Trevor Sise in victory lane at 411
Excited, overjoyed, thrilled and exhilarated are all emotions one would expect to see from a race car driver who had just bagged the biggest win of his career. On Saturday night, Trevor Sise was all of those things and one more. The young racer was also thankful as he stood in victory lane to receive the accolades of his triumph.
This past Saturday night at 411 Motor Speedway, Sise achieved a milestone in his racing career when he scored a victory in the 12th annual Steelhead Nationals. The Knoxville driver picked up a cool $3,500 for his efforts on the Seymour, Tenn. track in an event traditionally set aside for Limited Late Model cars.
Sise was the second fastest in time-trials among the 28 entrants with Cory Hedgecock setting the pace. Sise went on to earn a front row starting spot for the feature by winning his heat race. However, the win did not come easily by any means as the No. 73 Stinger Race Car trailed Hedgecock throughout the first half of the 40-lap main event and had to overcome a fierce battle with Jason Manley during the middle stages.
“It’s pretty awesome to win this race,” Sise declared in an interview with InsideDirtRacing.com shortly after the checkered flag had ended the Steelhead Nationals. “There’s nothing else like it. This is definitely the biggest win of my career.”
Sise was thankful for the clean way in which one of his fellow competitors raced him. In a race that saw 27 consecutive laps of green flag action between lap 3 and lap 30, the lead trio of Hedgecock, Sise and Manley found themselves in tight formation as they battled among slower traffic.
Sise and Manley exchanged the runner-up position on multiple occasions while also working to keep the pressure on the race leader.
“I might have got into him a little bit, but it wan’t anything intentional,” Sise said of his battle with Manley. “Me and him raced real good together and we always race good together. I can’t thank him enough for that.”
After breaking away from Manley, Sise then set his sights on Hedgecock. His car was closing ground on the No. 23 machine at the rate of two-tenths per lap and looked poised to strike. Instead, however, calamity struck on lap 30 as a couple of slower cars spun in turn three. Hedgecock came along in the wrong place at the wrong time and had no where to go. After spinning into the melee and making contact with one of the stalled cars his car suffered damage.
Track officials ruled that Hedgecock climbed from his car while it remained on the track during a red flag period which resulted in an automatic disqualification.
“I’m pretty sure I could have passed him,” Sise insisted. “He was fading pretty fast. I could get to his rear bumper and it was just a matter of time. Racing in traffic like that gets really hairy. It can be kind of sketchy. There was a couple of opportunities I had to drive under him but I was biding my time.”
Trevor Sise in his No. 73 Stinger Race Car
Sise has been racing in the Crate Late Model division throughout most of the early part of 2018. So when it came time for this big Limited Late Model event, he realized he needed some help and he was thankful to get it from an east Tennessee engine builder.
“It was pretty awesome,” Sise declared. “I have to thank Junior Weisgarber(Phantom Racing Engines) for letting me run his motor this weekend because mine was messed up. It’s really awesome for him to let me use it and to win such a big race on the first night out in it.”
The time leading up to the Steelhead Nationals was certainly busy for Sise and his team that includes his father(Calvin) and his brother(Zach).
“You name it and we’ve done it,” Sise explained. “I was grooving tires until two o’clock this morning then got back up at eight o’clock and worked until about three getting finished up and loaded up, but it all paid off.”
