Bobby Babb won the NASCAR Pro Series 40-lap feature at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway Saturday, moving closer to the division point lead.
It was all a bonus.
More importantly to Babb, his 13-year-old son, Bradley Babb, won the Whiz Kidz Warlock race and his daughter, Kelsey Babb, took second in the Road Runner feature, gaining ground on point-leader Jamie Heath.
Paul Lund took first in the Road Runner event, while Marty Adams went to victory lane in the 35-lap Sport Series race and Mike Roe took the checkered in the Wildcat feature. Thomas Bennett was first in the Whiz Kidz Wizard division.
“I have more fun helping and watching them than I do doing my own thing,” said the eldest Babb of his kids. “If we win the championship we win it; if we don’t we don’t. I just want Kelsey to be there at the end of it and of course Bradley to do a good job. I want the kids to do well before I do.”
Two weeks ago both Babb children ended up in the wall. As a result, Bobby couldn’t enjoy his second-place finish in the Pro Series feature.
“It took all the wind out of my sails that night because they went before me,” said Babb.
In holding off the No. 99 car of Tucker Miller and winning his Whiz Kidz race Bradley showed the racing pedigree that has won his dad four Pro Series point titles.
“I think (Miller’s) car was a lot faster on the straightaway,” Bradley said. “I slowed down more than I had to so I could keep it on the bottom and he couldn’t get under me.”
Even his dad was impressed the strategy.
“He’s a smart little driver,” Babb said of his son. “He got ahead first and he made the kid go to the outside. You slow down to make them go out there so they can’t go under. If they get under, they’re going to beat you. If they can go around you, let them have it.”
Babb did some skillful driving of his own in the Pro Series feature, passing then-point-leader Trevor Sanborn on the outside during lap 24 and pulling away for the victory.
Sanborn got into trouble during the final lap, pulling into the pits.
“The car wasn’t right,” Sanborn said. “It was fast at the beginning of the feature but I think we had a right-front tire going down. The car got worse and worse. I got squeezed down a little bit and got in the speed bumps. Then I accidentally got up in the carrier. It’s a racing accident.”
Dan McKeage, who finished fifth, takes over the point lead from Sanborn with Babb following closely behind.
“I haven’t really counted the points all year,” McKeage said. “I’m always a point chaser, but it takes all the fun out of the racing. This is too expensive to not have fun. You’ve just got to keep the checks coming; top five almost pays for the tires.”
Bub Bilodeau was second with Steve Carrier finishing third. Bill Rodgers and McKeage rounded out the top five.
Adams’ Sport Series victory was his first in two years. He led from lap 12 to checkered flag.
Mike Landry finished second and Ron Smith third, followed by Jason Larrabee and Dan Wink.
“I am good friends with (Adams),” Landry said. “It wasn’t enough laps; if I had a couple more laps I think I could have beaten him.”
Adams respectfully – and confidently – disagreed.
“That’s a good one right there,” he said when told of Landry’s comment. “The minute I saw him I knew he was a contender and I just took off. Anybody that had something for me tonight, I was more then welcome let them come up there and race me, but the thing they had to do was get around me. I don’t think anybody could have gotten around me.”
Roe enacted a bit of revenge to win the Wildcat race. Following a lap-11 caution – one of many in the race – he jumped Lewis Anderson on the restart, taking the lead for good.
“I had to,” Roe said. “I knew it. I would have gotten hung out to dry. Last time we had a close race, I started on the outside and he jumped me. He got me then so now we’re even.”
Second-place finisher David Wildes, Richard Randall, who finished third and Anderson who ended up fourth, chased Roe to the finish. Steve Benincasa finished fifth.
After passing Steve Bennett on the outside of turn four, Lund led the final 11 laps of the Road Runner feature. Kelsey Babb spun on the front stretch early in the race, forcing her to fight through traffic to reach second.
Once she was there, Lund had opened too large a lead for her to overcome.
“If we had a caution that would have helped,” Kelsey said.
Bennett finished third with Rocco Risbara and Tim Caswell cross the line fourth and fifth.
After he and his Dad had finished first, Bradley Babb was a little disappointed by his sister’s second-place finish.
“It’s pretty cool,” he said, “but it would have been a lot better if she had won too.”
Still, it wasn’t a bad night for the Babbs.
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