Kenny Moreland knew what he had to do. He had to go out, win the heat race and then win the Bobby Allen Memorial 35 lap super late model (SLM) feature. If he did that, he would carry on a family legacy in becoming a Potomac Speedway track champion. He did just that on Friday night.
23 year-old Kenny Moreland, the son of 2000 track champion George Moreland, won the championship on Friday night in his first ever full season in the SLM division at Potomac Speedway. While he was able to lead every lap to score the win, it wasn’t easy. David Williams, who entered third in points, pressured Moreland late.
Moreland has entered the feature for the super late model race with a one point lead over Dale Hollidge by virtue of his win in the second SLM heat race. Hollidge had late troubles that would take him out of the feature. Williams, however, had nothing to lose and on a mid-race restart, Williams rocketed to second position. Williams and Moreland staged a classic duel, trading paint several times, heading to the final laps. Moreland was able to pull away with two laps to go and went on to win the race and the championship.
“It feels pretty good,” Moreland said. “It hasn’t sunk in yet. Me and my father have won it now so that makes it even more special. We’ve come a long way here lately, mid-season on out. We’ve hit on some set ups so hopefully we can keep the momentum. They say do what you can to control your own destiny. Only thing I could do was win the heat and win the feature and I had to drive as hard as I could, especially with David Williams behind me at the end.”
Moreland said he was not aware of the points situation entering the SLM feature but he knew he had to win.
Williams ended up second in points, 20 points behind Moreland, with his second place finish.
“We knew the only thing we could do was run the wheels off of it tonight to have a chance at winning the championship,” Williams said. “The guys had this car on a rail for me tonight. We fell a little bit short but I’m glad to see Kenny get his first championship. I drove for Kenny and his dad a few years back. I have a very good relationship. If we can’t win it, I’m glad to see they did. We were hoping to get that fifth championship for the record books, these days it’s hard to win five in a row. It’s hard to win five championships. We were lucky to win four in a row, a lot of lucky breaks helped up last year to win that fourth one and just fell a little short this year.”
Dale Hollidge entered the night with a four point lead, but the course of events relegated him to third in the final championship standings.
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