Chris Ferguson led all 40 laps on Saturday night in Bulls Gap.
Chris Ferguson rode into the Volunteer Speedway on Saturday evening on an emotional after claiming a $10,000 victory just last weekend at the Virginia Motor Speedway. And the Mt. Holly, NC driver left later that night even higher after adding another $4,000 with a win in the Carolina Clash feature race at ‘The Gap’.
Ferguson served notice early on that he and his Knoxville built Warrior Race Car would be tough to beat when he posted the fastest time in qualifying among the 26 Super Late Models to make an attempt. His lap of 12.720 seconds around the 3/8 mile oval bested Kennie Compton, Brad Neat, Zack Mitchell and Jason Welshan. The top-10 in time-trials were locked into the feature event.
Vic Hill and Ricky Weeks won the two heat races used to set the remainder of the starting lineup.
Ferguson immediately went to the lead at the start of the 40-lap main event with Compton, Neat, Welshan and Mitchell left to battle in his wake. By the second lap, the eventual winner’s strongest challenger would emerge in the person of Neat as he moved around Compton to take the second spot on the leader board.
A lap 3 caution brought out when Scott Shirey slammed the inside pit wall at the entrance of turn one gave the field an opportunity to keep Ferguson in their sights, but he again bolted away from the pack once the green flag waved.
By lap 9, Ferguson had begun to catch the tail of the field when the race’s second and final caution flag waved when local drivers Jason Welshan and Mark Douglas encountered trouble and suffered damage to their machines. Welshan would return to the race after a brief time in the hot pit area.
During the long stretch of green flag racing that would ultimately take the race to its conclusion, Ferguson and Neat distanced themselves from everyone else as they lapped through much of the field. Meanwhile, Compton, Mitchell, Dennis Franklin, Randle Chupp and a hard charging Welshan mixed it up for the positions just behind the lead duo.
But Ferguson was unchallenged over the second half of the race and went on to claim the win.
At the finish it was Chris Ferguson, Brad Neat, Kennie Compton, Zack Mitchell, Jason Welshan, Dennis ‘Rambo’ Franklin and Randle Chupp.
Ferguson celebrates with his crew in Victory Lane.
