Jesse Lowe
Along with the Southern Nationals Bonus Series race for Super Late Model cars, Boyd’s Speedway also staged racing in the Crate Late Model class as part of its Shamrock event on Saturday night. Crossville’s Jesse Lowe emerged as the winner and took home the $1,500 first prize.
Drew Kennedy earned the pole position for the feature when he set a qualifying mark of 14.139 seconds around the third-mile track to beat out Lowe, Ethan Hunter, Jason Deal, Chip Brindle, Jamie Perry, Rusty Ballenger and Mike Tinker.
Track officials had originally decided to lock the top-16 qualifiers into the feature and then offer one consolation race to set the remainder of the field. With 16 cars being the number to have been entered in the race, there was no need for any preliminary racing.
The start of the 20-lap feature proved disastrous for some as Hunter’s car went sideways as the field roared into turn one just after receiving the green flag. As a result, every car except for those of Kennedy and Lowe were involved in the ensuing melee and were damaged to some degree. Hunter, Deal and Bryan Pritchard were eliminated from the race due to the damage they received.
On the second attempt at a start, Perry slowed before a lap could be completed as he proved to also be a victim of the initial incident.
Ultimately, the race had to be started in single-file fashion as the track battled against its curfew limitation.
Once the feature got rolling, Kennedy went to the early lead followed by Lowe, Brindle, Tinker and Ballenger. Lowe almost immediatly went to work on Kennedy as those two contested the lead of the race while Brindle, Tinker and Ballenger locked into a tight battle for the remaining positions in the top-5.
Ballenger moved forward as he took the fourth spot away from Tinker on the fifth circuit. At the same time, Brindle broke away from that fight and moved up to make the battle for the lead a three-car tussle.
At the halfway mark, Lowe made his move as he went to the low side of the track on the front stretch and then slid up in front of Kennedy to assume command as the cars drove through turns one and two. Brindle would follow that move with a pass of his own on Kennedy two laps later.
On lap 16, the fourth running machine of Ballenger slowed and pulled off the track with mechanical issues.
Brindle pressured Lowe for the rest of the distance but was never able to make a pass for the top spot.
At the checkered flag it was Jesse Lowe taking the win ahead of Chip Brindle, Drew Kennedy, Same Seawright and Mike Tinker.
