Eventual feature winner Terry Gray waits to go out on track at 411.
Sprint cars don’t make many appearances in east Tennessee, but when they do something spectacular tends to happen. That certainly proved to be the case on Friday night at the 411 Motor Speedway when the United Sprint Car Series took to the Seymour, Tenn. facility.
Terry Gray, a ten time champion of the USCS, came into the event as the series points leader and his performance would serve to strengthen his advantage over the competition.
Gray began his night by taking the win in a six lap ‘Dash for Cash’ that earned him $100 and 10 bonus points to add to his leading total.
Heat race winners on the night were Morgan Turpen, Johnny Bridges and Lance Moss.
Unfortunately, this race will most likely be remembered for what happened at its beginning rather than at its finish. After one failed attempt to get the 30-lap feature underway, a second attempt at green flag racing would prove disastrous.
As the field roared into turn three, the cars of Turpen and Moss appeared to come in contact with each other and get linked together. Both cars shot up the banking and slammed hard into the outside retaining wall. Turpen’s machine briefly climbed the catch fence then flipped down onto the racing surface. The cars of Terry Witherspoon, Shawn Murray and Ray Bugg were among those to also be swept up in the incident.
The race was immediately red flagged so that safety crews could tend to those in need. The greatest concern was for Bugg, who is in his 70s, and Turpen. It was several minutes before those drivers were finally extricated from the carnage.
An ambulance was brought onto the track to tend to Bugg(no further word on his condition was known at the time of this writing). Turpen complained of pain in her knee but chose not to be transported to an area hospital by ambulance.
Once the race resumed, 14 of the original 20 cars were remained on track. The racing from that point proved to be outstanding as Eric Riggins, Jr. jumped to the early lead with Gray, Anthony Nicholson and Johnny Bridges trailing. The top-4 cars would race in tight formation during the early laps as they not only fought each other for position but worked through slower traffic as well.
During the race’s first half, the veteran Gray stalked young Riggins waiting for an opportunity to seize the top spot. On lap 14 that opportunity came as Riggins car began to show signs of smoke.
One lap later, Nicholson moved around Riggins to claim the second position and set off after the new leader. A lap 16 caution briefly tightened the field but Gray quickly jumped away on the ensuing restart.
From that point on, the race would run caution free. Gray pulled away to a relatively comfortable lead while the early leading Riggins faded into the clutches of Danny Smith and Bridges.
At the finish, it was Terry Gray winning out over Anthony Nicholson, Danny Smith, Johnny Bridges and Eric Riggins, Jr.
The USCS Sprint Cars will race at Maryville’s Smoky Mountain Speedway on Saturday night.
Teammate Terry Gray and track safety works assist Morgan Turpen from her badly damaged sprint car.
Lance Moss’s battered machine.
Shawn Murray’s wrecked racer.
Terry Witherspoon’s car.
What remained of Morgan Turpen’s car.
