Riley Hickman emerged as the Limited Late Model winner in Bulls Gap
Along with the Carolina Clash Super Late Model Series on hand at Volunteer Speedway, the track also hosted a big Limited Late Model show on Saturday night. Riley Hickman brought two cars from his shop in Cleveland, Tenn. and ultimately took a winner’s check worth $2,000 back home at the end of the night.
Although Hickman’s night did not go as well as he might have liked in the Super Late Model due to a failed power steering pump, the R1 machine he entered with the Limited Late Models bested a field of 20 cars by the end of the evening.
Jason Manley proved to be the fastest in qualifying for this class when he posted a lap of 13.120 seconds around the third-mile clay oval. The entire field was set via time-trials so that put Trevor Sise, Jason Trammell, Cory Hedgecock, Greg Martin, Barrett Lowe, Jason Cardwell and Hickman in the positions that would follow the pole sitter to the green flag.
At the start of the 40-lap feature, Manley jumped out to the early lead with Sise, Trammell and Hedgecock in tow. Hickman moved up two positions quickly to knock on the door of the top-5.
Hedgecock stormed around Trammell on lap 2 to grab third place and begin his march toward the front of the field. By lap 8, the driver of car 23 had made the move around Sise to seize the runner-up position.
The most intense battle early was behind the leaders where Sise, Trammell, Martin and Hickman ran in tight formation as they fought for spots inside the top-5. At times, this group offered up two and three wide racing that eventual saw Hickman move to third with a power move that got him by both Sise and Trammell in the same turn.
In the meantime, Hedgecock tracked Manley down and began to challenge for the lead as the race passed its halfway point. The two cars raced side-by-side when they approached a slower machine. The lapped car moved to the high side to allow the leaders to go underneath, which created a three-wide situation in turn three. Manley found himself in the middle of that mix and got squeezed, which resulted in him spinning to bring out a caution.
Manley would retire from the race after that point.
On the ensuing restart, Hickman got a strong run down the back stretch and went to the inside of Hedgecock in turns three and four. There was contact between the two cars, from which Hickman emerged as the new leader. During a caution that came out one lap later, Hedgecock pulled alongside Hickman to show his displeasure with the move.
From that point, however, the race belonged to Hickman as his CVR Race Car pulled away from the pack and drove on to collect the victory.
Feature Finish: 1. Riley Hickman, 2. Cory Hedgecock, 3. Jason Trammell, 4. Stanley Donahoo, 5. Trevor Sise, 6. Barrett Lowe, 7. Greg Martin, 8. Bobby Mays, 9. John Tweed, 10. Ryan Gifford
Hickman and crew in Victory Lane
In other racing action on Saturday night, Forrest Trent passed pole sitter Tim Byrd on lap 9 then drove on to collect the win in the Sportsman class with Byrd, Scott Boyd, David Smith and Warren McMahan following.
Forrest Trent was the Sportsman victor in Bulls Gap
