Cory Hedgecock continued his winning ways at Smoky Mountain.
Along with the Southern All Stars race held on Saturday night, Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tenn. hosted the Limited Late Model and Street Stock classes to complete the show.
Cory Hedgecock has been on a roll all around east Tennessee in the Limited Late Model class, and that continued on Saturday night. The young driver scored yet another win and earned $1,500 in the process. But unlike many of his previous victories this year, the outcome was in doubt right up to the time the checkered flag waved.
Hedgecock began the night by setting fast time in qualifying among a field of 11 cars with a lap of 16.260 seconds around the 4/10 mile clay oval. He was followed by Jason Welshan, Tony Martin, Bobby Giffin and Jason Manley. The starting lineup for the feature was set entirely through time-trials.
At the start of the 25-lap feature, it looked as if Hedgecock would drive away from the pack as he has so often done in the past. Welshan and Martin battled for the runner-up spot during the early laps with Manley and Giffin lurking.
After a lap 6 restart, Welshan slipped high in turn two and handed the 2nd position over to Martin and the 3rd spot to Giffin. One lap later, Manley’s night would end prematurely as he tagged the outside wall to bring out the race’s final caution.
After the lap 8 restart, Martin and Giffin held pace with Hedgecock as the top-3 cars broke away from Welshan and Drew Kennedy. On lap 18, Giffin was able move around Martin to take second and set off in pursuit of Hedgecock.
With three laps remaining, Giffin closed to the lead car’s rear spoiler. Over the final two circuits, he tried repeatedly to get around but Hedgecock was able to beat back those charges.
At the finish, it was Cory Hedgecock, Bobby Giffin, Tony Martin, Jason Welshan and Drew Kennedy.
Charlie Bates celebrates his Street Stock win.
There was no qualifying session for the Street Stock class as the feature lineup was set entirely by heat races. Jeff McLemore and Charlie Bates won those two preliminaries to establish the front row for the 15-lap feature.
Once the main event began, Bates rocketed to the early lead. Attrition would claim much of the 13 car field, including McLemore.
Bates led all the way to score the $500 win over Jon Cook, Charles Toomey and Ben Sexton.
