(photo: Rhett Butler)

Fayetteville, NC (Oct. 4) - Ed Gibbons picked a good time to end his winless streak with the Carolina Clash Super Late Model Series. The Manning, SC resident took advantage of Chris Ferguson's bad luck to collect the $9,000 first place prize in the 3rd Annual Carolina Clash Bash Saturday night at Fayetteville Motor Speedway.

Ricky Weeks 13th place finish in the 60 lapper was just enough to edge Gaffney, SC's Dennis 'Rambo' Franklin for the Series Championship. Weeks' broke a balljoint on lap 44 and was forced to watch the final 16 laps from the sidelines but Franklin was unable to advance far enough over the final laps to dethrone the four-time champion. For Weeks it was his fifth straight Series Championship and most valuable. The Rutherfordton, NC resident will collect $12,500 at the annual awards banquet at Lowe's Motor Speedway on January 10th.

"We let one get away at Augusta, but tonight we were just nailed, it was ours tonight, said Gibbons. "I think I could run my own line once I got out front, I wanted to try to pick them off as quick as I could. Sometimes when people get in their rhythm then it's harder to pass them, so getting around them was pretty important. The 22 was awfully good tonight I didn't have anything for him," said the 2001 series champion.

As the field took the green for the start of the 60 lap affair Ferguson darted into the lead over Chris Blackwell, Franklin, Steve Blackburn and Gibbons. Ferguson quickly opened up a sizeable lead as Gibbons began to work on Blackburn for fourth. Gibbons made the move around Blackburn on lap nine. The driver on the move was G.R. Smith. Smith, who had to use a provisional to qualify for the race was up to 12th by lap nine after starting 24th but his nine ended prematurely as he slowed with suspension damage on lap ten.

On the restart Ferugson quickly motored away as the field seemed to be content to stay single file for the early portions of the race. The next caution waved on lap 19 for Justin Labonte's spin in turn four. This bunched the field back up and on the restart Gibbons and Blackburn were able to dive under Franklin in turn one. This moved Franklin back to fourth with Weeks riding in seventh. Weeks entered the event with a slim 45 point advantage on Franklin and looked to be taking a very conservative approach to the event.

Gibbons march toward the front resumed on the restart as he began to look past Blackwell. He was able to make the move on lap 28 as Jeff Smith began to pressure Franklin for fourth.

The race took a drastic turn of events on lap 36 as Ferguson rolled to a stop on the frontstretch with rear-end problems. The 18 year old Mt. Holley, NC driver went pitside and his night was finished. This put Gibbons on the point for the restart. He quickly bolted to the lead as Smith was finally able to scoot around Franklin to take fourth. The running order remained the same until lap 44 when Weeks pulled up limp in turn two. All eyes then focused on Franklin to see if he could make his way to the front.

As Weeks crew went to work on his mount the green flag waved and Gibbons rolled out to a sizeable lead. Over the final 16 laps he was never challenged as he streaked across the line for the $9,000 win. Blackwell, Blackburn, Smith and Timmy Blackwell rounded out the top five.

Franklin fell back to eighth over the final laps and came up 23 points short of Weeks. "The ball joint broke. just popped loose, but my car was junk from the time they dropped the flag," said Weeks. "Once I seen how bad my car was, I decided to give up trying to win the race and try to win the points. I don't like racing like that, I was just trying to stay out of trouble, just keep him in my sights and I knew I was in good shape. Then I hit that hole over there and all of a sudden, BAM!, and the front end hit the ground and I was like, uh-oh. It scared me. I was sitting in here dying. they got a ball joint it fast and the nut wouldn't fit. I guess was meant to be At that point I figured we were beat but we hung on and got lucky," said Weeks.

The battle for the PBM Performance Parts Rookie of the Year title also came down to the wire with Spring Lake, NC's Scott Neighbors edging Craig Shuffield by one point.

Weeks collected the $200 from Mega Plumbing of the Carolina's and Industrial Solutions for his pole winning run. Ferguson collected the $100 Dirt Trax Motorsports Hard Luck Award and Craig Shuffield took the Heintz Brothers Hard Charger Award.

3rd Annual Carolina Clash Bash Finish: 1. Ed Gibbons 2. Chris Blackwell 3. Steve Blackburn 4. Jeff Smith 5. Timmy Blackwell 6. Scott Autry 7. Dennis Franklin 8. Craig Shuffield 9. Scott Shirey 10. Justin Labonte 11. Scott Neighbors 12 Doug Sanders Ricky Weeks 14. Ray Tucker 15. Shawn Beasley 16. Chris Ferguson 17. Derrick Francis 18. Michael Mason 19. David Taylor 20. Brent Robinson 21. Furman Parton 22. Deano Long 23. G.R. Smith 24. Dean Bowen DNS: Luke Roffers, Chris Marshall, Raymond Brown, Dan Breuer, Roger Lucas, Dale Hammond, Austin Hubbard, Kent Wright, James Upchurch.

(Source: Carolina Clash - www.carolinaclash.com)