Ryan King dominated in Bulls Gap
Volunteer Speedway continued its Fast Friday series of races with the Walter Ball Memorial featuring a $1,200-to-win Steel Head Late Model race as the main attraction. Ryan King of Seymour, Tenn. emerged as the winner and took home the trophy when the dust settled on the Bulls Gap, Tenn. facility.
King was fast right out of the gate as he grabbed the pole position in his Warrior Race Car by turning a lap around the 4/10 mile clay oval in 12.950 seconds. With the entire 15 car field set by time-trials, Cory Hedgecock, Greg Estes, Trevor Sise, Jason Cardwell, Barrett Lowe, Jesse Lowe, Jason Manley, Josh Henry and Bobby Mays rounded out the top-10 on the starting grid.
As the pole sitter, King chose to start the race from the outside of the front row. As the field took the green flag, Hedgecock bolted into turn one and appeared to clear King’s machine. However, his momentum carried his car too high in turn two, allowing King and Estes to slip by on the inside.
From that point, King would pull away to build an impressive lead before a lap 15 caution slowed the pace of the action and allowed the pack to bunch up behind the race leader. But just because King proved to be dominant doesn’t mean the racing behind him wasn’t intense. Throughout the 30-lap feature, battles would be staged for positions within the top-10.
Cardwell looked to be an early mover as he began to apply pressure on Sise right away for the fourth spot while Hedgecock fought back from his early slip to threaten Estes for the runner-up position during the initial laps of the event.
After the lap 15 caution, Sise, Jesse Lowe and Manley engaged in a heated fight for fifth as the three cars ran in tight formation around the high-banked track for multiple laps as Hedgecock continued to work on Estes until his efforts finally paid off on lap 21.
After a lap 27 yellow flag for a spin by the top-10 running Manley, Hedgecock would make a valiant attempt to get inside the No. 30 machine for the lead but King’s car was just too strong on this night.
Feature Finish: 1. Ryan King, 2. Cory Hedgecock, 3. Greg Estes, 4. Jason Cardwell, 5. Trevor Sise, 6. Jesse Lowe, 7. Barrett Lowe, 8. Layne Clifton, 9. Josh Henry, 10. Bobby Mays.
Ryan King and crew celebrate their Walter Ball victory
