Jamie Perry was declared the UCRA winner after Jason Deal’s DQ
The United Crate Racing Alliance made its first trek to the mountainous highlands of southwestern North Carolina for the purpose of staging one of their events at Ray Cook’s Tri-County Race Track in Brasstown. Ultimately, Jamie Perry came away with the victory on the high-banked speedway which pocketed him the $2,500 first prize after apparent winner Jason Deal was disqualified following post-race inspection.
Perry led the way in qualifying among the 22 cars that signed in for competition by posting a time of 13.785 seconds around the quarter-mile clay oval. Chip Brindle, Pierce McCarter, Deal, Forest Trent, and Cory Hedgecock followed the fast qualifier in time-trial action.
Perry and Deal won the heat races used to establish the starting grid for the main event.
Prior to the start of the main event the car driven by Hedgecock(subbing for Matt Henderson) pulled off track with smoke and sparks pouring from underneath the left front of the machine. However, the crew went to work and quickly repaired the issue and sent the No. H2 ride back on track where the driver would assume his assigned starting spot.
At the start of the 40-lap feature, Deal used his outside front row starting spot to his advantage as he went to the front of the pack with Perry, Brindle, McCarter, and Heath Hindman following in his tire tracks. Hedgecock went to work early on as attempted to crack the top-5 by moving inside of McCarter until contact from Tri-County regular Jason Anderson caused Hedgecock to fall back in line.
Deal began to pull away from the field in the early going until the first of four caution flags waved on lap 6 when the car of Drew Deaver slammed into the turn one wall. Perry, Brindle, McCarter, Hindman and Hedgecock followed the leader at the time of the yellow flag.
Jason Deal led all 40 laps of the UCRA race at Tri-County only to be disqualified later
Hindman moved around McCarter on the lap 6 restart to claim the fourth spot while Deal once again pulled away from his pursuers. McCarter regained the fourth position three laps later and just before another yellow flag was displayed when Hedgecock spun after suffering what appeared to be a flat left front tire.
The most intense racing of the night occurred during the event’s middle stages when the leaders worked their way into and through slower traffic. Deal’s lead evaporated as Perry closed right to his rear spoiler and even looked underneath the leader’s car on a couple of occasions with Brindle lurking just behind.
A lap 38 caution set the stage for a final dash to the finish. However, Deal was up to the challenge despite those transmission troubles that plagued his car throughout the evening. The Copper Hill, Tenn. driver beat Perry, Brindle, McCarter, Hindman, Ethan Hunter, Trent, Robert Gant, Ronnie Cooper and UCRA points leader Rusty Ballenger to the checkered flag to earn his first UCRA series victory.
Note: Jason Deal was disqualified after post-race inspection. Jamie Perry was declared the winner of the UCRA race at Tri-County.
