Before Saturday night's running of the "Over the Mountain 150," Hickory Motor Speedway had been a personal playground for Ryan Lawler. Ryan had swept the previous two PASS South Super Late Model events at the historic 4/10-mile North Carolina track and appeared to be cruising towards a third-straight Hickory triumph Saturday night.
Lawler led 113 of the 150 laps, but he came up just seven short of victory. Under caution on lap 143, Lawler suddenly slowed in turn one, thus giving up the lead and a shot at a third-straight PASS South Hickory win.
"We were just kind of riding, racing up front for the lead with Cassius (Clark), Dean (Clattenburg) and some other guys, but we had a really good car," said Lawler. "That last green flag run before the caution, the thing started sputtering. I got on the radio, but I was thinking that maybe I was just hearing the gremlins or something. Then it started making some bad noises and I knew there was something wrong here. The guys said, ‘just run it ‘til it blows,’ but it didn’t make it to the next green flag run.”
The alternator problem that the Grapevine Suzuki #31 suffered at Hickory will not keep Lawler down for long, as he plans on rebounding in the final two PASS South races of the season.
"I’m frustrated and disappointed, especially because we had such a good car. I’ve been fighting bad luck all year long and it seems like we can’t catch a break. I don’t know what this does to us in points, but we’re going to have to have a good run at Greenville and again at Concord if we want to have a shot at the championship."
Before getting back to PASS South action, Lawler will be competing in the prestigious Winchester 400 Super Late Model event at Winchester Speedway (IN) on Sunday October 14th.
