Latour Wants Victory, Then Limited Championship At South Boston Speedway

David Latour Jr. is doing his best not to look over his shoulder, but the veteran Limited Sportsman driver admits that is difficult at times heading into Saturday night’s season finale at South Boston Speedway.

 

Latour is nursing a four-point lead over Colin Garrett in the Limited Sportsman championship race. And it’s far from a two-driver battle with Trey Crews just six points back.

 

“We’ve got to go and win the race,” Latour said when asked about his strategy for Saturday night’s 50-lapper.

 

The Limited race is part of a full night of racing Saturday in the GCR present Spaulding Equipment PASS 150. The evening includes a 150-lap race for the PASS Southern Super Late Models, a 100-lap Late Model race, a 30-lap race for the Budweiser Pure Stocks and a 15-lap race for the Budweiser Hornets.

 

Latour has been the model of consistency all season. He has just two wins on the season, but has seldom finished out of the top five. But for this weekend, his thoughts are centered on parking in victory lane.

 

“We obviously want to win the championship. I think about it and want to get it, but the less I think about it, the less I worry,” said Latour. “We just think about going to the track and winning.”

 

Garrett, who leads the division in wins this season with four, knows what it’s going to take for him to get past Latour in the points standings: perfection.

 

“I believe that I just have to be perfect,” said Garrett. “I can’t make any mistakes that are going to cost us. I’ve already made enough of those throughout the season to really put us in the position that we’re in now.”

 

Garrett said it was a mistake in the first of the season that could prove to be most costly.

 

“We were running fifth in the first race and I spun myself out trying to get fourth on the last lap and wound up finishing ninth,” said Garrett. “Look where I am now … four points behind. (Crew chief) H.C. Sellers told me then that it would come back to bite me and I didn’t believe him. Obviously now I can see that he was right.”

 

Crews, who has three wins on the season, is right in the middle of the championship race, six points behind Latour and two behind Garrett.

 

Mike Jones, who is fourth in the points, 28 behind the leader, could prove to be the spoiler. He has been the hottest Limited driver in the second half of the season with all of his three wins coming after the halfway point.

 

Qualifying will start at 5 p.m. Saturday night with the green flag falling on the first race at 7 p.m.

 

Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for children seven to 12 and children six and under admitted free. Tickets for the rained-out August 12 PASS Super Late Model race will be honored.

 

SBS PR