Johnny Archer
A month ago (July 6-7), Johnny Archer described a long-haul, come-from-the-loss-side win, double-dipping Josh Roberts in the finals at Stop #12 on the Rack Race as “something to build off of.” Two weeks later (July 20), it was Roberts on the loss side at Stop #13 and Archer went undefeated to the hot seat and then, took Roberts down in a single-set final. This past weekend (Aug. 3-4), with Roberts not in attendance, Archer chalked up his third straight Rack Race victory, going undefeated to claim the title, at a $1,000-added event that drew 23 entrants to Rack & Grill II in Augusta, GA.
In the long arc of Archer’s career, three straight wins does not a successful comeback make. Yet. Archer has his sights set on being selected for the Mosconi Cup team this year and knows better than anybody that he’s going to have to win a few more times under much more rigorous and challenging circumstances than the ones he’s been facing in the 40-mile stretch between the Augusta, GA and Aiken, SC Rack and Grill locations where he and Josh Roberts have been battling off and on over the past two years.
But, as he noted after winning Rack Race Stop #12 last month, “consistency” has been the hardest ‘row to hoe’ in his quest to get himself back into shape to be considered, let alone selected for the Mosconi Cup team. And that consistency, if his last three straight wins on the Rack Race events are any indication, is starting to come together.
Archer won five straight to grab this past weekend’s title, by an aggregate score of 35-6. After shutting out his first opponent, Dallas Hopps, he gave up four racks (racing to 6) in a match against Luis Flores and two in a winners’ side semifinal match against Darrell Williams. Calvin Le, who’s competed in all 14 of the 2024 Rack Race events, to date, and is currently in second place in the overall Rack Race standings (behind Roberts), met up with Archer in the hot seat match, after going 18-13 against William Shepherd (4), somebody named ‘ed’ (double-hill, 5) and in the other winners’ side semifinal, Mike Champagne (4). Archer shut him out to claim the hot seat.
Darrell Williams moved to the loss side and picked up Billy Holmes, who’d followed his winners’ side quarterfinal loss to Champagne with (in races to 5) a shutout over Kyle Swisher and a 5-2 win over Mike Wise. Champagne drew George Spires, who’d lost his opening match and then won four straight, to include the elimination of Luis Flores 5-1 and Stephen Gonzalo 5-3. Champagne advanced to the quarterfinals 5-3 over Spires. Williams spoiled a Champagne/Holmes rematch with a double-hill win over Holmes and advanced to meet Williams.
Williams defeated Champagne 5-3 in those quarterfinals before Calvin Le allowed him only a single rack in the semifinals that followed. Archer shut Le out a second time in the final to claim the 14th 2024 Rack Race title.
So it’s 14 down and one to go; Stop #15, scheduled for the weekend of Aug. 16-18 at Rack & Grill III in Aiken, SC. There will be multiple awards and trophies for the winners of the event itself, as well as awards for overall performance during the 2nd Annual Rack Race, to include Player of the Year and a runner-up, which, with just the one match to go, looks as though it’s going to be Roberts and Calvin Le. It will depend on how well each of them does at Stop #15. It’s possible that their current position (Roberts, #1 and Le, #2) could be affected. It’s an $8,000-added event to which Archer, Roberts, Tommy Kennedy, Kim Davenport, Mike Davis, Jr. and Keith Bennett (among others) have already verbally committed to compete.
The draw for the event will be random and more than a few eyes will be bracket-watching to see when Archer and Roberts will (or won’t) be matched up to go at it one more time. While there’ll be a lot at stake for Archer if the matchup occurs, he’s too much of a professional and has been at this for too long to work up any kind of anticipatory lather about it. As he’s been doing for the past month, he’ll be there to cement that consistency he’s been working on, not take any personal victory laps for defeating one particular opponent.
Tour director and Rack & Grill II owner Mike Newsome and NO-BS Billiards thanked The Rack & Grill II staff, to include Newsome’s wife, Avery, for their work at keeping things running smoothly for the competitors, as well as sponsors Newsome Distributing, National Billiards Academy, Salazar CPA, JTs Automotive Group, GFL Environmental, Filta Environmental Kitchen Solutions, Predator, Iwan Simonis, PEPSI and digitalpool brackets.
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