When Cory Hedgecock cruised under the checkered to claim the win in the Schaeffer’s Oil Iron-Man Late Model Series-sanctioned Scott Sexton Memorial this past Memorial Day at the 411 Motor Speedway few were surprised. After all, the Loudon, Tenn. driver has been a frequent visitor to the Seymour, Tenn. track’s victory lane over the past few years, including a World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series feature back in 2018.
Colten Burdette
However, the driver who finished second in that race may very well have caught some observers by surprise. It’s not that Colten Burdette isn’t a talented driver or doesn’t have a good team, but rather, he simply has not raced in the east Tennessee region very often and few who were in attendance knew of the Parkersburg, WV driver prior to the start of racing action that night.
The 26-year-old Burdette can often be found racing at venues closer to his home. West Virginia’s Tyler County Speedway and Ohio’s Atomic Speedway are tracks on which the third generation racer has logged the most laps. But a recent development will allow the driver and his team to travel a bit further from home if and when they decide to do so.
“We try to stay within four or five hours of home,” Burdette explained in an interview with InsideDirtRacing.com following the Sexton Memorial. “This track is about six-and-a-half hours away but we just recently got a truck that we can travel in and we plan on doing a little bit more of that now.”
Even though he himself had never before turned laps in his Late Model at 411, Burdette’s brother has raced and won on the high-banked 3/8 mile clay oval. K.C. Burdette scored victories in his Modified machine on the east Tennessee track in the 2016 ‘Leftover’ race as well as the 2017 ‘Hangover’.
However, the driver of the No. 44 Craiger Racing Engines-powered Rocket Chassis was caught a bit off guard by the hammer-down condition in which he found the track during hot laps on Monday evening. Further, the driver says that he has no other track to hold in comparison with 411 due to the great variation between the two ends of the speedway.
“My brother has won races here in the Modified and every time I watch a race you can almost see your reflection in the track on the video and I’ve thought this place is awesome because I like a slick track,” Burdette explained. “That takes the money out of it and puts the driver in it. But when we got here and hot lapped I was thinking that’s not what we came down here for, but we were good from the time we unloaded. I like the track and I’ve never seen a track with corners that are so different in my life.”
Colten Burdette’s No. 44 Rocket Chassis
Burdette knew coming in that the competition would be tough. However, he rose to the challenge during the 52-lap feature passing the likes of multiple-time 411 feature winners Dale McDowell and Donald McIntosh on his way to a runner-up finish behind Hedgecock.
“It’s funny because on the way down here, not that we’re scared, but we talked about who was going to be there,” he said. “I told my dad that it didn’t really matter because every big race here, no matter what the sanction is, Cory Hedgecock and a couple of other locals are tough. It don’t matter if it’s World of Outlaws or what it is, Cory is the guy to beat. But we ran with him tonight.”
Like many, Burdette has missed participating in the sport he loves during the recent shutdowns related the COVID-19 pandemic. The trip to 411 proved to be a worthwhile one and he looks forward to a return to normal in the racing world.
“We’re just excited to get back to racing,” he declared. “We’re tired of all this stay at home stuff. It just seems like a slow process. We’re just waiting and trying to go where we can go to.”
As a result of the staggered reopening around the country, racers like Burdette cannot plan a schedule very far in advance.
“The only thing set in stone that we have on our schedule is on Thursday at Tyler County Speedway,” he pointed out. “But as of right now, I don’t know what I’m going to do beyond that.”
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