Todd Morrow at the end of three races in which he prevailed with a $1,000 check for each. (Mark Bochiardy)

Volunteer Racing Series: Morrow Scores Sweep in Cleveland Speedway Triplets

Track report

CLEVELAND, Tenn. — Sept. 17. Todd Morrow and Eric Jacobsen both shared the stage on Saturday at the Cleveland Speedway during the eighth annual "Jimmy Mowery Memorial", sanctioned by the STARS Volunteer Racing Series by Arizona Sport Shirts.

This was Morrow’s first-ever victory with the STARS VRS and he became the eighth different winner in the nine total series feature events. The only repeat winner this year has been Jacobsen, who claimed two victories.

Ross White came into the Cleveland event with the VRS points lead, but after going a round with the the wall in the first of three feature events and struggling the rest of the night, Eric Jacobsen was able to catch him and unofficially claim the series title. (Ronnie Barrett)

New Volunteer Racing Series champion, Eric Jacobsen. (Mark Bochiardy)

Morrow claimed victory in all three races, picking up $1,000 for each 20-lap feature, and received a $300 bonus for claiming two of the three victories and $500 bonus by Elliot’s Tire Center for winning all three features. No driver had ever claimed all three wins in this particular event, until Morrow. Morrow also led all 60 laps of the three races.

While Morrow was enjoying the spoils in victory lane, officials were hard at work figuring and pulling final calculations which landed Jacobsen the 2011 Series Championship. In what

Jacob Grizzle was an overachiever on the night, posting a third place and two fourth place finishes on the night. (Mark Bochiardy)

John Owenby challenges #1 Riley Hickman at mid-pack. (Mark Bochiardy)

will go down in Dirt Late Model racing history as one of the closest points battles, Jacobsen claimed the title after a technicality in the rule book. Jacobsen and leader heading into Cleveland Ross White actually tied for the Championship, but in the rule book, the championship must be determined by feature wins during the season. White had one which came on July 1st at Wartburg Speedway, while Jacobsen picked up two season victories (May 7th at Tazewell) and the night before at Boyd's Speedway on September 16th.

A final re-count will be held this week by series officials, and a final announcement on the final point standings will be available then.

Jake Knowles and #22 Mike Weeks battled inside the top ten all night. Knowles managed to nail down two top fives. (Mark Bochiardy)

Eric Jacobsen tries to get a jump on #48 Todd Morrow on the second of three matching Volunteer Racing Series sanctioned features at Cleveland Speedway Saturday, but the California ace would have to settle for second to Morrow in all three events. At the end of the night, however, Jacobsen had taken over the series points lead to win the title in a tiebreaker. (Mark Bochiardy)