Coltman Farms Racing and Kenny Collins put together one of their best performances as a duo during the seventh race of the Schaeffer’s Oil Southern Nationals Series at Toccoa Raceway on Tuesday night.
After starting in the fourth position, Collins maintained solid track position all evening before finding himself behind Brandon Overton in the closing stages. Collins tried everything to chase down Overton but ultimately settled for a strong second-place run.
Although he wanted the victory, car owner Brett Coltman was overjoyed to see Collins bring his car home in second and is confident that his operation is inching closer to claiming a prestigious victory in Dirt Late Model competition.
“We are getting there,” Coltman said. “Once we win, we’ll continue to win. There are just three races left [on the Southern Nationals] calendar and I know we’re going to take at least one of them.”
When Coltman and Collins made the decision to compete in the hectic Southern Nationals schedule in July, both knew they would face many of the best drivers from the Dirt Late Model discipline every night.
The Southern Nationals had proven to be every bit the challenge Coltman and Collins thought it would be prior to Tuesday’s feature at Toccoa. Their best finish in six starts is eighth, which they obtained at 1-75 Raceway and Screven Motor Speedway.
Knowing that Toccoa would be an abrasive track, Collins and Coltman agreed to go with a harder compound for the 67-lap feature. The decision paid dividends for the two, with Collins adding that he might have contended for the victory if he had the benefit of more green flag laps.
Despite coming up one spot short to Overton, Collins was more than pleased with his performance at Toccoa and shared Coltman’s optimism that more wins will start coming their way if they continue to build upon what is working with the program.
“We’ve had speed everywhere and Brett has given us everything we need,” Collins said. “It’s just a matter of putting it all together and having a little luck on our side. Everything fell into place [on Tuesday] and this gives us some momentum going into these last three races.”
Collins is expected to move up in the Southern Nationals points standings following his second-place finish at Toccoa, but he knows wins and consistency will be imperative if he wants to overtake Cory Hedgecock, Will Roland and others for the championship.
The battle for the Southern Nationals title is expected to go down all the way until the season finale at Tazewell Speedway on July 30, but Coltman is confident that he and Collins will build off the momentum from Toccoa and keep finding success long after the series concludes.
“It’s great to see things come together,” Coltman said. “This team works so hard and everybody does their part. It’s so nice when it all pays off and we are so excited. This was a great win for us.”
Coltman is eager to travel to Brasstown, North Carolina on Thursday night for the next Southern Nationals event at Tri-County Race Track, as Collins enters that race as the defending winner.
Collins would like to thank Brett Coltman, Dwayne Frady, Josh Bishop, his parents, his crew and everyone else that assists him, along with MPM Marketing and his sponsors in Coltman Farms, Bilstein Shocks and WP Shocks.
MPM PR
