Trevor Sise won the 12th annual Steelhead Nationals
The Steelhead Nationals held annually at 411 Motor Speedway has grown into one of the top racing events in the area and the most recent edition of the race held on Saturday night at the Seymour, Tenn. track will likely be one of the more memorable in the the twelve year history of the event. Trevor Sise came away with the $3,500 first prize after capitalizing on the misfortune of early race leader and three-time Steelhead Nationals champion Cory Hedgecock.
Hedgecock set the pace early on in the night when he posted the fastest overall time in qualifying as he toured the 3/8 mile clay oval in 14.055 seconds. Sise, Ryan King, Dakotah Knuckles and Layne Clifton rounded out the top-5 in the time-trial session.
Hedgecock earned the pole for the feature by beating out Clifton, Austin Neely and Tod Hernandez in the first heat race of the night while Sise would start from the outside of the front row by virtue of his win in the night’s second preliminary over Chase King, Justin Owens and Ethan Hunter.
Jason Manley picked up the win in the third heat of the evening ahead of Ryan King, Jason Cardwell and Ruben Mayfield just before Dakotah Knuckles won the fourth and final heat of the night by beating out Barrett Lowe, David Crabtree and John Ownbey.
The drama picked up just after the conclusion of the heats when it was discovered in an inspection that the width of the right rear tire on Knuckles’ car did not conform with the track’s regulations. As a result, the No, 21K was stripped of the heat race win and would have to start the lone B-main of the night from the tail.
Undeterred, Knuckles went on to win that B-main race.
Hedgecock bolted to the early lead at the start of the 40-lap feature with Sise, Manley, Clifton and Lowe hot on his trail. Clifton quickly began to harass Manley for third while Chase King moved passed Lowe to secure a spot in the top-5 of the running order.
By the sixth lap it looked as if Hedgecock might very well be on his way to his fourth career Steelhead Nationals victory as he began to pull away from Sise, who in turn, was pulling away from the third place battle between Manley and Clifton. However, slower traffic is often an equalizing factor in a race that runs for a long stretch without a yellow flag and this one proved to be no different.
Close quarters racing in the early going
By lap 8, Hedgecock found himself working to put those running at the tail of the field a lap down. But at the same time, Sise closed quickly on the race leader. On lap 12, Sise’s No. 73 moved right onto the rear spoiler of Hedgecock’s No. 23. And just behind the two front runners, Manley closed in and began looking for an opportunity to pounce.
Just behind the lead trio, Clifton, Chase King and Ryan King ran in tight formation for positions 4 -6.
Eventual second place finisher Chase King(44) battle Ryan King
Calamity then struck on lap 30. Owens spun in turn 4. That, in turn, collected the oncoming car of Neely. When the leading car of Hedgecock reached the scene, he found his path block and spun into the melee, making hard contact with Neely’s machine. The second running car of Sise was able to avoid the mishap but the third place machine of Manley was not so lucky.
Hedgecock might well have been able to continue but he climbed from his car to survey the damage. Track rules state that leaving one’s car results in an automatic disqualification. Manley, however, would attempt to continue on despite damage having been done to his car.
Cory Hedgecock climbing from his car after the lap 30 incident
Just three laps after the race restarted, Manley’s car slammed the turn four wall, presumably the result of the earlier damage, and ended his night.
At that point, a trio of Stinger Race Cars took the top spots on the scoreboard as Sise was the new leader followed by Chase King and Clifton with Ownbey and Ryan King rounding out the top-5.
Once the race restarted with seven laps remaining, Sise pulled away and drove on to victory.
Feature Finish: 1. Trevor Sise, 2. Chase King, 3. Layne Clifton, 4. John Ownbey, 5. Ryan King, 6. Jason Cardwell, 7. Ethan Hunter, 8. Jordon Horton, 9. Justin Owens, 10. Tim Damron, 11. Mike Price, 12. Ellery Leake, 13. Michael Smith, 14. Jason Manley, 15. Cory Hedgecock, 16. Tod Hernandez, 17. Austin Neely, 18. Barrett Lowe, 19. Mitchell Childress, 20. Bobby Giffin, 21. Adam Mitchell, 22. David Crabtree, 23. Dokatah Knuckles, 24. Ruben Mayfield
