Roberts goes the distance in capturing Fastrak victory at Volunteer Speedway
By Robert Walden
BULLS GAP,
Forty-two competitors representing six Southeastern states (Tennessee, Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, Georgia and South Carolina) timed-in during pole qualifying, with 19-year-old Jensen Ford of Johnson City, Tenn., driving the Byrd’s Radiator/Hy-Tec Specialty Coatings/AFCO Racing Equipment/Traffic Graphic-We’ll Wrap Your World/TNT Race Cars & Parts/No. 83 Monte Carlo, stopping the clock at 14.993-seconds to set fast-time.
The top-six qualifiers were brought down onto the front straightaway, and six fans out of the grandstands were paired with a driver to select their starting position. The lucky fan drawing the No. 1 spot for their respective driver received $100 from the Fastrak Late Model Racing Series.
Following the drawing John King Jr. was selected for the pole position, with Shane Roberts starting alongside on the outside of row one. The second row was made up of Dale Ball and Shanon Buckingham, with row three comprised of Jensen Ford and Jason Lawrence.
With the top-six locked into the lineup based on their qualifying times, four heat races were run with the top-three finishers from each transferring into the Rusty Wallace Auto Group 50. The four heat race winners respectively were John Llewellyn, Jerry Broyles, David McCoy and Chris Ferguson. Chris Chandler was the winner of the last-chance consolation race, which transferred the top-four finishers into positions 19-22, with starting spots 23 and 24 Fastrak Late Model Racing Series provisional berths.
From the point King led the stellar 24-car field to the green. But the caution waved quickly after the first attempt to get the 50-lap feature up to speed saw a multi-car tangle between turns one and two. The third-starting Ball’s mount received the most damage (front-end suspension), while several others had bent sheet-metal from the altercation. After quick action from his crew, Ball barely made it back onto the track for the restart, where he had to tag on at the tail of the field.
With the green flag waving once again, Roberts launched down the front straightaway into the first turn in the lead, with King and Buckingham side-by-side racing off turn two battling for second. As the duo headed into the third turn Buckingham had settled into second with King in third, followed by Ford and Lawrence. Caution waved on lap 6 when Warren McMahan spun between turns one and two.
The top five going back green were Roberts, Buckingham, King, Ford and
Lawrence. Roberts quickly began to put some distance between himself and
Buckingham, while King and Ford were engaged in a heated battle for third.
Just outside of the top-five, Llewellyn was pressuring
Ford and King raced door-to-door into the first turn on lap 19, and as the
accelerated off the second turn Ford moved into the third spot. While Ford was
making his move on King, Llewellyn one circuit later dropped
With Roberts in command setting sail out front, holding a little more than a half-straightaway advantage over Buckingham, on lap 22 Bobby Mays worked his way into 10th-place, after starting from the 22nd position.
Rim-riding up high in the banking through the corners on both ends of the
track, Mays was picking cars off for position with ease. Before the race
reached the mid-point, Mays had passed both Chris Ferguson and David McCoy to
move into eighth in the running order, just behind
With Roberts working heavy lapped traffic and 15 laps remaining in the feature, Buckingham looked to cut into his lead. But the race leader negotiated the slower cars with ease and never allowed Buckingham to get within striking distance. Looking to make a run at Buckingham was Ford, who closed to within six car-lengths after he had pulled away from King.
Meanwhile the battle for position still raged back through the field, particularly for positions five through seven involving Llewellyn, Broyles and Mays. Racing off into the first turn on lap 40, Mays drove in deep up high in the banking on the outside of Broyles. Carrying the momentum off turn two Mays drove past Broyles and moved into sixth, and on lap 44 tucked down low on the bottom between (turns) three and four he drove under Llewellyn for the fifth spot.
Two circuits later on lap 46, Broyles worked around Llewellyn racing off the fourth turn to move into sixth. With Roberts on cruise control out front waiting for the laps to click off, Mays and King were engaged in battle for fourth-place. Mays could pull under King racing off the corners, but the 19-year-old King would slam the door shut on Mays’ challenges.
Roberts, driving the J.A. Street & Associates/RaceQuest Motorsports (David “Fatboy” Bryant)/No. 17s Ford Fusion, made it look easy on his Sunday afternoon drive to victory lane in winning the Rusty Wallace Auto Group 50 in dominating fashion over Buckingham, Ford, King and Mays.
