Chuck McMahan won on Thursday night in the Four Cylinders class at Tazewell.
Track owner Gary Hall billed Thursday night’s special event at the Tazewell Speedway as the Mid-season Championships as each division’s points leaders would be honored following their feature races. Along with a $1,500-to-win event for the Tazewell Late Models, there was competition in all classes for the big crowd that assembled around the upper east Tennessee track to enjoy.
The Sportsman class boasted a 14 car field that was led by Josh Fields in qualifying when he posted a lap of 12.625 seconds around the high banked facility. Wade Howerton, Justin Beeler, Clyde Overholt and Jordan Horton rounded out the top-5 in a starting lineup that was set entirely by time-trials.
From the start of the 20-lap feature, it was the pole starting Fields who would show the way in his #11 machine. However, the competition was intense behind the leader.
Particularly, Beeler and Horton staged an excellent battle for the 2nd spot throughout the full distance of the feature race, trading positions several times. At the same time, Jason Varner and Steve Smith carried out a similar battle for 4th around the high speed track.
At the finish, it was Josh Fields, Justin Beeler, Jordan Horton, Jason Varner, Steve Smith and Josh Driskill.
Jordan Horton was recognized as the Sportsman points leader at the season’s halfway mark.
The Modified Street class was led in qualifying by Robbie Buchanan when he laid down a lap of 13.622 seconds around the third-mile speed plant. He was followed by Gary Blanken, Brad Davis and Tony Horton. There was an invert of the top-2 qualifiers for the feature.
At the beginning of the 20-lap feature, Blanken went to the early lead with Buchanan right in his tire tracks. The night would be a short one for Horton as his car went up in smoke on the second circuit, leaving the issue to be settled between Blanken, Buchanan and Davis.
On lap 5, Davis would find himself spinning along the front straightaway as he appeared to make a sudden move to avoid hitting the two cars in front of him after they checked up in the midst of hard racing for the lead.
The race’s pivotal moment occurred on lap 8 when Buchanan challenged Blanken for the lead in turn four. As a result of the close racing, Blanken spun while Buchanan took the lead. From that point on, Buchanan would show the way as Blanken and Davis worked their way around the other cars to regain the 2nd and 3rd spots.
At the finish, it was Robbie Buchanan picking up his second feature win of 2014 with Brad Davis, Gary Blanken and Michael Boyd following the winner across the finish line.
Brad Davis was honored as the Mid-season points leader for the Modified Street division.
Philip Thompson was the best among the 10 car Classics field in qualifying as he ran a lap of 14.203 seconds to beat out Logan Dukes and Joe Keck. Those three cars would be inverted to start the feature.
Despite the invert, Thompson got to the lead early on in the feature with Keck and Dukes battling throughout most of the 20 laps for the runner-up spot.
In the end, Philip Thompson scored his fourth win of the season with Logan Dukes just edging Joe Keck at the finish line for 2nd.
Justin Overton finished 4th and secured the honors as the Mid-season points leader for the Classics division.
In the Four Cylinders class, Chuck McMahan was never seriously challenged as he drove to his seventh feature win of 2014. He finished ahead of a tight battle between Jeremy Collins, Bubby Braden and David Singleton.
Chuck McMahan was the recipient of the Mid-season Championship trophy as well.
Jason Long led flag-to-flag to pick up the win in the Pure Street division ahead of Jonathan Miracle.
Jonathan Miracle earned the award for being the Mid-season points leader.
