Anthony White drove his No. 2x to victor
y at 411 on Friday night
The United Crate Racing Alliance sanctioned an action packed event at 411 Motor Speedway on Friday night that ultimately resulted in a victory for a local veteran driver over a mob of fierce challengers. At the end of the night, it would be Anthony White of Clinton, Tenn. who garnered the $2,500 first prize after a hard fought affair on the Seymour, Tenn. track.
The UCRA divided the field of 25 cars into two qualifying groups with the top-4 from each group to be locked into the feature race with all others being sent to one of two heat races.
White was the fastest in Group A time-trials when he posted a lap of 14.672 seconds around the 3/8 mile clay oval. Also making the feature via their qualifying efforts from this group were Jay Brinkley, Ethan Hunter and Jordon Horton.
Jason Welshan proved to be the fastest in Group B qualifying and overall when he turned a lap of 14.629 seconds. However, the No. 29 machine did not go directly to the scales after his run as had been instructed during the drivers meeting so the time was disallowed. That, in turn, made Josh Henry the fast qualifier out of this group followed by John Ownbey, Rusty Ballenger and Todd Coffman.
Bobby Richey, Jr. and Matt Henderson won the two heat races used to set the remainder of the starting lineup for the main event.
At the start of the 40-lap feature, White took advantage of his inside front row starting spot and shot to the early lead with Henry, Brinkley, Ballenger and Ownbey following in his tires tracks. Soon, however, Ownbey began to move forward as he wrested the fourth spot away from Ballenger on the second circuit.
A lap 4 caution for a multi-car incident involving Justin Owens, Steve Smith and Bradley Lewelling set up a pivotal restart. Ownbey was able to take advantage of a bobble by one of the cars in front of him and move all the way up to the second position. From that time, the winner of the recent J.T. Kerr Memorial at 411 began to apply unrelenting pressure on the race leading car of White.
Meanwhile, the action further back in the top-10 could best be described as a hornet’s nest as the likes of Henderson, Ballenger, Horton, Kasey Hall and Todd Coffman bounced off one another on a lap-by-lap basis throughout the middle stages of the race.
The night proved to be costly for the two top drivers in the UCRA standings. On lap 14 the series leading Jake Teague went for a spin as he battled in that hornet’s nest of cars just within the top-10. And during a lap 23 caution, Ballenger drove to the garage area after his car had suffered radiator damage earlier in the race.
Over the final laps, Ownbey drew alongside White on several occasions but was never able to complete the pass on the leader. White won the battle to the checkered flag to earn his second UCRA win of the season.
Feature Finish: 1. Anthony White, 2. John Ownbey, 3. Josh Henry, 4. Kasey Hall, 5. Jay Brinkley, 6. Jason Welshan, 7. Ryan King, 8. Matt Henderson, 9. Ethan Hunter, 10. Bobby Richey, 11. Jake Teague, 12. Todd Coffman, 13. Kenny Kizzar, 14. Jimmy Elliott, 15. Kyle May, 16. Jordon Horton, 17. Steve Smith, 18. Justin Owens, 19. William Overbey, 20. Rusty Ballenger, 21. Todd Morrow, 22. Matthew Turner, 23. Bradley Lewelling, 24. Tom Maddox
