Williams Can’t Lose… Wins
In ASA LM Debut
by Jeremy Troiano - Speed51
With Whole ASM Crew On Hand,
Williams Gets Another At Orange County
Travel
to the Concord-Mooresville-Charlotte region of North
Carolina and you’ll find a lot of racers who have
transplanted themselves there. A lot of them come to
North Carolina to further their career. But the
problem is few ever do.
Most of them don’t do it in the right way however.
Many take jobs with big NASCAR teams, hoping that
they can get a driver development deal. But that
wasn’t Corey Williams agenda.
And now, Williams might just be furthering his
career better than anyone else out there.
Williams won Saturday night’s ASA Late Model South
race at Orange County Speedway in North Carolina. He
did so by leading all 125 laps driving a car owned
by NASCAR Nextel Cup driver David Stremme.
“I can’t even believe this right now,” said
Williams. “I expected to do well in David Stremme’s
car, but honestly with my first time out in this car
with these tires, I was just expecting to run good.
I didn’t expect to win. I knew I had the crew behind
me. We ran well here before (in PASS South) and to
be here in Victory Lane now is awesome.”
Williams didn’t take the big-time NASCAR route. He
moved to North Carolina from Maine. Instead of a Cup
or Busch team, he went to work for Andy Santerre
Motorsports and team owner Andy Santerre, whose team
races in the NASCAR Busch East Series. In his spare
time, Williams would continue to race his Super Late
Model whenever he could.
It worked out, as Williams won his first-career PASS
South Super Late Model Series race at Orange County
Speedway. Then, he backed it up by winning another
PASS South race at Peachstate Speedway. Just a
couple of weeks ago, Williams won three-in-a-row,
taking the checkers at Lanier National Speedway.
Williams then got the chance to continue his hot
streak. But this time, it wasn’t with his own car in
PASS South. Instead, it was with Stremme’s car in
ASA.
Through the grapevine, Stremme had heard of Williams
success. The two got in touch and Stremme offered up
his car.
It turned out to be a good choice.
“I don’t know how I got this opportunity honestly,”
added Williams. “There are just a few people here
and there that talked to David. I called him right
up when I heard that he wanted to talk and I told
him what I wanted to do. He was all for letting me
try his car
out. To win for him the first time out is pretty
cool. I hope I get the chance to drive it again.
That car was awesome.”
First, it was Taylor Satterfield. Then it was Jeff
Choquette. And at the end, it was Sean Murphy.
Murphy appeared to have the faster car, but the
track at Orange County lent itself to one-groove
racing once tires got some laps on them. And that
was all Williams needed.
When looking at the final results of Saturday
night’s race, it would appear that Williams
dominated the race. But that wasn’t really the case.
Williams led every one of the 125 laps, but it
wasn’t until the final 20 laps until he was really
able to pull away to any sort of sizable lead. Until
then, he held off many different challengers.
“Track position was key tonight,” said Williams, who
qualified seventh but started on the pole after the
inversion. “The bottom was very hard to pass on. I
knew the guy behind me (Murphy) was looking a lot. I
could tell it was hard for him to hook it up. I had
the preferred groove.”
