Volunteer Speedway staged racing in its weekly classes on Saturday night. Along with Jason Trammell’s triumph in the Limited Late Model division, there were Late Model win achieved by Mack McCarter in the Crate Late Model class and Travis Fultz in Sportsman.
Mack McCarter drove his CVR Race Car to victory lane
Tim Byrd proved to be fastest in Crate Late Model qualifying as he beat out the 17 other competitors to grab the pole position by posting a lap of 13.330 seconds around the 4/10 mile clay oval. McCarter, Jesse Lowe, Rusty Ballenger, Kyle Courtney, Ross White, Jason Welshan, Josh Henry, John Llewellyn and Gary Crittenden rounded out the top-10 in time-trials for the class.
There were no heat races as the starting lineup for the main event was lined up based solely on qualifying results.
McCarter took advantage of his outside front row starting position as he took the lead at the start of the 30-lap feature. Byrd, Courtney, Lowe and White followed the leader in the early going. Both Courtney and White made moves quickly as Courtney took second and White grabbed fourth on the second circuit as McCarter slipped away from the pack.
A lap 3 caution for a spin by Keith Helton briefly slowed the action. On the ensuing restart, White again made a move forward as he took third away from Byrd. Henry began a climb toward the front when he moved up to fourth following a lap 4 restart.
White claimed the runner-up position when he passed by Courtney on lap 7 as McCarter continued to keep distance between himself and his pursuers.
During the race’s second half, McCarter and White broke away from the field as Courtney, Henry and Byrd engaged in a tight battle for the remaining positions within the top-5. Eventually, Henry would get around Courtney to claim third.
At the finish it was Mack McCarter who would earn the win with Ross White, Josh Henry, Kyle Courtney, Tim Byrd, Jesse Lowe, Gary Crittenden, Jason Welshan, Greg Martin and John Llewellyn following.
Travis Fultz cruised to victory in the Sportsman class
The Sportsman Late Model race was not lacking in excitement and controversy.
Fultz led the way in qualifying as he posted a lap of 13.406 seconds to beat out 23 other drivers who had signed in for competition in the class. Aaron Guinn, Zach Sise, Heath Alvey, Matt Tharp, Warren McMahan, Rex Coffey, Chris Coffey, Kevin Lewis and Jonathan Miracle made up the top-10 in time-trials.
There were no heat races as the field was set based on qualifying results.
Fultz took the initial lead of the 20-lap feature at the start with Guinn, Alvey, Sise and McMahan following. A series of early race cautions kept the field bunched and sparked hard racing for position on the restarts.
Rex Coffey and Tharp commenced an intense race for fifth on lap 5 that would carry on for several more laps. In the meantime, Guinn pressured Fultz for the race lead.
Coffey and Tharp came in contact with each other as they battled along the backstretch on lap 11 which caused Tharp to slow, bringing out a caution. As the cars circulated at low speed, the cars of Tharp and Coffey banged each other multiple times doing damage to both machines. Both drivers would eventually be disqualified from the race for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Travis Fultz would lead the rest of the way and beat Aaron Guinn, Heath Alvey, Zach Sise, Chris Coffey, Jed Emert and Jonathan Miracle to the finish line.
But the action wasn’t over when the checkered flag waved. A post-race inspection found Guinn to have an unapproved carburetor and he was disqualified.
