Media Contact: Steven Ovens - woodhullracewaypr@gmail.com For Immediate Release – January 23rd, 2019 – Joe Kaminski Jr. photo -
(WOODHULL, NY) – In what has become a yearly tradition, the Late Model title at Woodhull has come down to the slimmest of margins on Championship Night.
For a season where rumors about the Crate Late Model division swirled, the competitors came out every week to see the division numbers improve as the season wore on to put on a great battle for the title. In 2017 it was Steve LeBarron and Kurt Stebbins, but 2018 would see Jason Knowles step up as the man ready to challenge LeBarron for Woodhull supremacy.
Knowles made a big commitment to follow the entire Woodhull schedule for points, even passing on a few RUSH traveling events to do so. But just as he did in 2017 against Stebbins, LeBarron rose to the occasion when it mattered the most to clinch his second straight track championship.
The SWL Awards and Photos Crate Late Model championship was decided between LeBarron and Knowles, with the victor picking up the championship by just two points. It was a feature race win for LeBarron on championship night that gave him enough points to collect the title, in a battle filled with irony as it was just a season ago where LeBarron edged Kurt Stebbins by one point to win the 2017 track title.
LeBarron collected four victories along the way to Knowles’ three wins. Stebbins was a solid top five car weekly in 2018, but two wins would leave him in third place. Jason McGregor locked up two feature wins this season to come home fourth in points.
Darin Horton matched a career best finish of 2nd in 2018, scoring a total of eight top fives for the season to round out the top five in points. Joe Layfield was named Crate Late Model Rookie of the Year for 2018 with a best finish of fourth after not missing a single points show.
The Crate Late Models will return to action at Woodhull Raceway for 2019 with the addition of the RUSH Dirt Late Model sanctioning for weekly events. More information is provided in a press release on the Woodhull Raceway website in regards to the Crate Late Models for 2019.
The end of the year will leave racers and fans waiting until the March 15-17 Arnot Mall Car Show in Big Flats, NY to gather together once again to bench race in preparation for the 2019 season. The season will kick off on April 6 and 13 with open practice sessions, weather permitting, before kicking off with a special event on April 20 and the complete weekly program with Big Block/Small Block Modifieds on April 27.
For more information visit www.woodhullraceway.com or visit Woodhull Raceway on their Facebook and Twitter pages.