Jason Trammell in the Smoky Mountain Speedway Victory Lane a couple of years ago.
Jason Trammell has proven himself to be one of the toughest Late Model competitors in east Tennessee over the past several years in various races on just about every track in the region. But there is one race on one particular track that he has valued most of all and this past Saturday night the third generation driver was able to fulfill a goal by winning the Charles Trammell Memorial at the Tazewell Speedway.
“This was the most important race to win for me,” Trammell declared in an interview with InsideDirtRacing.com. “I’ve been trying at it for six years since he died in ’09. I had run third in it once, I qualified on the pole when it was a Super Late Model race but broke an axle tube, and last year I ran second to Cory Hedgecock. This year I finally won it. It was kind of like my Daytona 500 because there’s no other race I’d rather win than the one that honors my grandfather.”
Not only was Trammell’s grandfather a racer, but his father(Jack) holds a high place among the area’s greats and remains as an integral part of his son’s team. “He’s pretty much a legend around here,” Jason said of his father. “He’s well respected and he’s the backbone of our team.”
Saturday’s victory in the Charles Trammell Memorial proved to be a challenge for the grandson of the race’s honoree. He qualified on the outside of the front row beside local standout Josh Collins. With no invert of the lineup, Trammell started in what is often considered the prime spot on the high-banked Tazewell Speedway.
After a series of misfires on the initial start of the race, Trammell took the early lead.
“I think it took us three starts in total to get going and I got the jump on the third start and was leading,” the eventual winner explained. “We had a pretty long green flag run, and from what I could tell from my crew, he was running me pretty hard. He wasn’t pulling up beside of me, but he was right there when we started getting into the lapped traffic.”
Trammell’s #90j
It was at that point when the pivotal moment in the contest occurred.
“We got caught up in a group of lapped cars and one of them had a RACEceiver that wasn’t working very good and he didn’t seem like he was going to lay over. So finally down the back straightaway, I got into him at the wrong part of the track. I intended just to nudge him to let him know I was there and when I nudged him it turned him sideways and spun him out.
“Our cars got hooked and the caution came out,” Trammell continued. “It took them a little while to get us separated. When they got us separated, my nose was all messed up and the filler panel was all jacked up, but we both got to continue and they charged the caution on him because he didn’t lay over.”
For the rest of the race, Trammell’s car proved to be a hand full because of the damage incurred as a result of the mishap.
“When we restarted, the car wasn’t exactly the same,” he explained. “It still felt pretty good but you could tell it was damaged a little bit and I had to hold on for the rest of the way to beat Collins. They said he was pretty close and he’s going to be tough this year.”
Trammell hopes to have more opportunities to race in 2015 after having to dedicate much of his time last year to another project.
“Last year we were building a house and I didn’t get to race a lot until about May so we just hit all the big money races around here,” he said. “That’s pretty much what we’re going to do this year. We’re just going to bounce around and hit the bigger shows. This weekend we’ll be a Smoky Mountain and the following weekend Bulls Gap has got a big race so we’ll go to that.”
Trammell plans to race both his Limited Late Model and Crate Late Model at Smoky Mountain this Friday.
Jason Trammell and crew celebrate after their win in the Charles Trammell Memorial(photo from the Team Trammell Facebook page)
