Momentum was on Michael Pope’s side going into the Pro Late Model event during Rattler weekend at South Alabama Speedway. Fresh off his strong sixth-place showing in the Georgia Asphalt Series season-opener at Birmingham last weekend, Pope entered into the unaffiliated Pro Late Model feature at South Alabama with plenty of momentum and high hopes.
Michael Pope Gets Short End of Strong Run at South Alabama
Crash While Running Third Keeps Pope From Strong Run
Pope was running on that momentum, starting seventh and cruising around in the top-five during Saturday night’s feature event, but a crash wiped out what could have been a head-turning performance. Pope was involved in an incident while running third that relegated him to a 14th-place finish.
“The car was really good at the beginning of the race,” said Pope. “Getting into the corner, it was a little bit tight, so I adjusted my brakes to the rear a little bit and that helped the car a lot. Then, we took off.
“We had a restart there and I got up a little bit out of the groove. I just turned around there and got hit in the left side door. It’s too bad, because I had a good car. It tore the clutch cylinder and the brake master cylinder off. It broke the control arm and other stuff. It was just a bad deal.”
Even though the crash ruined his night, Pope was still enthusiastic about how strong his #44 machine was running at South Alabama.
“The cautions really helped our track position tonight. I think we had a car that could have contended to be a top-three car for sure.
“I like this place. It’s a neat track and the new asphalt makes it a lot of fun. It reminds me a lot of Cordele. We’ll be back and run all of the Viper Series races in the two-barrel car.”
Next up for Pope is the second race of the GAS season at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, FL on March 10th.
