HAMPTON, Va. — The racing is great on any Saturday night at Langley Speedway. This won't be just "any" Saturday night. The Hampton Heat 200 is back for the 13th edition.
35 of the top late model drivers from around the country will be on the track.
Chesapeake's Brenden "Butterbean" Queen won the Hampton Heat last year and as he says it was a great launching point, "I felt like last year winning this race propelled us to the championship and then we came out of the gates swinging this year."
Queen has 3 wins at Langley this year and is the late model points leader at the track.
Connor Hall of Hampton also has 3 wins this season. He won the Hampton Heat in 2019 and says, "I was having a lot of internal battles back then as a younger guy in the sport trying to decide if I was really cut out of the same cloth as some of these really good cars and teams and it just solidified that we are."
So, back to back years a local driver ended up in victory lane but that is more the exception than the rule. Hall wouldn't mind seeing in happen again, "It's always good to keep the trophy at home. It's a Triple Crown race, it's one of the top three prestigious late model races around the east coast."
Queen knows just how important this race is, "I consider this race a crown jewel event for late models. Just like NASCAR has the Daytona 500 and the Coke 600, this race is the equivalent to something like that for us late model guys. So winning this race is knocking one of the big ones off the bucket list."