Along with the Spring Nationals event held at Boyd’s Speedway on Friday night, the Ringgold, GA track also staged racing in the Limited/Crate Late Model class as well as the B-Hobby division. The action proved to be fast and furious on the track…and off.
Robby Mason was ultimately declared the winner of the Limited/Crate Late Model feature.
Tod Hernandez led the way in Late Model qualifying when he beat out a field of 19 cars by posting a lap of 14.391 seconds around the third-mile oval. Cory Hedgecock, Booger Brooks and Nick Lyons also earned front row starting spots in their respective heat races via time-trials.
Brooks won the first heat to assure himself the pole position for the feature. He was followed to the finish line by Hernandez, Robby Mason, Ross White and Ahnna Parkhurst.
The second heat was won by Jason Welshan ahead of Hedgecock, Rick Hixson, Ethan Hunter and Aaron Wilson.
At the start of the feature, it was Brooks who got the early jump from his inside front row starting spot ahead of Welshan and Hernandez. Those three cars actually raced three-wide multiple times in the initial laps of the event as they fought for position.
Welshan went to the front of the pack on lap 2 as battles continued to rage throughout the field. On lap 4, Hernandez moved around Brooks to capture the runner-up spot while Hedgecock also joined the fray at the front of the field.
A string of cautions for spins and mechanical issues interrupted the rhythm of the race on several occasions. The first of which, on lap 9 brought about the elimination of Hixson, who looked to be a contender for a top finishing position.
The most significant of the yellow flags came just after a lap 15 restart when the third running Hernandez spun in turn four collecting Parkhurst, Heath Hindman and others. Significantly, the red flag was displayed for several minutes as track officials cleared the speedway of damaged cars and fluids.
After that restart, Hedgecock moved to second and began to challenge Brooks for the lead. The two cars put on a fierce battle that actually saw Brooks bounce off the turn two wall in a shower of sparks.
On lap 21, Hedgecock moved to the lead. At the same time, Mason worked his around Welshan to seize the third spot just behind the two lead machines.
When the checkered flag waved, Hedgecock was first across the line ahead of Brooks, Mason, Welshan, White, Wilson, Will Roland and Zachary Dunsmore.
However, the drama was not yet over. When the cars went to the scale house for post-race inspection it was found that the cars of Hedgecock, Brooks and Welshan were too light. After some deliberation, Boyd’s Speedway co-owners Dale McDowell and David Duplissey pointed out that the scales had just been calibrated the day before and that two of the top-5 had indeed made weight. As a result, those three drivers were disqualified.
The possibility that some drivers left their cars running during the red flag was offered as a cause for more than expected burn off, which might have resulted in weight loss by the cars.
The winner was Robby Mason who was followed by Ross White, Aaron Wilson, Will Roland and Zachary Dunsmore.
In other racing action, Jeff Irvin beat out Jason Emahiser and Charles Williams to win the B-Hobby feature.
