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Ball leads flag-to-flag for Volunteer Speedway Fastrak Racing Series victory
By Robert Walden
BULLS GAP, Tenn. (Sept. 29) — The Carnesville, Ga.-based Fastrak Racing Series touring Crate Late Models were making their third appearance of the season at Volunteer Speedway on Saturday night for a $2,000-to-win combined Southern and Mideast regional points event. Dale Ball of Johnson City , Tenn. , led flag-to-flag to capture his first-ever Fastrak touring victory.
But the spotlight was also on John Llewellyn of Knoxville, Tenn., who entered the event in position to capture both the Southern and Mideast regional titles, as he stood atop the points leaderboard ahead of Lee Cooper of Greer, S.C., and David McCoy of Franklin, N.C. With each Fastrak regional champion to receive $5,000, all Llewellyn had to do was finish ahead of Cooper and McCoy in the feature. And he did, by one position … thus sewing up the championships in each region, and pocketing $10,000.
Shanon Buckingham was fast-qualifier over the 35 Fastrak cars present, running a lap of 13.672-seconds. But that didn’t guarantee him the pole position for the $2,000-to-win feature. The top-six in qualifying were Buckingham, Shane Roberts, Bobby Mays, Dale Ball, Allen Champ and Jerry Broyles. Following the Quick Six draw for starting spots prior to the start of the 50 lap main, Roberts was selected for the pole and Ball the outside front-row position. Row two consisted of Broyles and Mays, with Champ and Buckingham starting from the third row.
By virtue of being selected to start from the outside pole, Ball used his front-row starting berth to his advantage. The 46-year-old veteran driver had been out of racing since June following an accident while riding his horse. But back behind the wheel of his Smith Brothers Harley-Davidson of Johnson City/Alan Poyner Enterprises/Mainline Communications/Jim Schweitzer Inc./Broyles Tire/Twin D Auto & Truck Sales/Tri-City Rubber & Gasket Co./Advance Auto Parts/Bilstein Shocks/Steve “The Man” Williams/Bill Curl Racing Engines/Warrior Race Cars/No. 2 Pontiac GTO, he felt right at home.
The first attempt to start the race was quickly red-flagged for a multi-car wreck at the end of the front straightaway entering the first turn that involved 15 of the 24 starters, with several machines suffering extensive damage. The second try to get the race under green also produced another multi-car tangle just past the flagstand. For the third attempt to go green, and with only 16 of the original 24 qualifiers still on the track, the race began single-file.
Roberts was moved to the rear of the field for a Fastrak race procedure rules violation, thus putting Ball out front on the point followed by Broyles, Mays, Champ and Buckingham. With the green flag waving, Ball was hounded initially by Broyles, who had Mays glued to his rear bumper. Champ was also being pressured for the fourth spot by Buckingham, who got his car sideways between turns one and two on lap 10 while sticking his nose underneath Champ wanting the position. Before he reeled his mount back in, Llewellyn sped past to move into fifth dropping Buckingham back to sixth in the running order.
Ball had pulled out to an eight car-length advantage over Broyles and Mays. Mays was working Broyles over trying to take away second place, and on lap 11 racing off the fourth turn he completed the pass for position. Just three circuits later Broyles dropped back another spot, as Champ passed him to move into third.
Mays, the current track Crate Late Model points leader and a winner of five features in 2007, closed to Ball’s rear bumper by lap 20. Looking to the outside and also sneaking peeks to the inside, Mays was applying heat on Ball for the point. Racing down the backstretch into the third turn on lap 25, Mays looked to the inside of the race leader Ball entering the corner.
With Ball protecting his ground and Mays wanting the lead, between turns three and four contact was made. In a racing incident Mays’s right-front tire/wheel touched Ball’s left-rear wheel with Mays spinning at the exit of the fourth turn. With right-front suspension damage Mays’ strong run ended as he slowly pulled into the pits.
The top five going back green were Ball, Champ, Broyles, Buckingham and Llewellyn. With only 13 cars remaining in the race, out front Ball had a clear view. But he also had a hard-charging Champ riding in his rearview mirror. Champ appeared to have a quicker car as he began sizing Ball up for the right moment to make a pass for the lead.
Getting a good run on the inside of Ball racing off turn two on lap 35, it appeared Champ might make his move at the opposite end of the track. But between turns three and four, all at once Champ’s car just shot up the track from down on the inside. Having to get out of the throttle to reel his mount back in, he lost valuable real estate to Ball. However, in just two laps he once again closed back in on Ball.
With Ball and Champ having pulled out to comfortable margin over Broyles and Buckingham, Buckingham worked around Broyles to take away the third spot on lap 41 racing into the first turn. But as the laps wound down, Ball held off Champ and Buckingham for the $2,000 victory, with Broyles and Llewellyn finishing fourth and fifth, respectively.
Rounding out the top-10 finishers were Lee Cooper, Vic Chandler, Shane Roberts, Chris Chandler and Jason Trammell.
“It feels really good getting to race again after being away for a couple of months,” said a smiling Ball after climbing from his car in victory lane. We had a really good car tonight, but we also caught some lucky breaks too. We were quite fortunate in the draw among the top-six qualifiers to get the outside front-row starting spot. I guess that’s what you call the ‘luck of the draw’ working in your favor. During our weekly racing events we’re just used to starting where we qualify, and this drawing for starting positions really hurt (Shanon) Buckingham tonight as he had to start sixth.
