SOUTH BOSTON, VA (Aug. 2, 2023) -- Jacob Borst is hoping to continue a late-season surge as he heads into the twin 75-lap races for the Sentara Health Late Model Stock Car Division that will be featured in Saturday night’s Davenport Energy Night Race at South Boston Speedway.
The Elon, North Carolina resident has a trio of Top-3 finishes in his last four starts including his first win of the season and a second-place finish in the twin-race event on July 15.
“The win gets my confidence back and gets the monkey off of our backs,” Borst remarked.
“We’ve had a monkey on our back all year. We’ve tried a lot of new stuff throughout the season and found it wasn’t working for us. We’ve had some good cars over the season, and the luck just hasn’t played out right for us.
‘We’ve found some things that will help us,” Borst continued. “We went back to our baseline and kind of pushed the reset button. I feel like we’re back to where we were last year. The first win of the year is always the hardest to get, so I hope we can come out here and get some more.”
Borst’s good night in the July 15 twinbill allowed him to close the gap on division leader Carter Langley and second-place driver, six-time South Boston Speedway champion Peyton Sellers, in the division point standings. With three nights of racing and a total of four races remaining in South Boston Speedway’s points season Borst trails Langley by 34 points and trails Sellers by 23 points.
While Borst faces a tough task in attempting to make up the 34-point gap on Langley he says he still has hopes of winning the division championship.
“We gained a little bit on them the last event and small gains can sometimes lead to big gains,” Borst said. “I feel like we’ll keep getting better throughout the year. Both of those guys are really good here. Most of the time we’re all right there together. It’s real hard to gain or lose points to those guys unless somebody has a real bad week.
“We’re sitting third, which we’re good with,” he added. “I’m just going to come out here and try to knock off some wins and let the points play out.”
Saturday night’s Davenport Energy Night Race event at South Boston Speedway will include six races with twin 75-lap races for the Sentara Health Late Model Stock Car Division highlighting the night’s racing action.
Also included on Saturday night’s slate are 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.
Miss Virginia Katie Rose will be a special guest of race sponsor Davenport Energy at Saturday night’s event. Rose became the 70th Miss Virginia on July 1 in a pageant held in Roanoke, Virginia.
Saturday’s race day event schedule has registration and pit gates opening 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 begins at 6 p.m. and the first race will get the green flag at 7 p.m.
Advance adult general admission tickets for the Davenport Energy Night Race are priced at $12 each and may be purchased online on South Boston Speedway’s website, www.southbostonspeedway.com, until midnight on Friday night, August 4. The advance tickets may also be purchased 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.
Fans and competitors can find the latest news and information about the August 5 Davenport Energy Night Race and other information of interest on the speedway’s website and through the track’s social media channels. Information may also be obtained by phoning the speedway at 434-572-4947 or toll free at 1-877-440-1540 during regular business hours.