Catchfence

Saint John, NB, Canada 11/16/10- During this weekend’s World Crown driver introductions the announcer made the mistake of saying “Lonnie Sommerville from Barnesville, Georgia” was driving the #23 A.E. McKay Builders / Pub’s Bottle Exchange Chevrolet Impala SS. Well at the end of 300 laps of racing around the super fast Gresham Motorsports Park half mile oval with a third place trophy in his hand they sure became a lot more familiar with the driver who hails from “Barnesville, New Brunswick, Canada”; Lonnie Sommerville.

“What a weekend of racing we had down here in Georgia. We didn’t qualify where we wanted to but our finish definitely reflects how good a car we had in race trim. I mean this race had a lot of the heavy hitters we hear about all the time back home so to be able to finish third and race as good as we did feels pretty good right now. Obviously we would’ve loved to go back to Canada with $20,000 check, but you have to give it up to Justin Wakefield because he had the best car all day long,” stated Sommerville after the race. “

Sommerville starting from the twentieth starting position dodged a bullet just eight laps into the event when a multi car wreck covered the front straight away taking out several cars. Lonnie sliced through the field without a scratch on the car. From that point on Sommerville took advantage of a long green flag run making his way to the sixth position when the yellow flag would fly on lap 140 for debris allowing cars to make their way down pit road for the first round of pit stops. The pit crew did its job gaining three positions on pit road sending the #23 machine back out to take the green flag from the third place position halfway through the 300 lap event.

With 100 laps of racing remaining things began to heat up on track as Sommerville would swap paint with several drivers including Chase Elliott and eventual winner Justin Wakefield. A lap 253 yellow would see the leaders back down pit road and set the stage for a forty-seven lap sprint to the finish. After another solid stop for tires and fuel Sommerville went back to work on track picking up a few position but felt that the car needed something more in order to have a shot at a podium finish. A final caution with just ten laps remaining allowed the team to pull a spring rubber. Lonnie went back to work from the sixth position after the stop picking up two position before the checkered flag waived. After technical inspection of the top five finishers officials disqualified second place finisher Ross Kenseth moving Lonnie to the third position.

“I want to thank Andrew McKay, Pub’s Bottle Exchange and RE Suspensions for their help this weekend along with everyone that has supported this team all season long. This is officially our last race this season, we talked about running the Snowball Derby but not getting to race the track during the season and it being the biggest short track race in the country we decided we better wait until next year. Plus we have to focus on doing everything we can to win the big $75,000 PASS race at North Wilkesboro next year,” said Sommerville.

For all the latest news and information regarding Lonnie Sommerville Racing as they prepare for the 2011 season visit their website at www.lonniesommerville.com.

- Lonnie Sommerville Racing / Tex Motorsports Marketing Press Release