Payton Freeman took the lead on lap 31 and drove on to victory
The Southern All-Star Dirt Racing Series made its way to the I-75 Raceway on Saturday evening. Following an intense night of racing through heavy traffic, it was series points leader Payton Freeman who claimed the win at the Sweetwater, Tennessee facility. The Capital Race Cars driver from Commerce, Georgia claimed $5,000 for his efforts.
A total of 31 cars were signed in for competition.
Eli Beets was fastest in Group A qualifying with a lap of 14.452 seconds around the third-mile clay oval to top Zack Mitchell, Skip Arp, Payton Freeman and Bobby Giffin.
Cory Hedgecock topped Group B time-trials with a time of 14.534 seconds to beat out Dale McDowell, Dalton Cook, Ahnna Parkhurst and Austin Franklin.
The top-5 from each group were locked into the feature.
Christian Hanger won the first B-main ahead of Ryan King, Dean Bowen, Larry Greer, Heath Hindman and Dusty Carver.
Sam Seawright took the second B-main by outrunning Colton Proffitt, Dillon Tidmore, Roger Best, Mark Dodson and David Crabtree.
At the start of the 50-lap feature it was Beets who took the early lead with Hedgecock, McDowell, Mitchell and Arp trailing. Arp moved in to challenge Mitchell for fourth on the third lap as the top-3 of Beets, Hedgecock and McDowell ran in tight formation while at the same time distancing themselves from the pack.
Hedgecock looked inside of Beets on lap 6 and was finally able to complete the pass for the top spot one lap later. Then on lap 8, McDowell took advantage and drove around Beets for the runner-up position. But McDowell wasn’t done yet as he then began to harass Hedgecock as he looked for an opportunity to take the race lead.
On lap 14, the veteran driver of the No. 17m was successful as McDowell got by Hedgecock while the two were working through heavy traffic. By lap 20, McDowell began to increase his margin over Hedgecock while Freeman worked his way up to third.
The first yellow flag of the night waved on lap 27 when John Ownbey slowed on the front stretch. On the ensuing restart, Freeman jumped up to second behind McDowell with Hedgecock maintaining third.
The complexion of the race would change on lap 31 when McDowell slowed with a transmission issue. At that point, Freeman inherited the lead with Hedgecock and Mitchell running second and third. Further back a fierce battle was taking place involving Arp, Seawright and King as they fought over the remaining positions in the top-5.
Over the closing laps, Freeman negotiated the slower traffic flawlessly while Hedgecock and Mitchell continued to wrestle for third. Ultimately, Freeman would sail under the checkered flag for his second Southern All Stars win f the season.
Note: Although Mitchell crossed the finish line third, he was disqualified following the race.
Feature Finish: 1. Payton Freeman, 2. Cory Hedgecock, 3. Sam Seawright, 4. Ryan King, 5. Skip Arp, 6. Eli Beets, 7. Ahnna Parkhurst, 8. Christian Hanger, 9. Dillon Tidmore, 10. Colton Proffitt, 11. Bobby Giffin, 12. Billy Franklin, 13. Heath Hindman, 14. Dean Bowen, 15. Ruben Mayfield, 16. Austin Franklin, 17. Dusty Carver, 18. Larry Greer, 19. Dale McDowell, 20. Dalton Cook, 21. John Ownbey, 22. Roger Best, 23. David Crabtree, 24. Mark Dodson, 25. Zack Mitchell
