{"id":42511,"date":"2017-08-03T11:54:53","date_gmt":"2017-08-03T18:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=42511"},"modified":"2017-08-03T11:54:53","modified_gmt":"2017-08-03T18:54:53","slug":"scscs-drivers-prep-for-pivotal-races-at-lonesome-pine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/scscs-drivers-prep-for-pivotal-races-at-lonesome-pine\/","title":{"rendered":"SCSCS Drivers Prep for Pivotal Races at Lonesome Pine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SCSCS<\/p>\n

As the Extreme Awards & Personalization\/Patrick Miller Photography Twin 50s presented by United Tire approach, Super Cup Stock Car Series drivers and teams alike prepare for an exciting time Saturday at Lonesome Pine Raceway.<\/p>\n

Last year’s event featured thrilling battles throughout the day. The first-time winner in his initial SCSCS start, Ben Ebeling, recalls the special night which he will always count as a career highlight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was unbelievable just because of so many things,\u201d the 36-year-old racer recapped. \u201cHaving my daughter there eight months after we adopted her for only the second race she was at and it was the first time my mom was present when I won a race. I wasn\u2019t even sure if I\u2019d be driving and we unloaded that thing and it was pretty good right off the truck.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SCSCS
Ben Ebeling receives congratulations from his mother, who witnessed one of Ben’s wins for the first time, and car owner Mike Potter after his win at LPR in 2016.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He hopes to repeat his performance this year. The Hickory, North Carolina resident was originally scheduled to appear in June as his 2017 debut, but a delay gave him some extra time to prepare a new car out of the Potter Racing stables.<\/p>\n

\u201cI set the bar really high,\u201d Ebeling laughed. \u201cWe were 95 percent ready but it was great to take a step back and fine tune some more. There are a lot of unknowns again and this car hasn\u2019t even turned a lap, but I have no doubts that it\u2019s as good as anything out there. Hopefully we will be able to work on speed when we get to Lonesome Pine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Again, Ebeling will rely on two of his biggest influences for pointers, although one will not be present at the track. Jon Kerley, Ben\u2019s instructor at the Catawba Valley Community College as part of their motorsports program roughly 15 years ago, provided the setup and advice Ebeling used to navigate the outside groove to his advantage last year. The winning ride from that night will be piloted by team owner and\u00a0Johnson City, Tennessee native Mike Potter, who walked away from a frightening wreck last time out at Jennerstown Speedway Complex.<\/p>\n

\"SCSCS
Ben Ebeling stands with car owner Mike Potter in victory lane. Potter will race last year’s winning car while Ebeling has a new car to compete with in the 2017 running.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Potter is one of four drivers entered who first raced at Lonesome Pine over three decades ago. Brad Teague, former track champion and veteran of 241 career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts from 1982 to 2015 with a victory in 1987, will return from retirement to try for the win in a third Potter Racing machine.<\/p>\n

Mike Kurkowski will make his first appearance of the season this weekend. He drove at Lonesome Pine during his rookie year in the former American Speed Association in 1983, earning a ninth place finish. Bob Schacht may be looking for redemption after being credited with a runner-up finish in an ARCA race that same year – a race which which the Mooresville, North Carolina driver believes he should have won.<\/p>\n

As far as those in the running for the overall championship go, current leader Jim Crabtree Jr. set fast time, led laps, and finished top five in his only previous SCSCS start at Lonesome Pine Raceway back in 2008. Kevin Kromer has his sights set on narrowing the point deficit after an ARCA Racing Series debut at Pocono Raceway last weekend. The Walnutport, Penn. racer missed the 2016 event after a successful series of cancer treatments, but competed at the southwest Virginia track four times, from 2008 through 2010, with a best finish of third. The team owner for whom he drove, Brian Kaltreider, will return to the series at the site of his best run in 2016.<\/p>\n

\"SCSCS
Ben Ebeling (14) and 2016 rookie of the year Trent Gossar (71) in an intense battle for the lead late in 2016’s race. Gossar returns to this car after sustaining damage to his primary car last time out.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The battle for the southern division title will also begin with this weekend’s two races.\u00a0\u00a0J.P. Crabtree III tops those eligible in the overall standings. Brent Nelson is fresh off an evening sweep at Jennerstown and was quick at Lonesome Pine a year ago before gremlins under the hood sidelined him.\u00a0\u00a0Larry Wilcox could have something for his fellow counterparts; he’s recorded two top five finishes in the past at LPR. The Harrison family, Harvey and his two sons Brian and Brandon, will doubtless put forth an impressive effort, as always. Harvey set fast time a year ago and has never finished further back than fourth in five past LPR starts.<\/p>\n

J.P. Crabtree\u2019s teammate Trent Gossar will bring back the same car in which he finished runner-up a year ago after his Don Gnat Racing primary car sustained heavy damage. Bill Ashton, Jason Schue, Ron Langdon and a host of others hope to improve on their past series results with two chances to do so.<\/p>\n

SCSCS practice is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.\u00a0with qualifying taking place at\u00a06:00 p.m.\u00a0following local divisions.\u00a0\u00a0The first of the Extreme Awards & Personalization\/Patrick Miller Photography Twin 50s presented by United Tire will take the green flag shortly after\u00a07:00 p.m.<\/p>\n

The Sopwith Motorsports Television Productions crew will be on hand once again filming the full Super Cup Stock Car Series season and producing nationally televised broadcasts scheduled to be shown on MAVTV at a later date to be announced. For more information please visit the official web site at\u00a0www.supercupstockcarseries.com. Interactive updates throughout race day will be available on the Super Cup Stock Car Series\u00a0Facebook\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter.<\/p>\n

\"SCSCS
Larry Wilcox (66) and Brent Nelson (80) will be two of the favorites in the southern division. Both were fast at Lonesome Pine one year ago.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the Extreme Awards & Personalization\/Patrick Miller Photography Twin 50s presented by United Tire approach, Super Cup Stock Car Series drivers and teams alike prepare for an exciting time Saturday at Lonesome Pine Raceway.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":42514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3470,5029],"tags":[2052,5178,41,1632,5186],"class_list":["post-42511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-racing","tag-events","tag-lonesome-pine-raceway","tag-news","tag-racing","tag-super-cup-stock-car-series"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/LONESOME-PINE-FLYER.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-b3F","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42511"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42553,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42511\/revisions\/42553"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}