Along with the Southern Nationals Bonus Series race for Super Late Model cars, the Tazewell Speedway also hosted racing for other classes as part of its Buddy Rogers Memorial event on Sunday night. When the dust had settled, a pair of familiar names graced victory lane in the Open Wheel Modified and Sportsman divisions at the Gary Hall owned high-banked facility.
Matt Tharp pocketed $1000 for his Sportsman win on Sunday
Matt Tharp paced the field early on in the Sportsman division as he earned the pole position for the feature by beating out 18 other competitors in qualifying. Andy Ogle, Cody Smith, Jonathan Miracle and Joshua Sneed rounded out the top-5 in time-trials for this class.
At the start of the feature, Tharp took the lead after slight contact between he and Ogle as the cars roared through the second turn. But it would on the second trip through turns one and two that the race would see its most dramatic moment as Ogle went for a spin and had numerous cars to get caught up in the melee.
Numerous cars were involved in an early race incident in the Sportsman feature
With several cars, including that of Ogle, forced to retire and others suffering varying degrees of damage, the race’s complexion quickly changed. When the racing action resumed, Tharp settled into the lead with Smith, Miracle, Sneed, Gary Blanken and Jimmy Calloway serving as his chief rivals.
Tharp motored away from the pack during the middle stages of the race as Sneed fought with Miracle over the third position and Calloway wrested fifth away from Blanken.
A lap 16 caution allowed the field to catch up with the race leader but once the green flag waved again, Tharp again built a relatively comfortable working margin over his pursuers.
At the finish it was Matt Tharp earning $1,000 as he beat out Cody Smith, Jonathan Miracle, Joshua Sneed, Jimmy Calloway, Gary Blanken, Richard Bailey and Floyd Branham.
Brad Hall took the checkered flag in the Open Wheel Modified class
Wayne James proved to be the fastest in Modified qualifying as he posted a lap of 12.785 seconds around the third-mile clay oval to beat out a field of twelve cars. Brad Hall, Shon Flanary, Don Adams and Jody Puckett rounded out the top-5 on the starting grid for the feature race.
After a couple of attempts to start the race went awry, Hall won an intense battle over James and Flanary to lead the first lap. Adams then seized an opportunity and grabbed third away from Flanary on lap 3 just before Flanary slowd to bring out a caution on the fourth circuit.
From that point, Hall was very much in control of the race as James, Adams and Puckett engaged in a fierce fight for the second through fourth spots on the track.
Two late cautions provided opportunities for those trailing to reel the race leader back in. However, one of those yellow flag periods proved disastrous for one of the front runners after Adams was sent to the rear when it was deemed by track officials that he jumped the restart following a lap 15 caution.
No one was able to make the move around Hall as the Knoxville driver took the checkered flag ahead of James, Puckett, Wade Rookard and Ben Petrey.
