Donald McIntosh led all the way to claim the Ultimate win at 411
The Ultimate Super Late Model Series returned to 411 Motor Speedway in Seymour, Tenn. after a two year absence and a thrilling feature race was the result. In the end, Donald McIntosh held off fellow Georgia resident Casey Roberts to score the $4,000 victory after a near race long battle.
David Payne beat out a field of 26 drivers to earn the pole position for the feature when he posted a lap of 14.797 seconds around the 3/8 mile clay oval. Just behind the fast qualifier on the time sheet was McIntosh, Roberts, Mark Dodson, Cory Hedgecock, Pierce McCarter, Tommy Kerr, Jason Welshan, David Crabtree and Mark Vineyard.
No heat races were held as the field for the main event was set entirely through qualifying.
McIntosh bolted to the early lead from his outside front row starting spot at the beginning of the 40-lap feature. Payne, Roberts, Hedgecock and Dodson offered early pursuit of the leader as the field sorted itself out. Almost immediately, however, Roberts asserted himself as the most serious threat to McIntosh’s leadership when he moved around Payne on the third circuit.
Hedgecock, who won an unsanctioned Super Late Model race at 411 earlier this season, positioned himself in the third spot as he too passed by Payne on the fifth lap. Meanwhile, a fierce battle raged in the back half of the top-10 as the likes of McCarter, Welshan, Dodson, Crabtree and Kerr fought for those positions.
Some of the intense early action at 411
A lap 10 caution for a spin by Vineyard gave the leaders a brief reprieve from the lapped traffic they had just begun to encounter. But the battle resumed with the waving of the green flag and Roberts went right back to applying pressure on McIntosh for the race lead as Hedgecock lurked from third.
Roberts was able to draw alongside McIntosh on lap 24 and seemed poised to grab the lead when a caution flag waved for the slowing car of Crabtree. By this time, second place man in the Ultimate standings Dennis ‘Rambo’ Franklin had made his way into the top-5 from his 11th starting spot.
On the ensuing restart from the lap 24 yellow, Franklin went too low in turns 3&4 and tagged one of the tire barriers placed there to keep cars on the track. The result was a battered front end on the No. 2 machine, but he continued on for the time being. However, he would eventually drop out of the race with three laps remaining.
A lap 26 crash involving Bobby Giffin, Chris Wilson and Ruben Mayfield stirred up a cloud of dust.
Throughout the second half of the event, Roberts continued to challenge McIntosh at virtually every turn but the leader held firm and won the race to the checkered flag to claim the winner’s check.
Feature Finish: 1. Donald McIntosh, 2. Casey Roberts, 3. Cory Hedgecock, 4. Pierce McCarter, 5. Billy Ogle, Jr., 6. Tommy Kerr, 7. Aaron Ridley, 8. Dustin Mitchell, 9. Jeff Smith, 10. Ryan King, 11. Jeff Neubert, 12. Robby Moses, 13. Dennis Franklin, 14. Jason Welshan, 15. David Payne, 16. Chris Wilson, 17. Ruben Mayfield, 18. William Overbey, 19. Bobby Giffin, 20. Chad Ogle, 21. David Crabtree, 22. Mark Vineyard, 23. Skylar Marlar
Donald McIntosh in the Ultimate SLM Victory Lane
