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By Joe Chandler

South Boston Speedway

Chris Elliott is no stranger to racing, but when it comes to competing in the Late Model Stock Car Division ranks he is a relative newcomer.

Elliott, who competes in the Sentara Health Late Model Stock Car Division at South Boston Speedway, is striving to make his small team a consistent Top-10 performer in this, his third full-time season of competing in the division.

“I started racing in the Grand Stock Division at Orange County Speedway in 2007,” Elliott explained. “I raced there until 2017 when we moved to race here at South Boston Speedway. I won one race in 2017. I really haven’t had the luck since then.”

Elliott raced two seasons in the Limited Sportsman Division ranks at South Boston Speedway, with his best effort being a fifth-place finish in the final 2017 season point standings. He competed in one Limited Sportsman Division race at South Boston Speedway in 2019 and finished ninth.

Thus far this season the 32-year-old racer from Bullock, North Carolina has one Top-10 finish in four starts at South Boston Speedway and is just one Top-10 finish away from matching the number of Top-10 finishes he posted here last season. In all, Elliott has one Top-5 finish and 10 Top-10 finishes in Late Model Stock Car Division competition at South Boston Speedway since the start of the 2021 season.

“I started racing Late Model here at South Boston Speedway in 2021,” Elliott noted. “The financial situation of racing here at South Boston Speedway is a big incentive to come up here and race Late Model. You can kind of break even on your tire bill at the end of the night.”

Elliott is working hard to build his small team into a consistently competitive entity in the Sentara Health Late Model Stock Car Division this season.

“We’ve changed a lot on the car,” Elliott pointed out. “This is probably one of the better cars I’ve brought up here to race since I moved up to Late Model. This car is a car Kenny Forbes and I built together back in 2016. It’s got a little age on it but everything on it is mine, stuff I welded up, stuff that we researched and developed ourselves.

“We’ve done a lot of work on our own up until recently,” he continued. “We bought a car from Craig Oliver that we’re trying to put together to race here at South Boston.” Elliott says it is rewarding when he can put together good finishes with the car he helped develop.

“When you run well with your own technology it makes it a little bit sweeter,” he remarked. “I think we had a little more grip on that when we raced in the Limited Sportsman division.”

Elliott noted he has sought and received advice from some of his fellow competitors.

“We’ve leaned on Peyton and H.C. Sellers a lot,” he said. “They have answered quite a few of our questions. Chris and Kevin Denny have helped me out. We lean on a few other competitors to help us build our notebook and get better. I think it’s showing.”

When asked about his goals for the 2023 season, Elliott replied “a couple of Top-5 finishes and run consistently in the Top 10. With no more than I get to race and the budget we race on, I feel that is realistic.

“We’ll keep digging and see how much ground we can cover in Late Model,” he added. “We also want to get Zach Peregoy up front in the Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division. His dad, Tommy Peregoy, and I do everything out of our shop. As long as we can get one car running well at the end of the night, it has been a good night.”

NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series racing returns to South Boston Speedway on Saturday night, June 3 with the Bojangles Night Race event.

Twin 75-lap races for the Sentara Health Late Model Stock Car Division are the night’s featured races. The six-race Bojangles Night Race event also includes a 50-lap race for the Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division, twin 15-lap races for the Southside Disposal Pure Stock Division, and a 20-lap race for the Virginia State Police HEAT Hornets Division.

Registration and pit gates will open at 2 p.m. Frontstretch spectator gates will open at 3:20 p.m. and practice will start at 3:30 p.m. Backstretch spectator and tailgate section gates will open at 5:30 P.M. Qualifying starts at 6 p.m. and the first race will get the green flag at 7 p.m.

Advance adult general admission tickets for the June 3 Bojangles Night Race event are priced at $12 each and may be purchased online on South Boston Speedway’s website, www. southbostonspeedway.com, or by calling the speedway office at 434-572- 4947 or toll free at 1-877-440-1540 during regular business hours.

Tickets at the gate on race day will be $15 each. Seniors ages 65 and older, military, healthcare workers, and students (with ID) can purchase tickets for $12 each at the gate on race day.