The Mitch McCarter led team normally associated with 411 Motor Speedway staged their first event since leasing the property at the Volunteer Speedway on Saturday afternoon with solid car counts in all classes and a good crowd of fans in the grandstand. At the end of the day, it was Jensen Ford who came away with the win in the Crate Late Model division while Matt Tharp emerged victorious among the Sportsman combatants.
Jensen Ford was the Crate Late Model winner
Logan Roberson proved to be the fastest in Crate Late Model qualifying as he turned a lap around the 4/10 mile clay oval in 14.176 seconds to beat out the field of 19 entrants. With the feature lineup set entirely by time-trials, Roberson would be joined in the top-5 on the starting grid by Ford, Rusty Ballenger, Drew Kennedy and Tim Byrd.
Ford took advantage of his outside front row starting position to surge into the lead on the first of 25 laps that would make up the feature distance. Roberson, Ballenger, Kennedy and Walker Arthur would give chase to the leader during the early going of the event. It would be Ballenger who would go on the early attack as he began to pressure Roberson for the runner-up spot on the second circuit and would grab that position just one lap later.
Jensen Ford
Further behind the front runners, Arthur and Byrd battled for fifth while Kennedy moved around Roberson to take third on the fifth lap. At the same time, Josh Henry, Chicky Barton, Josh Fields and Jesse Lowe were engaged in their own dispute for positions within the top-10.
In a race that eventually run caution free, slower traffic would become a factor. However, those machines did not impede the progress of Ford as he moved around each obstacle while maintaining a relatively comfortable margin over Ballenger.
Ultimately, it was Jensen Ford taking the win followed by Rusty Ballenger, Logan Roberson, Drew Kennedy, Tim Byrd, Walker Arthur, Josh Henry, Chicky Barton, Jesse Lowe and Josh Fields.
Tharp set fast time in Sportsman qualifying among the ten cars signed in for competition by posting a lap of 14.371 seconds around the high-baked oval. Heath Alvey, Tyler Smith, Ryan Carey, Adam Mitchell and Ray Jarnigan joined the pace setter in the first three rows on the starting grid.
Alvey took the early lead at the outset of the 20-lap main event for this class ahead of Tharp, Smith, Carey and Jarnigan. However, a spin by Carey on the second circuit would briefly slow the action and take the fourth place runner out of contention for the win.
Alvey continued to lead throughout the first half of the race with Tharp stalking at every turn. Meanwhile, Mitchell applied pressure at the rear of Jarnigan’s machine as those two drivers fought over fifth place.
Matt Tharp was the Sportsman winner
After several laps of trying to move around Alvey on the outside of turns one and two, Tharp used the momentum created by that move to dive inside of the race leader going down the back straightaway on the 13th lap. The move proved successful as the No. 35 car emerged out of turns three and four with the lead.
Both front runners narrowly avoided a close call just two laps after the exchange of the top spot when a slower car spun right into their path at the exit of turn four. Both were able to continue on, however, as caution came over the speedway.
After the ensuing restart, Matt Tharp was able to maintain his advantage and drive on to the win ahead of Heath Alvey, Tyler Smith, Adam Mitchell, Ray Jarnigan and Ryan Carey.
