Alliance Driveaway Solutions STAR Super Stock Race Preview: King Of The Modifieds/URW Race Day at South Boston Speedway
By Julian Austin
March 21st, 2025

Following a six week break since the season opener at Florence, the Alliance Driveaway Solutions STAR Super Stock Tour roars back to action this weekend at South Boston Speedway in Virginia. This will be the tour's second trip to the historic Halifax County facility following their first trip last October. 

Ricky Locklair Jr opened up the season with a win in the season's first race. At this moment, Locklair is not scheduled to compete this weekend thus opening up opportunities for someone else to take the checkered flag on Saturday.

Jeff Melton celebrates his win last October at South Boston Speedway. Photo by STAR Super Stock Tour

Defending Race Winner Jeff Melton Faces Serious Obstacles In Defending His Win.

Two time Alliance Driveaway Solutions STAR Super Stock winner Jeff Melton returns to the Halifax County facility looking to go back to back at this facility. Melton had a dominating performance last October en route to this victory. The win was his first on the tour and would propel him to another win in the season finale at Hickory Motor Speedway weeks later. 

All has not gone smooth this season for the Mooresville North Carolina veteran. Jeff had a podium finish at Florence for the first STAR Tour event but a blown motor derailed his chances of adding another prestigious New Year's Bash trophy to his case back in January. Last week at Hickory Motor Speedway, Melton while competing in a MASS (Mid Atlantic Street Stock) race, ran into some trouble on the track putting his race winning title defense in jeopardy as of press time. 

"I'm trying my best. I hope to be there Saturday." said Melton in a text message on Thursday. Jeff would go on to add that "I really want to be there on Saturday. I want this race for sure based on our win last October." "I will work all night long if I have to."

Jeff is as old school as they come. If the car will run, no doubt Jeff will be one to watch on Saturday.

Alby Ovitt Returns to South Boston After a Weekend To Forget

2024 tour champion Alby Ovitt returns South Boston Speedway five months after his worst weekend on the tour. Ovitt came into last season's event with a comfortable points lead over his closest competitor. A uneventful morning practice turned into big time trouble for Ovitt when him and Jeff Sparks made contact and crashed in turn two. The incident would knock Sparks who was one of the pre-race favorites for the win out of competition for the weekend. Ovitt's team got to work immediately on the car and by race time, he was ready to roll but definitely not a 100 percent. Ovitt's troubles would not end after practice as during the race, he was caught up in another incident while racing through the field thus ending his day. 

Some drivers would be leery on returning to a place that gave them so many problems. Ovitt on the otherhand, embraces the challenge. In a text message exchange between Alby and myself, "I am super excited about coming to South Boston. I thought we had a good car in the fall but the practice wreck killed us for the weekend. I'm really hoping to have a better weekend this time." I asked him about what changes he made from Florence to now and he stated,"We haven't really changed anything from Florence honestly. We are just going back tomorrow (South Boston) and praciticing with what we had last fall. It was a good set up for us."

Only one more place to go up for Chris Riendeau

Vermont's Chris Riendeau notched his best tour finish at Florence Motor Speedway in February. He quickly backed that up with back to back runner up finishes in last Saturday's MASS event at Hickory Motor Speedway. 

Riendeau had his own issues last fall at South Boston. An incident on the track with Cody DeMarmels put both on probation but that is over now and the two seemed to have hammered out their differences.

Riendeau spoke to me over the phone about his prospects this weekend.

"I'm pretty excited about coming (to South Boston). Hopefully, we have found some more speed. South Boston is by far the smoothest track I have been racing on."

When asked about if anything has changed on his car since Florence, Riendeau stated "Nothing has been changed at all except for the gears since each track requires something different."

"The two tracks are very different so I can't take much from last week (MASS Race) since both tracks has it's own set of characteristics."

Simpson Select Five Drivers Brittany Cockram, Mike Cooper and Cody Demarmels are scheduled to be in Halifax County on Saturday along with Gary Ledbetter, Kyle Lynch, Charles Baldwin, Mark Johnson and Wayne McGee.

The full schedule for this weekend is below. Do not miss a second of the action!

**PHOTO provided by South Boston Speedway.**