Colin Garrett describes his 2017 season at South Boston Speedway as “up and down.” The finish, though, left him sitting on cloud nine.
The 17-year-old Garrett captured the Limited Sportsman Division championship by beating a wily veteran in the season-finale. He came into the final race of the year trailing veteran David Latour Jr. in the points, but battled him all evening before grabbing the win and the title.
“It was a fun season, an interesting season with lots of ups and down,” Garrett said Monday afternoon shortly after classes ended for the day at Halifax High School where he is a senior. “This was the first time I’ve ever been a part of something like this. It has been fun.”
Garrett may be too young to realize how impressive his season was, even with the “ups and downs.” It was just his third season of racing … anything. He skipped go-karts or any entry-level, scaled down racer, and hopped right into a Pure Stock at South Boston three years ago. In 2016 he moved to the Limited Division, and this year is the series’ champion.
He wound up with five victories this season.
“I’m not quite pleased with the season. I’m happy, but not pleased,” said Garrett. “We should have won more. We let a couple of wins slip away.”
Garrett races out of the shops of Sellers Racing, under the tutelage of Peyton and H.C. Sellers. Peyton Sellers, who claimed South Boston’s Late Model championship, his third, said Garrett immersed himself in the sport this season.
“Colin has been a student of the sports this year more than last,” said Sellers. “He has really dedicated himself to it and the results backed it up on the track. He’s been at the shop more this season and learned more about the cars which directly affected his feedback on the cars in know what he needed to get up front.”
The season started slowly for Garrett and bottomed out on June 3 when was involved in wrecks in both of the twin 25-lap races.
“The June 3 race was definitely the lowest point. We’d qualified second and were racing for second when somebody got together with us and we finished ninth,” recalled Garrett. “The Sellers guys got it back perfect for the second race and then we wrecked with the same competitor.”
The car was severely damaged, but after two weeks of thrashing and rebuilding, Garrett rolled back into the track for the season’s high point.
“We qualified on the pole and swept the night. It was really cool to do that from where we had been two weeks before,” said Garrett.
Racing returns to South Boston Speedway when the CARS Tour visits on October 14 for the AutosbyNelson.com CARS Tour 250.
It will be a doubleheader night featured CARS Tour Late Model Stocks and the CARS Tour Super Late Models in a pair of 125-lap races with each paying $5,000 to the winner.
Advance adult general admission tickets are on sale for $10 each. Adult general admission tickets on race day will be $15. Youth ages 7-12 will be admitted for $5 with children six and under admitted free.
Relevant PR
