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Blessings
Abound as 2021’s Award Winners Are Celebrated
Thornburg,
Virginia (October 10, 2021) – The morning after the
season-ending twin 60-lap races last weekend, several drivers along
with their family and crew members converged one final time for
2021. Thanks to the
hospitality of Dominion Raceway, the annual awards presentation took
place at the 118 Bar and Grill located on the facility property.
Festivities kicked off with series
director Joe Schmaling announcing that the Super Cup Stock Car
Series will again begin and conclude their 2022 season at the
Thornburg, Virginia 4/10-mile oval on Saturday, April 30th
and either September 24th or October 1st,
respectively. The final
trophy presented was to the overall series champion, Ben Ebeling,
the ninth different one in the last decade.
Despite success in previous years,
this was the first full season that the Hickory, North Carolina
driver was able to assemble, and much of it had to do with another
longtime SCSCS competitor.
“Very
blessed to have gotten hooked up with Bill (Ashton), have the
sponsor support, and everything come together to be able to run all
the races and run for the championship,” Ebeling, a record
nine-time winner in 2021 who completed every lap of competition from
beginning to end, commented. “To
have the year that we had, it’s just unbelievable.
Very thankful.”
Ashton had a rather uncharacteristic
season of struggles behind the wheel himself, but was awarded Car
Owner of the Year for his contributions toward Ebeling’s efforts.
“It’s been a real privilege to be
the car owner of a guy like Ben, not only because of his driving
ability and his mechanical skills, but the support that he has from
his friends and his family race after race is just incredible,”
the 2014 SCSCS Top Performing Rookie 
from
Uniontown, Pennsylvania remarked.
“I look at that and I appreciate it.”
A winner on one occasion at
Jennerstown Speedway in 2016, Ashton was given the opportunity to
take the championship-winning No. 44 for a spin at the end of
Saturday evening’s program. The
experience may have swayed his thoughts on the future following a
season-high fourth place finish in the final main event in the No.
35 he prepares.
“All day (at Dominion) I was
thinking that this was my last race, even as I was making the final
laps I was convinced that this is the end of my racing career,”
Ashton added. “And
then, after it was over they convinced me to jump in the seat of the
44 and I found out what it was like to drive a real racecar.
I think I have to give it one more year.
Maybe we can run one-two one of these days.”
Although some of the competitors were
not able to stay or appear at the season-ending get together, all of
the top 10 points finishers were recognized for their
accomplishments. 2018
SCSCS champion Bob Schacht, Jason Kitzmiller, and Brent Nelson were
all multi-time winners in 2021 and took second through fourth in
that order, while 2019 champion Kevin Kromer rounded out the top
five.
Kitzmiller
was one of those drivers who was unable to attend on Sunday morning,
but received this year’s Rookie of the Year award.
Coming on the scene late in 2019, the Maysville, West
Virginia racer has steadily ascended from top five hopeful to a
threat for the win at the drop of every green flag.
He took some time on Saturday night to discuss his evaluation
of the year.
“We weren’t where we wanted to be
the first half of the year, struggled some and had an engine failure
at Midvale,” Kitzmiller, who did not finish any worse than second
during the final three months of the season, noted.
“But the second half we were really strong.
It would be interesting to see where we were from the second
Jennerstown race until the end where we would have shook out
there.”
With the late season results, the
outlook for 2022 will likely see Kitzmiller and CR7 Motorsports as
one of the championship favorites, in which team patriarch Larry
Berg received the annual Racing Spirit Award for his exemplification
of such in life and his support on and off the track.
“We got to run a whole race season
and we were third and hats off to the guys that were ahead of us,”
Kitzmiller continued. “We’re
going to regroup and really looking forward to next year already.”
Divisional title honors, which were
settled at the checkered flag of the first twin 60-lap race, were
also accepted. Ebeling
remains undefeated in the South while Kromer captured the North for
the third consecutive time.
“It was an accomplishment,” the
Walnutport, Pennsylvania driver, who had an up and down year
including mechanical troubles that sidelined him early from
Dominion, said. “To
come off a real good season in 2019 winning the championship and
then the pandemic hit and didn’t run 2020, you’d think you’d
be really good and prepared, but we came into 2021 on a bad note
right from the get go and it was an uphill crawl all the way.”
For
the first time, a Mid-Atlantic region title was offered, resulting
in Petersburg, West Virginia’s Nelson capturing the inaugural
plaque. His year started
off slow but the eventual outcome was pure dominance at Jennerstown
Speedway as well as some additional solid results.
“We were running the best we had
and we were able to purchase another car and step our game up,”
Nelson, whose final weekend of 2021 came to a quick end as well,
indicated. “From
there, we ran well pretty much the whole season.
It didn’t end the way we wanted.
We started the race and were running third and 10 laps into
it we lost a motor. All
in all, we had a great year. We’ve
got another car in the stable that we’re putting together and the
motor is ready for that car.”
Nelson
also accepted the Patrick Miller Sportsman of the Year, named after
the series photographer who unexpectedly passed away in July.
The award goes to those who express camaraderie and a
willingness to assist others above and beyond what is normally
witnessed. He mentioned
an instance in which the help was given to him in order to race by a
number of his fellow competitors.
“We’ve been in that situation
where we’ve needed things and one of them was actually this year
at Jennerstown when we broke the gear (the day before) up at (UMI
Motorsports Park),” Nelson commented.
“If it wasn’t for the support of the drivers and the
teams we would have never made that race and we went on and won the
race that night.”
Samatha Rohrbaugh took home sixth in
the final points and also earned the Charlie Canterbury Hard Charger
of the Year award for moving up the most positions from start to
finish on four occasions throughout 2021.
The aforementioned Ashton ended up seventh and 
finishing
out the top 10 were 2019 Rookie of the Year Lauren Butler, 2016
champion Harvey Harrison, and newcomer plus Southern Division top
performing rookie Dusty Silvers.
The Most Improved Driver of the Year
award went to Hayden Brothers, who had turned many heads in the
latter part of the season, including his first ever top five
qualifying run and best career sixth place finish at Dominion.
Hayden and his twin brother Landon have been receiving advice
from series champion Ebeling in recent months to bring their program
along with momentum heading into 2022.
Speaking of 2022, what does it hold
for Ebeling? Will he be
the first driver to potentially repeat as a champion since 2012?
It remains to be seen.
“I haven’t thought about next
year yet. We’ve been
trying to get this year taken care of.
Bill (Ashton) fit in that seat pretty good so I don’t know
if I’m going to have that seat anymore.”
For developments over the off-season
detailing the Super Cup Stock Car Series please be sure to stay
posted to the official series web site at supercupstockcarseries.com
and Facebook, Twitter,
or Instagram
accounts for more information regarding all that is being planned.
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