Photo by Megan Taylor

Reigning Speed Promotions Racing series champion Shawn “Murder Nova” Ellington captured his first Outlaw 32 invitational victory of the new season Saturday afternoon at the Virginia Motorsports Park in Dinwiddie, Virginia, defeating Chris Rankin in the final round for the $40,000 payday and a second win at the track in as many seasons.

Elliington began his run to the winner’s circle with a tough opening round draw in Bakersfield season-opener winner Nate Sayler. He then ousted Cole Pesz in round two, another heavy hitter in Kye Kelley in the quarterfinals, and “Disco Dean” Karns in the semifinal round. Rankin, for his part, defeated Jeff Lutz, Mike Bowman, and series kingpin Ryan Martin, before receiving a competition bye into the money round. As the sun set low in the Virginia sky, Ellington powered his RamJack-backed, ProCharger-boosted Nova to a decisive win by nearly two car lengths.

“If I hadn’t [gotten out of the throttle]. I’d have hit the wall. I don’t really want to do that, it just creates more work,” Ellington said after the winning lap. “Especially in the finals, I don’t ever want to lift. Rankin had a fast hot rod — I looked next to me and he was right there. I think he out 60-footed me, out-330’ed me, and my car picked up a lot on the big end, and it kind of turned sideways a little bit. I saw his car nose over, and I took that opportunity to give [the throttle] a little ‘whop’ to keep it off the wall.”

With five career invitational wins, Ellington is now fifth in wins all-time, and jumped from outside the top five in the standings following the opener into a three-way tie for the lead with Sayler and Karns with 70 points. Scott Taylor (60) trails them in second, and Rankin, Pesz, and Lutz all sit third (50 points each). 

On Friday evening, Paige Coughlin successfully defeated the champions in the Beat The Champs race-within-a-race, as she took out Martin and Bowman in the opening two rounds, and bested Taylor in the finale of the eight-car contest.