PELETIER, NC – Michael O’Brien continued his dominance of the Charger division in Eastern North Carolina with a victory at Bobby Watson’s Carteret Speedway on Sunday
night.
O’Brien led much of the race after a cut tire and suspension issues relegated early race leader Ayden Millette to the rear of the field. In the closing laps, Millette was able to charge back to the front, making the pass for the overall lead with six laps to go. Two laps later, O’Brien would retake the lead from Millette and hold on to win.
“This thing was on a rail tonight,” O’Brien said. “We’d been tight all day. We made a real small adjustment before the race. This win is for Tracy [Muse]. He owns the car I normally run in Late Model and always driven for him in Charger. He’s fighting cancer and been in the hospital for about a week now. We’re thinking about him and this one is for him.”
Throughout the years, O’Brien, driving for Tracy, has scored dozens of wins and multiple championships in the Charger division at Carteret, New River All American Speedway in Jacksonville, Southern National Motorsports Park in Lucama, and Wake County Speedway in Raleigh. In 2022, O’Brien competed for championships at three different tracks (Carteret, New River, Wake County) and swept all three.
While Millette was the overall runner-up, he was the top finisher among the Limited Late Models that were in the field, resulting in him taking a division victory. Millette, a regular at Larry King Law’s Langley Speedway in Hampton, Virginia, follows in the footsteps of multiple Langley competitors who have scored wins at Carteret – including reigning NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national champion Connor Hall and 2003 Langley Speedway champion Mark Wertz, among others.
Veteran racer and spotter Robert Arch, who works with Kevin Harvick, Inc. in the zMAX CARS Tour and was a longtime spotter for Josh Berry, led wire-to-wire in the Mini Stock feature to score the victory. After the race, Arch put the division on notice.
“Them boys better go to work,” Arch said. “It’s always a lot of fun when you get to come out and play. After four long days of spotting all weekend, to come here and race is a lot of fun. So now we’re going to enjoy the rest of the weekend on the lake.”
Prior to becoming a full-time spotter, Arch had won championships in the U-CAR division at Wake County Speedway and the Charger division at Southern National Motorsports Park.
Charlie Beals picked up the win in the Legend Car feature, driving past defending track champion Scotty Benford in the opening laps of the race. From there, he would drive away from the chaos that ensured in the closing laps behind him.
“It was a really tough field,” Beals said. “It’s nice to have a good field here tonight. A lot of competitive drivers. Starting fourth definitely was not where I wanted to be but we were lucky enough to get down in sixth or seventh, make my way up to the lead, and avoid all the wreckage behind us to cruise to the win.”
After getting tangled up in an incident midway through the race and dropping to the rear of the field, Benford rallied back to a third place finish.
Dennis Werner picked up the overall win in the Southern Ground Pounders Vintage Racing Club 35-lap feature. Curtis Lanier was victorious in the U-CAR division. Charlie Mercer navigated his way to victory in a chaotic Bomber feature which saw 22 cars take the green flag. Rylan Speight was declared the winner of both Bandolero features after Landon Burbage’s win was disallowed in post-race technical inspection.
Carteret County Speedway returns to action on Saturday, June 8 with the School’s Out 150. Thad Moffit, Richard Petty’s Grandson, will take on the Limited Late Model’s along with 6 other divisions hitting the track for a thrilling night of short track racing!
Results
Late Model Charger - 50 laps
1.) #21B - Michael O'Brien; 2.) #9 - Aiden Millette*; 3.) #71 - Gator Williams; 4.0 #21D - David Barnes; 5.) #28 - Tyler Horne; 6.) #21 - Gerald Benton*; 7. #11H - Hunter Brown; 8.) #85 - Mason Ford*; 9.) #6 - Mike Jones; 10.) #18 - Matthew Gurganus; 11.) #21W - Sarah Grace Whitesell; 12.) #36 - Garth Bossie
* Denotes Late Model drivers
Southern Ground Pounders - 35 laps
1.) #5 - Dennis Werner; 2.) #33 - Shawn Otey; 3.) #05 - Barry Dalton; 4.) #43 - David Hill; 5.) #21 - Josh Roberts; 6.) #32 - Allen Rowe; 7.) #55 - Dennis Bond; 8.) #60 - Brooks Jones; 9.) #H1 - Ronnie Hobbs; 10.) #68 - Carlton Sharpe
Mini Stock - 20 laps
1.) #16 - Robert Arch; 2.) #23 - Zac Reimer; 3.) #2 - Curtis Lanier; 4.) #99 - Travis Miller; 5.) #9 - Adam Resnick; 6.) #4X - Chad Cunningham; 7.) #48 - Duane Walker; 8.) #11 - Abby Jolly; 9.) #10S - Landon Strickland; 10.) #49 - Johnny Richardson
U-CAR - 15 laps
1.) #2 - Curtis Lanier; 2.) #19 - Logan McCallister; 3.) #03 - Cornell Williams; 4.) #5 - Haley Brown; 5.) #13 - Michael Ludwig; 6.) #17 - Brian Gooden; 7.) #6 - Ricky Heigl, Sr.; 8.) #58X - Summer Sullivan; 9.) #58 - Steve Sullivan; 10. #43 - Joe Wade
Bomber - 20 laps
1.) #01 - Charlie Mercer; 2.) #17 - Eric Schmidt; 3.) #32 - Brady Price; 4.) #88 - Dale Drum; 5.) #11H - Hunter Brown; 6.) #58 - Clifton Gillikin; 7.) #75 - James Barbour; 8.) #79 - Terry Griffin; 9.) #87 - Justin Rountree; 10.) #91 - T.J. Medeiros; 11.) #34 - Matthew Newman; 12.) #77 - Marion "Papa Smurf" Williams; 13.) #83 - Robert Drum; 14.) #67 - Eddie Piercey; 15.) #4 - Kyle Remmey; 16.) #68 - Logan Crouse; 17.) #9 - Deanna Stancill; 20.) #07 - Jonathan Thompson; 21.) #08 - Andrew Watson
Legend Car - 20 laps
1.) #5B - Charlie Beals; 2.) #7 - Levi Canup; 3.) #51 - Scotty Benford; 4.) #99G - Tyler Garrettson; 5.) #B1 - Brenton Irving; 6.) #55 - Mardy Roberts, III; 7.) #28 - Oliber Missner; 8.) #38 - Cameron White; 9.) #32 - Brady Price; 10.) #14 - Mike Ridenour; 11.) #2 - Chase Drill; 12.) #9 - Brody Rhodes; 13.) #6 - Austin Eckert; 14.) #3 - Shane Irving; 15.) #99 - Carsyn Gillikin; 16.) #25 - Frank Pass
Bandolero - 15 Laps (Feature #1 & 2)