Jason Hiett(with son Ryder) head toward Boyd’s Victory Lane
Along with the $3,500-to-win Crate Late Model race held on Saturday at Boyd’s Speedway, the Ringgold, GA track also hosted racing action in the Limited Late Model class. Jason Hiett proved to be the top racer in the Craig Reece Memorial event, which netted the Oxford, Ala. native $1,200 for his victory.
Hiett began the night by setting fast time in qualifying for the class with a lap of 14.615 seconds around the third-mile clay oval jointly owned by soon-to-be National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame member Dale McDowell and Chattanooga area businessman David Duplissey. With no heat races to be contested in this division, Hiett was joined on the starting grid for the feature by Dan Tipton, Justin Litchford, Tod Hernandez, Brian Jackson, Jody Hixson, Zach Pilcher and Robby Mason.
Tipton used his outside front row starting position to seize the early lead when the green flag waved over the 25-lap feature. He and Hiett ran side-by-side for the first three laps of the event as they battled for the race lead. But a lap 3 caution brought out when Jackson spun briefly broke up the action.
On the ensuing restart, Hiett immediately began to harass Tipton for the top spot while Pilcher, Hernandez and Litchford engaged in a fierce fight for the remaining positions within the top-5 that saw them go three-wide on numerous occasions as the track allowed for multi-groove competition.
Hiett moved inside of Tipton on lap 6 to contest the lead. The No. A19 captured the lead on the next circuit. From that point, Tipton began to fade as Litchford and Pilcher eventually worked around the former leader.
After a lap 17 caution for the stalled car of Jordan Rodabaugh, Jason Hiett drove away from the pack to ultimately capture the checkered flag ahead of Justin Litchford, Zach Pilcher, Dan Tipton, Tod Hernandez, Andy Miller and Kevin Gibson.
