get the jump on Ricky (Williams), it was going to be tough to pass on the bottom. You get so much momentum on the outside. The lapped cars, it was kinda tricky because it was real dusty, so you couldn’t see them real well. The cautions were what helped me the most. We went a little softer on tires than most other people. I’d start to fade a little bit once we’d run, probably, eight to 10 laps. Then, I’d luck into a caution.”

He added a $200 bonus for leading at halfway and $600 for finishing second in the K.G. Thurman Dash-4-Cash event, which set the starting positions for the first three rows to bring his overall winning to $3,800.

The win was even more impressive, considering this was only Hawkins’ third race back in the family-owned car.

“It feels good,” Hawkins said. “That’s all I can say. It feels good.”

He recently stepped out of the Seymour Racing ride that he began the year in to return to the familiar black No. 37.

Faykus would settle for second place after starting fourth. The Prosperity driver tried to make a charge on the bottom late.

“There was a little bit of moisture in the bottom but there was nobody that could stay down there,” Faykus said. “The whole groove moved up to the top and that’s where everybody had to go.”

Beckley’s Rick Williams, who won the event in 2006, followed in third. The polesitter and winner of the $1,000 Dash had his shot at a fourth straight win at the 3/8-mile dirt oval hampered by lapped traffic.

“Really, it was the lapped cars,” Williams said.

“Proverbially, one of them doesn’t know when to get out of the way. It’s just one of those deals. I got pinned and Jared got pinned in there (on lap 6). I guess the lapped car saw (Hawkins). I had committed one way and the lapped car came down that way. I checked up to keep from hitting him and basically two of them got by me. I don’t know if I had a winning car but the top was pretty good. You could just roll around through there.”

Charleston’s Tim Dohm, the defending champion, and Beckley’s Chris Meadows rounded out the top five in fourth and fifth, respectively.

Sixth through tenth went to Henry Hornsby Jr., Wayne Hughes, ’05 winner Steve Lucas, Steve Blackburn and Greg Buckland.

The AMRA Modified feature event also had a northern flavor to it as Dave Defibaugh held off Joe Cox during a caution-filled 14-lap race that was ended by the time limit. The green-to-checkered win was the Mill Creek native’s first at the track this season.

“Beckley is my home (track) anymore,” Defibaugh said. “It’s been our home since last year. I drove three hours to get here but made it worth our while.”

Scott Harper, Ron Gregor and Vic Vandergrift completed the top five.

The King of the Mountain Pro Late Model feature put the excitement back into the night’s racing as Keith Bills and Aaron Barley slugged it out wheel-to-wheel for the lead in the closing laps. The duo got together as they took the white flag, though, with Bills spinning into turn one. The ensuing carnage collected six additional cars. Barley was charged with the caution and Bills cruised to his third win of the season.

“The track was really racing,” Bills said. “It was a good track. I snookered Barley in lapped traffic. I pinched him in lapped traffic and got the lead. I got a good rhythm going and thought I had the race won. They threw the white flag and then threw a caution behind us and made us go back for a couple more laps.

“(Barley) got a good run on the outside and was there. We came together on the frontstretch and, I don’t know, the flagman thought he came down on me.”

Zack Dohm captured second, followed by John Murphy, David Gibson Jr. and Brad Jarrell.

Jason Armes Jr. won the Outlaw Street feature, while T.J. Salango took the checkers in the Pure Street Stock feature.

— E-mail:

rjett@register-herald.com