Ronnie Johnson in Boyd’s victory lane in the Brucebilt car
As part of the Southern Nationals event held at Boyd’s Speedway on Tuesday night, the track also staged a $1500-to-win Crate Late Model race. Veteran driver and National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame member Ronnie Johnson came away with the feature win driving for Knoxville based Brucebilt Performance.
Tanner Works set fast time in qualifying when he posted a lap of 15.310 seconds around the third-mile oval. Johnson, Ethan Hunter, Matt Henderson, Bryan Pritchard, Cory Hedgecock, Jamie Perry, Jimmy Elliott, Grant Pearl, Chip Brindle, John Ownbey and Cruz Skinner were among those drivers locked into the feature lineup via time-trials.
Hunter earned the pole position for the main event by winning a dash race over Johnson, Works and Henderson.
At the start of the feature, Johnson used his outside front row starting spot to his advantage and won the race through turns one and two. The #B1 machine emerged onto the backstretch with the lead with Hunter, Works and Henderson close behind.
Pritchard moved forward early on by taking fourth from Henderson. Perry then attempted to take advantage of the opportunity created by the door opened during that battle to also move past Henderson to capture fifth just two laps later but the driver of the No. 17 car held the spot.
A lap five caution slowed the pace when Pearl was turned into the outside wall on the front stretch while racing further back in the top-10.
On the ensuing restart, Ownbey began to move up as he engaged Hedgecock and Perry in what proved to be a hard fought battle for positions 6-8. Meanwhile, Johnson maintained his grip on the top spot while Hunter, Works and Pritchard fought in tight formation for the runner-up position.
The final caution flag of the race waved on lap 15. The scramble for fifth then picked up as Henderson fought to hold back Hedgecock, Ownbey and Perry. Also, Hunter and Works went side-by-side for second as Johnson slipped away from the pack.
At the finish, it was Ronnie Johnson taking the checkered flag first ahead of Works, Hunter, Pritchard, Henderson, Hedgecock, Ownbey, Perry, Jimmy Elliott and Chip Brindle.
RJ and the Brucebilt crew
