Along with Super Late Model action for the Southern Nationals Bonus Series and Iron-Man Championship Series co-sanctioned event, Tazewell Speedway hosted racing in the Brucebilt Iron-Man Modified Series and Sportsman classes on Sunday night. Blake Brown and Travis Fultz came away with those feature wins on the high-banked facility located in upper east Tennessee.
Blake Brown scored the Modified win
Jeff Hamby, Jr. proved to be the fastest in Modified qualifying when he toured the third-mile clay oval in 13.367 seconds. Mikah Reams, Blake Brown, Jamie Mosley and Wayne James rounded out the top-5 in time-trials.
Reams bolted to the early lead from his outside front row starting spot at the start of what was slated to be a 30-lap feature. Hamby, Brown, Mosley and James chased the leader just after the waving of the green flag. Brown, however, was not content to sit still as he moved around Hamby for the second spot on the second lap.
But as the open-wheeled cars raced through turns 3 & 4 on the second circuit, Mosley’s car spun and virtually everyone from the fourth position back was collected in the melee. Most cars were able to continue with varying degrees of damage.
Numerous spins and other mishaps caused there to be multiple attempts to restart the race after the lap 2 caution. Once the cars did get underway again, Brown made his move for the lead as he went to the low side on Reams as the cars entered turn three. As they raced side-by-side, Reams spun and collected several cars.
After the debris from the previous incident was cleared, James looked to move forward as he began to pressure Aaron Ratliff for the third spot. A tap from James sent Ratliff for a spin on lap 3. During the resulting caution, Ratliff was placed back in third.
Once the racing action resumed, James made an outside move and did wrest the third position away from Ratliff.
While Brown was distancing himself from the pack, Steve Smith worked his way around Tyler James to break into the top-5. But on lap 11 the racing would be slowed again as Wayne James slowed on the front stretch with a flat tire.
At that point, series and track officials decided to end the race with a green/white/checkered finish. Blake Brown won the race back to the checkered flag followed by Jeff Hamby, Jr., Steve Smith, Aaron Ratliff and Tyler James.
Brown collected $1,000 for his efforts.
Travid Fultz was the Sportsman feature winner
Travis Fultz was fastest in Sportsman qualifying as he posted a lap of 12.476 seconds around the high-banked speedway. Matt Tharp, Cody Smith, Aaron Guinn and Rex Coffey completed the top-5 from time-trials from this division.
As allowed by the track rules, Fultz chose to start from the outside of the front row and used that position to bolt to the early lead when the green flag waved over the 20-lap feature. Tharp, Guinn, Smith and Coffey gave chase during the early laps.
A caution for the slowing car of Randy Davis came out on lap 3 with Fultz still leading.
On the ensuing restart, the leaders divided into two separate groups with the top-3 of Fultz, Tharp and Guinn racing in tight formation around the track while Smith, Jonathan Miracle and Coffey battled for positions 4 through 6 on the clay oval.
Guinn made a move in hopes of taking second away from Tharp on lap 8 as the lead machines worked their way through slower traffic but Tharp held the spot. In the meantime, the three cars fighting for position just behind the lead trio took advantage of the leaders being held up in traffic and quickly closed the gap.
A multi-car crash in turn one on lap 11 brought out another caution flag. Following that incident, the race ran green until its completion.
Travis Fultz led the way to the checkered flag with Matt Tharp, Aaron Guinn, Cody Smith, Jonathan Miracle and Rex Coffey in tow.