Completing the top-10 finishers at the checkers were Broyles, Llewellyn,
“Man, we had an awesome car today that would absolutely work well anywhere I drove it on the track,” said Roberts after climbing from his car in victory lane. “These crate-engine cars are so equal and you’ve really got to hit on a good setup – and fortunately we did. The car was fast, but racing in conditions like these where it’s hot and the track gets sun-baked, it really helped with the draw for position where we were picked to start on the outside pole. Starting on the outside I really believe played into our favor, because I knew if I could drive off hard into the first turn there on the start I could carry the momentum up high in the banking between turns one and two and it would give me a strong run down the backstretch.
“Once we got settled into the lead it didn’t seem like no time before we began to catch the cars at the back of the field. But we didn’t really have that tough of a time working our way around them. I guess one thing that really kind of surprised me is how long the race went green, because after that caution on lap 6 we ran all-green until the checkered flag waved on lap 50. Running 44 consecutive laps without a caution was something else. I want to thank David Bryant down at RaceQuest Motorsports and also Mark Sant, Kenny Kirchner and C.J. White for helping work on the car.”
Chad Ogle of Sevierville captured his fourth-straight “Lawson Chevrolet” Open Wheel Modified victory by outrunning Jerry Broyles, Wayne James, Stanley Donahoo and Danny James. Ogle jumped into the lead at the drop of the green and led flag-to-flag.
Dustin Shaver grabbed the early lead in the “Rusty Wallace Toyota” Hobby Stock feature and appeared to be headed to his first win of the season, but a late-race spin in the fourth turn dropped him out of contention and opened the door for Dale Reed of Whitesburg to capture his first-ever victory. Finishing behind Reed were Robbie Jones, Mike Kelley, Phillip Nichols and Jesse Helton.
FASTRAK LATE MODEL RACING SERIES – RUSTY WALLACE AUTO GROUP 50
1) Shane Roberts #17s; 2) Shanon Buckingham #44; 3) Jensen Ford #83; 4) John King Jr. #11k; 5) Bobby Mays #19; 6) Jerry Broyles #72; 7) John Llewellyn #90; 8) Chris Ferguson #22; 9) David McCoy #187; 10) Jake Anderson #j64; 11) Kenny Peeples Jr. #22; 12) Jason Lawrence #54; 13) Tony Trent #18; 14) William Thomas #22; 15) Jordy Nipper #1n; 16) Greg Burchett #17; 17) Chris Chandler #8; 18) Anthony Meadows #31; 19) Lee Cooper #57; 20) Dale Ball #2; 21) Clint Solomon #36; 22) Shane Hmiel #15; 23) J.J. Nye #55; 24) Warren McMahan #33
“LAWSON CHEVROLET” OPEN WHEEL MODIFIED
1) Chad Ogle #10; 2) Jerry Broyles #72; 3) Wayne James #4; 4) Stanley Donahoo #00; 5) Danny James #j4; 6) Shon Flannery #98; 7) Jason Bowers #22r; 8) Aaron Ogle #181; 9) Larry James #j2; 10) Mike Weston #50
“RUSTY WALLACE
1) Dale Reed #52; 2) Robbie Jones #29; 3) Mike Kelley #8; 4) Phillip Nichols #33; 5) Jesse Helton #28; 6) Rick Fillers #21; 7) Mike Mays #30; 8) Roger Hunter #7-11; 9) Patrick Flannery #38; 10) Jason Light #5; 11) Terry Cobb #T14; 12) Dustin Shaver #7; 13) Everett Cobb #13; 14) Jon Cook #0z; 15) Ralph Mills #T1; 16) Emery Harvey #74; 17) Robert “Monk” Ledford #41; 18) Ray Jarnigan #31; 19) Butch Patterson #88p
“CENTURY 21 MASENGILL-MCCRARY REALTORS” MINI STOCK
1) Chuck McMahan #99; 2) Shawn Henry #B00; 3) Kurt Owens #7up; 4) Allen Carrier #B1; 5) Randy Lane #5; 6) Jack Courtney #j1; 7) Toby Jones #66; 8) Brian Courtney #71; 9) Kenny Absher #11; 10) Brent Hensley #70; 11) Scotty Thornton #T15; 12) Kevin Atwell #95; 13) Brandon Johnson #B01 – Did Not Start: Joey Allen #A00