
By Ben Deatherage
CLEVELAND, Texas (Mar. 1, 2025) — Corey Babbitt took care of business in his home state of Texas as he would lead all 30 laps of the Stealth Racing IMCA STARS Mod Lite feature at 105 Speedway for the 2025 Texas Grand. It is the second straight year that he has won the event and he had to set a quick pace and even hold off a late challenge to score the $1,000 payday.
The main event kicked off with Babbitt immediately pouncing to the point. Setting a quick pace, the New Caney, Texas driver ended up having to deal with a trio of cautions in the first third of the race that disallowed him from getting too far away.
Taylor Hunter created some buzz around this time. After destroying a car the night before and at the controls of Johnny Brown Jr.’s back up car, Hunter would put on show on the top side of the ¼-mile oval and gained wholesale positions. In fact, he would pole vault himself so far in the front that he duked it out with his car owner for the runner-up position.
After having a pass around Brown negated due to a yellow, Brown tried his hand at the high side to try and overtake Babbitt. However, as the race experienced a long green flag run, Babbitt mastered the bottom and would slowly but surely establish a decent interval over Brown.
Unfortunately for Brown his night would come to an early end when the red flag came out for an incident on lap 22. While slowing down, Brown experienced mechanical issues that would prevent him from finishing the race.
On the restart, Hunter stuck to his guns on the high side of the track to battle with Babbitt as the two were locked in a chess match to the finish. Hunter was excellent on corner entry while Babbitt was better exiting the turns.
Hunter kept Babbitt close but bobbled a tad with a few circuits remaining. Despite no power sterring in the final 20 laps it was just what Babbitt needed to cruise to the checkers and win his second race of 2025.
Hunter was a notable second after starting the race 13th. Kevin Carl completed the podium with a strong third place result.