Philip Thompson picked up his first Late Model win on Friday in Bulls Gap
Philip Thompson has proven to be a winning race car driver on the dirt surfaces of east Tennessee. However, those wins had come in the Classics divisions on tracks such as 411 Motor Speedway and Tazewell Speedway. On Friday night the young driver turned in a dominating performance in the Sportsman class at the Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn. to capture his first checkered flag in a Late Model car.
Thompson set the tone early as he grabbed the pole position for the feature by posting a qualifying time of 13.233 seconds around the 4/10 mile clay oval. Gary Crittenden, Andy Ogle, Michael Boyd and Tim Byrd completed the top-5 in time-trials for the Sportsman class.
Ryan Carey won the sole B-main race that was used to set the starting grid for those who qualified outside the top-18.
Thompson proved to be dominant from the very start of the 25-lap feature race as he went immediately to the lead ahead of Crittenden, Henry, Ogle and sixth starting Tim Byrd.
A total of four cautions slowed the pace of the race but also provided some of the best racing of the night on each ensuing restart. Particularly, the racing action was most intense as Henry offered almost constant challenges for the runner-up spot by maneuvering his car both high and low in his attempts to get around Crittenden.
All the while, however, Thompson would not be denied as he built relatively comfortable working margins each time the green flag waved and maintained those advantages during each phase of the race.
Henry was finally able to get around Crittenden for second after a lap 13 restart as he dove to the low side in turn one and executed a slide job pass for the spot. However, Crittenden returned the favor in the next set of turns to reclaim the position.
Thompson would never be seriously challenged for the lead as he drove on to the $800 win ahead of Gary Crittenden, Josh Henry, Andy Ogle, Tim Byrd and Jason Trammell.