“Besides being selected to start on the front row, another lucky break for us was when Shane (Roberts) got put to the rear of the field when we started the race single-file. When you can start all alone out front it definitely works to your advantage, because it’s so tough to pass in these (crate-engine) cars because every competitor has the same powerplant under the hood. You’ve really got to have a good-handling car, and tonight ours was very good. I could basically run wherever I needed to on the track. Being a racer myself and knowing what it’s like having to work on your equipment following a wreck, you sure hate seeing so many competitors get collected in those wrecks before we could even get one lap completed and tear their stuff up. I really want to thank my car owner Alan Poyner and also my uncle (Robert Ball) for working on the race car all the time, along with Steve Williams, Jason Smith, Jim Schweitzer and my wife and daughters for their support.”
Shanon Buckingham earned the pole position for the 35-lap “Gateway Ford” Super Late Model feature, but fellow front-row starter Kerry Jones of Bristol grabbed the lead at the drop of the green and never looked back en route to capturing his fourth feature win of the season. Jones, driving the Kerry Jones Trucking/ Bigfoot Enterprises - Used Trucks & Parts//VP Racing Fuels/Ohlins Shocks/Signs by Roach/Custom Race Engines/Scott Bloomquist Race Cars/No. 6 Monte Carlo, led from green-to-checkers in winning over Bryan Hendrix, Buckingham, Dale Ball and Mike Smith.
Completing the top-10 finishers were Clint Solomon, Brett Miller, Herman Goddard, Michael Jackson and Barry Arnold.
Dustin Shaver of Morristown held off Chuck Johnson, Jamie Whitt, Jon Cook and Dale Reed for his second “Rusty Wallace Toyota” Hobby Stock victory.
Shawn Henry of Newport cruised to his division-leading seventh “Century 21 Masengill-McCrary Realtors” Mini Stock feature win of the season over Josh Fields, Jamie James, Curtis Jones and Terry Dean.
FASTRAK RACING SERIES CRATE LATE MODELS (50 laps)
1) Dale Ball #2, 2) Allen Champ #11c, 3) Shanon Buckingham #50, 4) Jerry Broyles #72, 5) John Llewellyn #90, 6) Lee Cooper #57, 7) Vic Chandler #88, 8) Shane Roberts #17s, 9) Chris Chandler #8, 10) Jason Trammell #91, 11) Joey McCoy #187, 12) Anthony Arnwine #11a, 13) A.J. Watson #99, 14) Bobby Mays #19, 15) Jason Lawrence #54, 16) Greg Burchett #17, 17) Jensen Ford #83, 18) Luke Laney #9, 19) Warren McMahan #33, 20) Matt Long #25, 21) Brad Kenyon #98, 22) Chuck Laney #91, 23) Todd Brooks #T1, 24) David McCoy #187
Failed To Transfer Into Starting Lineup: Tony Trent #18, Ricky Moore #75, Brad Dyer #20, Kelly Glass #01, James Cole #5, Bobby Sexton #99, Josh Henry #B00, Joe “Dirt” Good #911, Hugh “Wishbone” Scalf #56, Casey Greenlee #02, Wendell Petty #43
“GATEWAY FORD” SUPER LATE MODEL (35 laps)
1) Kerry Jones #6, 2) Bryan Hendrix #5, 3) Shanon Buckingham #44, 4) Dale Ball #7, 5) Mike Smith #4, 6) Clint Solomon #36, 7) Brett Miller #25, 8) Herman Goddard #22, 9) Michael Jackson #Q, 10) Barry Arnold #15a, 11) Ryan Brewer #05, 12) Dwight Sams #54, 13) Jackie Hughes #27, 14) Phil Helton #24, 15) Dennis Alverson #71, 16) Jimmy Cox #8, 17) Shane Roberts #32w, 18) Johnny Lane #121, 19) Gary Blanken #05, 20) Marty Calloway #7, 21) Louis Hickey #74, 22) Mike Reece #8, 23) Jeff Maupin #0
“RUSTY WALLACE TOYOTA” HOBBY STOCK (20 laps)
1) Dustin Shaver #7, 2) Chuck Johnson #17, 3) Jamie Whitt #1, 4) Jon Cook #0z, 5) Dale Reed #54, 6) Craigg Moore #6, 7) Rick Fillers #21, 8) R.J. Mayes #6m, 9) Ray Jarnigan #31, 10) Dennis Metcalf #55, 11) Charlie Bates #27, 12) Phillip Nichols #33, 13) Jesse Helton #28, 14) Chris Gregg #9, 15) Jamie “Shorty” Ledford #41, 16) Shannon Davidson #4, 17) Everett Cobb #13, 18) Patrick Flannery #38, 19) Roger Hunter #7-11, 20) Jesse Wilder #79, 21) Jason Long #15 – Did Not Start: Robbie Woods #16, Ken Orton #33, Blake Kelly #K5, Craig Schmalzried #6, Lester Massey #09, Chris Long #75, Travis Cody #29, Scott Gray #38
“CENTURY 21 MASENGILL-MCCRARY REALTORS” MINI STOCK (20 laps)
1) Shawn Henry #B00, 2) Josh Fields #11, 3) Jamie James #70, 4) Curtis Jones #4, 5) Terry Dean #20r, 6) Allen Carrier #B1, 7) Joey Allen #A00, 8) Trey Travis #T15, 9) Kevin Atwell #95, 10) Brandon Johnson #B01, 11) Chad Whitman #21, 12) Runah Henry #0, 13) Ernie Stubblefield #21 – Did Not Start: Kurt Owens #7up, Jason Keen #22
Volunteer Speedway: (423) 235-5020 www.VolunteerSpeedway.com
Track Office (Weekdays Only): (423) 378-5942
Robert Walden-Public Relations Director: (423) 928-9644 |
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