Josh Roberts and BJ Ussery
Previously on The Rack Race – Josh Roberts, Jr. finished Season 1 with his sixth win of the 15-event season on the weekend of August 19-20, 2023. He and Mike Davis, Jr. battled three times for the title, once in the hot seat and twice in the finals. Roberts took two out of three – the hot seat match and second set of the true double-elimination final – to grab the event title.
Season 2 of The Rack Race got underway in Augusta, GA at Rack & Grill II with a $2,000-added event that drew a full field of 64 entrants. Josh Roberts, Jr. opened the new season the same way he’d finished the last one. With a win. This time, he went undefeated to the hot seat and downed BJ Ussery, Jr. in the only set necessary of a true double-elimination final.
A quick recap of the Rack Race before delving into the details of its first event of the 2024 season: The Rack Race is the brain child of Michael Newsome and his wife, Avery Palmer, who explained (individually and separately) that it was basically created to answer Michael’s question about what he could do to get pool players to attend his regularly scheduled tournaments at each of this three Rack & Grill locations; two in the area of August, GA and one in Aiken, SC. The Rack Race evolved out of tournaments that in Georgia were held on the first Saturday of every month. When Newsome opened his third location in Aiken, he scheduled tournaments on the third Saturday of every month. The Rack Race alternates its three locations throughout the series.
The Rack Race, cleverly associated with a comic ‘rat’ logo and a suggestion that players “GET THAT CHEDDAR” is based on a points system and an individual event format that offers prizes for both. The individual events offer their own cash prizes, whether you play in a single event or all of them. Three of the 15 are designated as ‘major’ events at which money-added figures make them more attractive than others. This year, those will be a $4,000-added stop #3 next month (Feb. 17-18), a $6,000-added Stop #9 (May 18-19), and an $8,000-added Stop #15 (Aug. 17-18), all hosted by Rack & Grill III in Aiken, SC. Regular Rack Race stops #5, 7, 11 & 13 will also be at Rack & Grill III. The remaining seven in the series, between February and August, will be hosted by Rack & Grill II in Augusta, GA. You’ll find these events listed in our AZBilliards calendar.
There is, as well, a concurrently-running points system that offers competitors the opportunity to win cash in the individual events and to accumulate points throughout the season. At the end of the season, the points leader will collect a $1,000 cash prize as the series’ Most Valuable Player, while the runner-up in points will receive $500.
At this most recent event, Josh Roberts opened his campaign for a second straight Rack Race title with four straight 6-2 wins over Jim Jennings, Darrel Williams, Yong Yang, and Mike Wise to draw Dave Cook in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Nick Van Allen in the meantime got by Frank Bell (4), Jeff Blatell (double hill), Donnie Ray (2) and George Spires (4) to draw BJ Ussery in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Cook put up a double-hill fight against Roberts, but it was Roberts who advanced to the hot seat match. Ussery put up a double-hill fight, too, but Allen prevailed to face Roberts. Roberts defeated Allen 6-4 to claim the hot seat.
On the loss side, Cody Sones, who’d lost his opening match, double hill, to Keith Bennett set out on an eight match, loss-side streak, eliminating George Spires 5-3 and Todd Blackwell, double hill, ahead of drawing Cook. Ussery drew Mike Wise, who’d followed his loss to Roberts with victories over Keith Bennett 5-2 and Calvin Le, double hill.
Wise and Ussery battled to double hill before Ussery advanced to the quarterfinals. Sones joined him after eliminating Cook 5-3. Ussery ended Cody Sones’ loss-side run in a double-hill quarterfinal and then, in a successful rematch sent Van Allen home 5-3.
A single match was all it took. Roberts and Ussery came within a game of making it a double-hill final, but in the end, Roberts got out in front and claimed the Rack Race’s season opener 6-4.
Michael Newsome thanked sponsors Newsome Distributing, Salazar, Filta Environmental Kitchen Solutions, Predator, JTs Automotive Group, Pepsi, CSRA Machine Fab, DigitalPool, National Billiard Academy and Simonis Cloth. The next stop on the Rack Race, scheduled for the weekend of Feb. 3-4, will be hosted by Rack & Grill II in Augusta, GA.
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