November 22, 2024
AUTO RACING

Williams excited to come home Boothbay native hopes to win Wiscasset race

The Toyota Tundra 250 at Wiscasset Raceway Sunday will be a homecoming for Corey Williams.

And he would like nothing more than to pocket the $30,000 winner’s purse to take back to North Carolina.

Williams, who is a fabricator for Peyton Sellers and the Andy Santerre Motorsports Team in the Camping World East (formerly Busch North/East) Series, is a Boothbay native who made his Late Model racing debut at nearby Wiscasset Raceway.

A fabricator specializes in the sheet metal body of a race car.

“I’m real excited to get back up to Maine,” said Williams while driving up to the Pine Tree State on Thursday. “I’m looking forward to racing in front of my hometown fans. There’s going to be some good competition. I’ll be able to race against guys I grew up [watching and racing with], guys I’ve learned from.”

The 22-year-old Williams, who began racing go-karts at age 9, is having quite a year in the Pro All-Stars Series’ Super Late Model South tour. He is leading the points thanks to a win and six top-fives in eight races.

There will be a series of heat races to qualify for the Toyota Tundra 250 but Williams is guaranteed a spot in the 36-car field because he won the season-opening Easter Bunny 150 PASS South race at Hickory Motor Speedway (N.C.).

“Wiscasset is awesome. I’ve done a lot of racing there,” said Williams. “It’s a pretty fast track for its size. It’s a little bit rough. It should be a fun race.”

Williams will be driving the Chevy Monte Carlo he is running on the PASS South tour.

However, the car hasn’t been as good lately and Williams had to address the issue.

“The rear end had been junk. We tried to replace the parts with parts we had [but it didn’t work]. Then we put on a new rear end and it straightened things out,” said Williams.

Williams said he was surprised that there weren’t more PASS South drivers heading to Wiscasset looking to pocket the $30,000.

“Northern guys always come south to race,” said Williams.

He said the key to winning at Wiscasset Raceway is “being there [in contention] at the end.

“You have to have your pit stop planned out and run your own race. You can’t get involved in any wrecks. You want to be there to duke it out at the end,” said Williams.

He expects to make just one pit stop where he will take on four tires and fuel.

Williams will bring some of his PASS South crew members with him and they will be joined by his former northeast crew members.

The 2001 Boothbay Regional High School graduate will try to annex the PASS South tour points title this season and eyes racing in the Camping World Series one day.

He said winning $30,000 on Sunday would help finance his racing.

“You can do a lot in racing with $30,000. I’d like to run in a big race,” said Williams.

The heat races will begin at 2:00 on Sunday and the green flag for the feature will drop at approximately 6:00.

There will be no shortage of contenders including Morrill’s Travis Benjamin, who won his first ever PASS race, the Atlantic Cat 250, at Scotia Speedworld in Halifax, Nova Scotia last weekend; the father-son team of Mike and Ben Rowe of Turner; Hallowell’s Johnny Clark and Farmington’s Cassius Clark.

Drivers who have already qualified for the race, besides Williams, are PASS North regulars Johnny Clark and D.J. Shaw and Wiscasset regulars Bill Whorff Jr., Matt Lee and Ricky Morse.

lmahoney@bangordailynews.net

990-8231


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