Rolling Thunder Modified Series Win Hits Home for CDOC

April 18, 2008 — Robersonville, NC — 

JOE SCARBROUGH DEBUTS ON RTM TOUR WITH WIN AT ECMS

What a difference a race makes. After a caution-filled, time-shortened season opener at Hickory, The Rolling Thunder Modifieds presented by Red Man Moist Snuff returned to racing this past weekend at East Carolina Motor Speedway where Joe Scarbrough made his official debut racing with the Rolling Thunder Modifieds and did it in a big way by taking the checkered flag in what many tour regulars have been calling the best RTM race in years.

CDOC awarded contingencies to winner Joe Scarbrough, 2nd place finisher AJ Winstead, 3rd place finisher Chris Hoylman and top rookie Martin Gunter.

As the green flag waved the field was lead to the line by #72 Robert Conner who made it onto the pole by inversion as well as eventual winner #30 Joe Scarbrough on the outside pole. Within a laps time, Ronnie Davis, who started 3rd took advantage of Conner getting loose and running high and passed him coming out of turn 1. Doug Paasch and AJ Winstead followed suit and began a three-car fight for the lead.

Scarbrough hung tough through the first caution and restart of the race, and made a crucial pass just half a lap before the second caution on lap 70 on the account of Gary Wheaton's #06 machine rolling to a stop on the entrance to the backstretch. Wheaton had been battling an unusual occurrence for several laps as in a strange event, his air filter had flown off his engine and was lodged around his roof panel.

After the push trucks removed Wheaton's car from the track surface, the green flag waved for a 5-lap shootout for the finish. Scarbrough managed to get a great start and left Winstead, Hoylman, and Brooks vying for the rest of the podium positions. Five laps later, the yellow and blue #30 car grabbed the checkered flag and pumped up an already excited crowd of spectators with a victory burnout and celebratory lap.

Crew Chief Carl Blohm said, "We'd arrived early for individual practice, but unfortunately we broke the toplink mount out of the top of the car, so we had to scramble and get to a shop away from the track to rebuild the cage. We made it back in time and got in a couple of practices, where we were able to dial the car in. ECMS is a very abrasive track on a very tight oval, so it's hard to save tires for a 75 lap race. Joe paced himself perfectly and was able to save his tires and use them to his advantage. He went from 4th to the lead in the last 5 laps and was able to hold everyone off handily. Joe's an incredible driver, and our team came together and executed perfectly this weekend!" 

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