Mike Marlar’s Rockey Chassis won the caution-free event
After a delay of six days due to the heavy rains that fell across east Tennessee last weekend, the Spring Nationals mini-series made its way to the Volunteer Speedway to contest the $10,052-to-win Scott Sexton Memorial on Friday night. Mike Marlar beat the field to the finish line in a feature race that ran caution-free to collect the winner’s reward at the Bulls Gap facility.
Ricky Weiss led the way in Group A qualifying and overall when he posted a lap of 12.116 seconds around the 4/10 mile clay oval. Jimmy Owens, Marlar, Eric Wells and Brandon Sheppard rounded out the top-5 in that group.
Shanon Buckingham was fastest in Group B qualifying on the high-banked track when he clocked in at 12.213 seconds. Chris Madden, Michael Chilton, Donald McIntosh, and Vic Hill completed the top-5 in that group.
Marlar earned the pole position for the feature by winning the first heat race over Weiss, Dale McDowell and Sheppard while Owens took the win in the second preliminary ahead of Eric Wells, Tim McCreadie and Skylar Marlar.
Chilton would start the feature from the outside of the front row based on his victory in the third heat over Buckingham, Tyler Erb and Hill just before Madden collected the win in the fourth and final heat by besting McIntosh, Kyle Hardy and Joey Coulter.
Michael Page and Brian Shirley won the B-main races used to set the remainder of the starting grid for the main event.
Chilton went to the lead of the 52-lap feature at the drop of the green flag with Marlar, Madden, Owens and Buckingham following closely behind. Just behind those running in the top-5, McIntosh and Wells jockeyed for the sixth position as they worked to keep the leaders in sight.
Among the front runners, Buckingham attempted to make a move early as he looked inside of Owens for the fourth spot on lap three but the ‘Newport Nightmare’ held his place in the running order. Meanwhile, McIntosh fell back into the clutches of the defending champion of this race as Weiss attempted to take seventh from him.
Traffic became a factor in a race that would ultimately run caution-free. Chilton found himself among slower machines by 11 with Marlar quickly closing onto his rear spoiler. On the 14th circuit, the lappers proved to be a deciding factor in determining who would lead the race as Marlar moved around Chilton to take the top spot as both fought through the rear of the pack. Madden then moved in and began to apply pressure of his own to Chilton following the Marlar maneuver.
Marlar passed Chilton for the lead on lap 14
The top-4 of Marlar, Chilton, Madden and Owens ran in tight formation around the high banks of the speedway for a time during the race’s middle stages until Madden moved by Chilton to grab the runner-up spot on lap 29. Just four lap later, McIntosh would also move forward as he wrested fifth away from Buckingham.
Meanwhile, ninth starting McDowell began to make his presence felt after the halfway mark when he went around Buckingham for sixth on alp 36 then around McIntosh for fifth on lap 36. He would eventually move around Chilton and Owens to seize third.
Dale McDowell charged through the field late int he race.
All the while Marlar controlled the race over its final stretches and maintained a lead of a straightaway through most of the final circuits to beat the field and collect the winner’s check in victory lane.
Feature Finish: 1. Mike Marlar, 2. Chris Madden, 3. Dale McDowell, 4. Jimmy Owens, 5. Michael Chilton, 6. Donald McIntosh, 7. Shanon Buckingham, 8. Eric Wells, 9. Kyle Hardy, 10. Brandon Sheppard, 11. Ricky Weiss, 12. Tim McCreadie, 13. Brian Shirley, 14. Tyler Erb, 15. Jamie Perry, 16. Jason Croft, 17. Joey Coulter, 18. Jason Jameson, 19. Vic Hill, 20. Michael Page, 21. Skylar Marlar, 22. Brandon Overton
Marlar and crew in victory lane
