Billy Ogle Jr. in the #201 was the big winner this weekend in east Tennessee.
This first weekend of April 2014 was huge for dirt racing in East Tennessee as almost every track in the area ran either a special event of their weekly show.
Here are some of the results:
411 Motor Speedway: The Seymour track hosted the NeSmith Dirt Late Model Touring Series for a Friday and Saturday double-header paying $2,000 and $3,000-to-win respectively. The Mitch and Tanya McCarter owned facility also offered $1,000-to-win for each of its support classes over the two nights of action.
On Friday night, Cleveland’s Jimmy Elliott claimed the $2,000 payday when he muscled his way by Ryan King on the last turn of the last lap for the win. Rounding out the top-5 were Cory Hedgecock, Walker Arthur and Josh Adkins.
Michael Courtney won in Mini Stocks and Heath Alvey scored the victory in the Sportsman class on Friday.
On Saturday evening, Adam Beeler took home the $3,000 first prize after setting fast time in qualifying then going on to lead all the way in the feature. National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame inductee Ronnie Johnson was 2nd with Jared Hawkins, Jimmy Elliott and Ashley Newman rounding out the top-5.
Chase King claimed the big check in the Thunder & Lightning division while Shannon Emery was the Street Stock victor.
Boyd’s Speedway: Boyd’s again conducted a weekly race program with the track’s regular classes in competition.
Jamie Perry scored the win in the Steelhead Late Models with Rick Hixson leading the way in the Crate Late Models. The A-Hobby winner was Jake Caldwell while Dallas Brooks took the checkered flag in the B-Hobby feature.
Smoky Mountain Speedway: The Maryville track played host to Ray Cook’s Spring Nationals Series on Saturday night with a $6,000-to-win feature race along with the American Modified Series contesting a $3,000-to-win affair and a $1,000-to-win Limited Late Model event.
Red hot Chris Madden got out to the early lead in the Spring Nationals Super Late Model main event and looked to be on his way to yet another win in the 2014 season. However, he tangled with a lapped car on lap 17 and slammed hard into the turn one wall as a result. That opened the door for Billy Ogle, Jr. to seize the win as he drove away from Vic Hill, Skip Arp, Mike Marlar and Stacy Boles.
Kyle Strickler had to fight off multiple challengers on his way to the win in the AMS feature race. The North Carolina driver added to his victory total in that series by beating out Matt Cooper, Bryan Barber, Nick Hoffman and Brian Shaw.
Cory Hedgecock continued his reign over east Tennessee Limited Late Model racing as he scored the win in that class in dominating fashion ahead of Tony Martin, Weston Gantte, Butch Bayless and Kevin Gill.
Tazewell Speedway: ‘The Bad Fast Taz’ conducted its weekly racing program on the high banks of Gary Hall’s upper east Tennessee bull ring with al the track’s regular classes in action for a double points night.
Josh Henry led all the way to score the win in the Limited Late Model feature. Steve Smith, Jody Horton, Terry Wolfenbarger and Craig Gregg followed the winner to the checkered flag.
Clyde Overholt won out in the Sportsman class while Tony Horton won in Modified Street, Phillip Thompson led the way in Classics, Jonathan Miracle won in Pure Street and Chuck McMahan was the victor in Four Cylinders.
Volunteer Speedway: The Joe and Phyllis Loven owned facility held a special Limited Late Model show along with Crate Late Models and Modified Hobby classes in action.
Jason Welshan picked up where he left off last year in terms of winning special events at Volunteer. He scored a big $6,000 victory on the high banked track last year and once again collected the big trophy on Saturday night as well. This time, the payout was for $1,500 as Welshan beat out Jason Manley, Dan Tipton, Jason Trammel and Jason Cardwell for the win. Welshan executed a high side pass late in the race to take the lead and go on to the win.
Tim Maupin finished ahead of Warren McMahan and Keith Chapman in the Crate Late Model class while Virginia’s Jamie Whitt picked up the win in the Modified Hobby division over Dale Reed and Mike Mayes.
Wartburg Speedway: The Raymond Sheppard-run quarter-mile track staged its regular weekly program on Saturday night with all of its classes in competition. The track had to work through a power failure but was still able to get the full program completed in a timely fashion.
Drew Kennedy was the winner in Late Models ahead of Anthony White, Keith Longmire, Chris Marcum and Jeff Adkisson.
Brad Adkisson won in the Sportsman/Modified Street class. Wesley Lester was the winner in Super Street while Tim Ladd led the way in the Extreme class, Daniel Raimondi was victorious in Thunder and Eric Maples won in Mod Lites.
National News: Mooresburg’s Scott Bloomquist won the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series race at the ArkLaTex Speedway in Vivian, LA. Newport’s Jimmy Owens was 4th in that race and Crossville’s Randy Weaver was 20th.
