Chassis builder Bruce Nunnally and driver Cory Hedgecock
Cory Hedgecock has had a great amount of success in a relatively short period of time racing Limited and Crate Late Models all over the east Tennessee region. Bruce Nunnally is known throughout the dirt racing world as a top chassis builder. With the shops used by these two men located side-by-side in north Knoxville, it only seems natural for them to join in a partnership to go Super Late Model racing.
Hedgecock currently drives for his family owned team(led by his father Chad) with power provided by Eagle Racing Engines. That company was founded by his grandfather, Mike Hedgecock, to build engines for various forms of racing, including Dirt Late Models. The 21-year-old driver has scored victories at tracks such as Tazewell Speedway, 411 Motor Speedway, Smoky Mountain Speedway and Volunteer Speedway.
Nunnally runs his own Brucebilt Performance, which serves as a distributor and maintenance facility for the Rocket Chassis brand. In years past he has worked for the likes of C.J. Rayburn, Warrior Race Cars and Bloomquist Race Cars. In the process, he has worked with some of the most famous and successful drivers in the sport.
“We want to get a good car together and continue to build on what Cory’s been doing and try to win as many races as we can,” Nunnally explained from his shop. “Our goal is three-fold going into this deal. We want to win races, sell cars and gain knowledge. We want to learn as much as we can about the cars and we want to get better about assembling the cars, racing the cars, and everything else from the ground up. I think the team of us and Eagle together can do that.”
Neither party involved is using the term ‘house car’ to describe what they are doing together. Instead, it is more of a joint venture. In reality the alliance is actually between Brucebilt Performance and Eagle Racing Engines. Brucebilt will provide a Rocket by Brucebilt chassis while Eagle will supply the power plants.
Nunnally believes that the best plan of action for both businesses to build a grass roots type effort.
“We need to start out regionally right now” the chassis guru said. “There are plenty of good races in our area and I think that’s the best start. That’s also the best market to help your business. Trying to do things nationally isn’t going to help either of our businesses a whole lot. Doing good things regionally will help our business.”
The young driver views this as a great situation which will allow him to move up to the next level of dirt racing.
“I think this will be awesome,” Hedgecock declared. “We’ve never had this kind of an opportunity in terms of somebody supplying us with a car. We’re going to try to run it all next year and get some wins out of it and try to learn a bunch. We want to improve our personal program among both of us so that the people of east Tennessee will have faith in both of us.”
As far as driving a car built specifically for him by a top chassis builder, Hedgecock is excited.
“It’s going to be cool,” he said. “I’ve never had a new race car so I think it’s going to be trick. We’ve never built one from the ground up as far as our personal race car. It’ll help both of us in the long run so that maybe we can win some races and sell some cars and some motors.”
The goals for the venture are initially modest, but Hedgecock has definite ideas about what he hopes to achieve over the next twelve months.
Hedgecock’s current Limited Late Model sits besides the chassis being constructed.
“We had a real good last year and this year’s going good to this point,” the driver pointed out. “We’ve won ten races so far and we’re still going. Next year, I would be absolutely tickled to death to win two or three super races. We’d love to get a super win by the end of this year just to get the momentum going into next year.”
And as far as racing against the increased level of competition, Hedgecock believes it will help him improve as a driver.
“It’s awesome!” he emphatically stated. “When we went to Tazewell last week, me and Stacy Boles raced together for five laps and never touched each other. Then (Chris)Madden rolled by me like I was sitting still, but I jumped up behind him and it was good just to follow somebody that. It was a good 35 laps of learning.”
Both men believe that success is in their future, but it will come in due time.
“I’m sure we’ll be fine,” Hedgecock said. “It will just take some time and I believe it will all come together.”
“I’m pretty confident we can do it,” Nunnally agreed. “We need to go test and then just get out there and do it.”
The team is targeting the three race series of events at Boyd’s Speedway, Fort Payne Motor Speedway and Duck River Raceway Park at the end of August as their first outings. The car will carry Hedgecock’s familiar number 23 and will be trimmed in Brucebilt’s blue and black colors.
