#R1 Riley Hickman, seen here at Smoky Mountain Speedway, picked up $4,000 for his efforts on Friday night at Volunteer Speedway.
The Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn. along with Vic Hill Racing Engines put up $4,000 for the winner of the ‘King of the Gap’ Steelhead Championship on Friday night and a solid field of Limited Late Models answered the call. In the end, much of the prize money went home to the Chattanooga area as Riley Hickman held off Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame member Ronnie Johnson to earn the lucrative prize.
Jason Trammell looked as if everything would go his way for much of the night in Bulls Gap. The driver of the #90 car set fast time in qualifying with a lap of 13.176 seconds around the high-banked clay oval. The top-12 qualifiers were locked into the feature field as a result of time-trials which placed Cory Hedgecock on the front row with Trammell for the feature while Hickman, Jason Cardwell and Johnson rounded out the top-5 on the starting grid.
Anthony White beat out Brad Lowe and Mark Martin to win the sole B-main race used to set that part of the starting lineup not already determined through qualifying.
At the start of the 45-lap feature, Trammell went to the lead quickly with Hedgecock in his tire tracks. The lead duo looked as if they had every intention of settling the issue among themselves as they pulled steadily away from Cardwell, Hickman and Johnson in the very early going.
The race was slowed five times by yellow flags, but the most significant of these occurred on lap 16. After the race was restarted due to an unrelated incident, the cars went back to full speed only to have trouble break out at the front of the pack. A suspension piece broke on the Trammell machine which in turn punctured his fuel cell. Hedgecock and 7th running Matt Henderson spun in the fluid spilled onto the racing surface.
Both Trammell and Hedgecock were eliminated in the incident.
From that point, it would be the two Chattanooga stars who would battle for the honors. For the most part, Hickman was able to maintain a three to four car length advantage over Johnson. A lap 38 caution gave the Hall of Famer one last chance but Hickman was too strong.
At the finish it was Riley Hickman winning out over Ronnie Johnson, Jason Cardwell, Stanley Donahoo, Jason Welshan, Jamie Perry, Billy Ogle, Jr., Eddie King, Jr., Anthony White and Brad Lowe.
