Jimmy Elliott in 411 Motor Speedway’s victory lane.
The NeSmith Dirt Late Model Touring Series rolled into the 411 Motor Speedway on Friday for the first of two nights of racing on the Seymour, Tenn. track and put on quite a show in the process. Jimmy Elliott overcame a mid-race spin and executed a door scraping pass in the last turn of the last lap to earn the $2,000 first prize.
The night started off in a fast way when Cory Hedgecock set a new track record for Crate Late Model cars with a time of 13.826 seconds around the new resurfaced 3/8 mile clay oval. Joining Hedgecock in being locked into the feature starting lineup via time-trials were Jimmy Elliott, Ryan King, Todd Coffman, Josh Adkins, Chris Noah, Rusty Ballenger and Adam Beeler. A total of 30 cars signed in for the night’s activities.
Brad Coffey and Jensen Ford won the heat races that were used to set the remainder of the starting lineup.
At the beginning of the 40-lap feature it appeared as if the race might play out as a number of others have in the recent past at 411 when Hedgecock jumped to the early lead. However, two early cautions kept the leader in check with the rest of the field during those initial circuits.
After a lap 2 restart, King emerged as the most serious challenger to Hedgecock. And at lap 4, a rare sight occurred when the No. 23 car was passed for the lead. Elliott then began to apply pressure in an attempt to wrest the 2nd spot away from the winner of each of the two previous Late Model races held at 411 in 2014.
At the same time the fight for the lead was taking place, a fierce battle for other positions within the top-10 was being waged by the likes of Adkins, Coffman, Ballenger, Walker Arthur, Adam Beeler and Ronnie Johnson.
King found his rhythm on the track that had been watered heavily by Mother Nature earlier in the day and began to put some distance between himself and the pack during the race’s middle stages. However, slower traffic would prove to be a bit of a tussle for the leader as he almost tangled with a back marker at the halfway point.
A lap 23 caution for a spin by the 3rd running Elliott actually set the stage for the eventual winner’s charge to the finish. NeSmith officials deemed that Elliott had been spun by a lapped car, and as a result, the Cleveland, Tenn. driver was given his spot back.
On the ensuing restart from that caution, Elliott was able to get by Hedgecock and set off in pursuit of the leader as he and King slowly began to distance themselves from the pack.
As the laps wound down, Elliott closed right to the rear spoiler of King’s machine. Finally, as the cars roared into turns 3 and 4 of the track on the final lap, Elliott muscled his way under King to draw alongside. The two cars banged together and Elliott emerged from the scrape with the lead as the checkered flag waved.
At the finish, it was Jimmy Elliott claiming the $2,000 first prize with Ryan King coming home as the runner-up. Cory Hedgecock was 3rd followed by Walker Arthur, Josh Adkins, Rusty Ballenger, Todd Coffman, Brad Coffey, Tait Davenport, Adam Beeler, Ronnie Johnson, Roger Best, Mack McCarter, Chris Noah and Josh Henry.
