Thaxton Wants To End South Boston Speedway Season On A Hot Streak

Austin Thaxton’s 2016 season has been the best of his young career, but that doesn’t mean he is happy with his performance at South Boston Speedway the year.

“It’s definitely been an up and down year. It’s been better than the last couple, but I feel like I’ve kind of dropped the ball some,” said the 23-year-old Thaxton. “We should have won a lot more.”

His victory in last Saturday night’s Late Model feature was his fourth of the year, the most wins he’s recorded in a season.

“To win four is pretty cool,” he said. He’s had three wins each of the last two seasons.

He’s got a chance this Saturday night to increase that win total to six in the GCR Presents Spaulding Equipment Company NASCAR Late Model Twin 75s. It’s the final race night of the season for both the Late Model and Limited Sportsman divisions, with champions crowned in both divisions.

Thaxton is out of the championship, fifth in points headed into the Late Model season-finale Saturday night. That means winning, not points, is on his mind this week.

“We are focused on winning races now. We hope to win the next two,” said Thaxton.

Thaxton’s chase for the track championship was hit by two hard wrecks, one early in the season and one three weeks ago. The first one destroyed a race car; the second required a week of almost non-stop work to get ready for last Saturday night’s race. 

“We’ve really burned it the last couple of weeks,” said Thaxton. “We had to put a front clip on it. We worked hard to get back to where we were. I think we may be a little better now than we were before.

Thaxton and his team had to build a new car after his first big race of the year. It was a little easier this time.

“This time around it wasn’t as bad, but it was still rough,” said Thaxton. “I worked until 11 every night and I worked a couple of full days on it. We made it all work.”

The season has been a huge team effort, Thaxton says, by a team that’s a little different from most young drivers.

“Everybody that helps us is in their mid-fifties. I’m by far the youngest. For the most part it’s a bunch of older guys who love racing,” said Thaxton. “I think we’ve really shown how good a team we have. To do what we have done is pretty amazing.”

There are five races on tap Saturday night highlighted by twin 75-lappers for the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Late Model Stock Car Division.  There will also be a 50-lap Limited Sportsman race, a 30-lap Budweiser Pure Stock Division race and a 15-lap race for the Budweiser Hornets Division.

Grandstand gates open at 5:30 p.m. with qualifying set for 6 p.m. and the first race starting at 7 p.m.

Adult general admission tickets are $10 each with youth ages 7-12 admitted for $5 and kids ages six and under admitted free with a paying adult.

SBS PR