The Volunteer Speedway hosted the Carolina Clash series on Saturday night for a $4,000-to-win Super Late Model show. Also, there was racing in the track’s regular Limited Late Model and Crate Late Model classes to entertain the fans assembled at the Bulls Gap, Tenn. facility.
In the Limited(Steel Head) Late Model class, Cory Hedgcock pulled off a late race pass on Trevor Sise to score the $2,000 victory while Warren McMahan led all the way to take the Crate Late Model checkered flag.
Cory Hedgecock was the Limited Late Model winner at Volunteer.
Hedgecock got off to a fast start by grabbing the pole position among a field of 19 Limited Late Models that had signed in for competition. His lap of 13.091 seconds beat out Trevor Sise, Ross White, Greg Estes, Matt Henderson and Jason Welshan. No heat races were run as the entire starting lineup was set by qualifying.
At the start of the 40-lap feature, Sise jumped to the early lead from his outside front row starting spot ahead of Hedgecock, White, Welshan and Estes. Soon after the start, Welshan moved around White to claim 3rd and the top-3 cars then separated themselves from the pack.
As the top-3 drove away, the cars of White, Estes, Henderson and Jensen Ford were mixing it up for the positions of 3rd through 6th.
A significant moment in the race occurred on lap 10 when Welshan went low in turn three in an attempt to pass Hedgecock for 2nd. But in making the move, Welshan’s car appeared to get loose underneath that of Hedgecock and the No. 29 went for a spin. Welshan would be sent to the rear by track officials for causing the caution.
When the race restarted, Sise continued to lead but Hedgecock began to apply pressure by looking inside the lead car. However, that battle would be put on hold when Welshan again spun to bring out the caution, which led to his retirement from the event.
On the following restart, Sise and Hedgecock continued to battle ahead of the pack. Estes clearly established himself as the 3rd place runner but White, Henderson, Jason Manley and Ford kept up the fight for other positions within the top-10.
A lap 26 caution, and ultimately red flag, came out for a big pileup in turn two. A couple of lapped cars appeared to start the incident by spinning right in front of the leaders. White, Henderson and Ford would receive enough damage to be forced out of the race.
It was at that time when Hedgecock began to really turn up the heat on Sise. The frequent winner of Limited Late Model events all around east Tennessee in 2014 dove under the leader on a number of occasions as the laps clicked away.
Finally, Hedgecock made the move stick in turn one with just three laps remaining. From that point, he sailed away for the win.
At the finish, it was Cory Hedgecock, Trevor Sise, Greg Estes, Anthony White, John Tweed, Jason Cardwell, Ruben Mayfield and Jason Manley.
Warren McMahan dominated the Crate Late Model feature on Saturday night.
Warren McMahan began his evening at the Volunteer Speedway by establishing the fast time in Crate Late Model qualifying out of a field of 17 cars. His lap of 13.753 seconds placed him ahead of Ricky Moore, Tim Byrd, Bryson Dennis, Forrest Trent and Gary Crittenden. Like the Limited Late Models, the entire starting lineup for the feature race was set via qualifying.
At the start of the 30-lap feature, McMahan immediately went to the lead with Moore and Byrd trailing just behind. Meanwhile the field raced in 2×2 formation for positions behind the leaders during the early laps.
On lap 7, the event’s first caution came out when Trent found himself sandwiched between the cars of Crittenden and Tim Maupin, which caused him to spin.
On the following restart, Dennis appeared to slow as the cars raced through turns 3 and 4. That, in turn, created a jumble behind him and Byrd to run into the back of Dennis. That action eventually resulted in a caution as cars further back in the pack spun to avoid disaster.
McMahan continued to lead while Byrd saw repeated passes of Moore negated as caution flags would wave before the laps would be completed. Finally, Byrd would complete the pass on lap 14 and bring Maupin along with him in the process.
Briefly, Byrd and Maupin kept pace with McMahan as the top-3 machines worked through lapped traffic. But when the leaders finally cleared those slower cars with five laps remaining, the cars spaced out and ran to the finish.
At the end, it was Warren McMahan, Tim Byrd, Tim Maupin, Forrest Trent, Brett Ashley and Hunter Best.
In other action, Gary Blanken set fast time in qualifying and went on to win the Modified Hobby feature ahead of Charlie Bates, Dale Reed, Eddie Morris and Jamie Whitt.
