Riley Hickman
Last year’s victory in the Cabin Fever 40 at Boyd’s Speedway was one of the most emotional moments ever in the career of driver Riley Hickman. The Ooltewah, Tenn. racer’s father had just passed away days prior to that event and the win proved to be a bitter/sweet affair.
Saturday night’s win on the Ringgold, Georgia speedway may not have been charged with so much emotion, but it did prove satisfying for the two-time Southern All Stars title holder as he happily collected the $3,000 winner’s check prior to a trek to the Screven Motor Speedway in Georgia for World of Outlaws Late Models competition next weekend.
Ray Cook began the day by posting the fastest time in qualifying among the 48 cars presented for competition with a lap of 15.256 seconds on the third-mile clay oval located just outside of Chattanooga, Tenn. The ‘Tarheel Tiger’ was joined by Hickman, Cory Hedgecock, Pierce McCarter, Donald McIntosh and Tony Knowles as those drivers to be locked into a dash race that would set the first three rows on the starting grid for the feature.
Hickman earned the pole position for the main event by winning the dash race over Cook, McIntosh, Hedgecock, McCarter and Knowles.
Jason Hiett and Todd Morrow won the two heat races used to determine remainder of the starting lineup for the feature event.
Hickman immediately bolted to the lead from the inside of the front row when the green flag waved, leaving Cook and McIntosh to fight over the second spot ahead of a swarm of cars as battles were being waged throughout the field. The first 12 laps of the race ran caution free, which allowed the cars to eventually sort themselves out with the leader building an advantage of ten car lengths.
The first of five yellow flags would wave on lap 12 when Adam Martin found trouble in turn two. The ensuing restart allowed the second running McIntosh to keep pace with Hickman while Cook, McCarter and Hedgecock stalked just behind the front runners. Meanwhile, Jason Welshan, Ryan Gifford and Grant Pearl(driving Randy Weaver’s usual #116) jousted for positions within the top-10.
However, A lap 16 caution impacted the top-10 cars of Welshan and Gifford when it appeared as if Welshan’s ride slowed suddenly and collected Gifford, setting off a multi-car incident.
McIntosh made his strongest bid to unseat Hickman just after the midway point of the race. As the two cars worked through slower traffic, McIntosh was able to move his #7 under Hickman’s #R1 when the cars roared down the back stretch. However, a caution on lap 22 for the stalled car of Derek Ellis negated the pass for the lead since the lap had not been fully completed by the lead duo.
Third running Cook suffered disappointment on lap 26 when his engine gave way to bring out the race’s final caution.
From that point, Hickman was able to control the pace as he drove on to victory.
Feature finish: 1. Riley Hickman, 2. Donald McIntosh, 3. Pierce McCarter, 4. Cory Hedgecock, 5. Jason Hiett, 6. Todd Morrow, 7. Grant Pearl, 8. Jordy Nipper, 9. Aaron Ridley, 10. Jerry Coffman, 11. Tim Busha, 12, Rick Hixson, 13. Robby Mason, 14. Joe Denby, 15. Tod Hernandez, 16. Aaron Wilson, 17. Ray Cook, 18. Josh Johnson, 19. Derek Ellis, 20. Jeff Smith, 21. Tony Knowles, 22. Jason Welshan, 23. Ryan Gifford, 24. Adam Martin
