Carson Kvapil celebrates with members of his team after winning Friday night’s CARS Pro Late Model feature at Tri-County Motor Speedway. Photo: CARS Racing Tour
Mother Nature altered plans for the CARS Racing Tour in their first trip to Tri-County Motor Speedway in Granite Falls, North Carolina in 2023.
With torrential rainfall moving into North Carolina on Saturday and staying until early next week, the CARS Tour moved the 100-lap feature for the Pro Late Model Tour to Friday, while the Late Model Stocks was moved to August 19.
Carson Kvapil did not let the postponement of the Late Model Stock Cars keep him out of a car at Tri-County.
After quickly assembling his family-owned Pro Late Model that did not have an engine 24 hours earlier, Kvapil fended off his younger brother Caden and Gio Ruggiero to take home the checkered flag on Friday evening.
“Half of this is from the past notes we have (at Tri-County) from my brother running here,” Kvapil said. “It gave us a good point to start from today since we didn’t test. Without all the guys, we wouldn’t have made it here. We showed up at the last minute and got ourselves a win.”
With his victory, Kvapil became the first driver in CARS Tour history to win a race in all three divisions that have existed.
Having already won titles in the LMSC Tour and the now defunct Super Late Model division, Kvapil did not have any doubts in his ability to claim a PLM Tour victory as long as he could get his car put together in time for Friday’s green flag.
Kvapil enlisted the help of his JR Motorsports crew to ensure his car had all the essentials for the race. He added the commitment of his crew members to assist with the Pro Late Model highlights the chemistry they have developed together and their desire to overcome any obstacle standing in front of them.
“This is pretty cool,” Kvapil said. “It all started with (crew chief) Brian Shaffer. He was trying to mess with me and I called his bluff. We started working on (the car) at 6 p.m. yesterday, swapped the motor and clutches, all the exhaust, put 150 lbs. of lead in it and mounted a seat. Just goes to show how good of car this is and how good the guys around me are.”
The Pro Late Model Tour gets a two-week break ahead of their next race at South Carolina’s Dillon Motor Speedway on June 10. For the LMSC Tour, they will return to action Saturday, June 3, at Langley Speedway in Hampton Virginia.
For more information, visit CARSRacingTour.com.
CARS Racing Tour
Tri-County Motor Speedway – Granite Falls, NC
Race Results – May 26, 2023
Pro Late Models
1. 35 Carson Kvapil
2. 25 Gavan Boschele
3. 96 Caden Kvapil
4. 53 Cole Butcher
5. 24 Gio Ruggiero
6. 81 Katie Hettinger
7. 7 Tristan McKee
8. 26 Dawson Sutton
9. 77 Logan Jones
10. 13 Austin MacDonald
11. 28 William Sawalich
12. 15 Brett Suggs
13. 27 Lee Tissot
14. 75 Mamba Smith
15. 03 Kyle Campbell
16. 5 Zac Fowler
17. 9 Ashton Higgins
18. 8 Rusty Skewes
19. 49M Luke Morey
20. 6 George Phillips
21. 2 Hudson Canipe
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