Early morning rain yielded to sunny and warm conditions as racers and fans rolled in to the Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap on Saturday as the Schaefer Oil Ironman Series presented by Dirt On Dirt headlined the 3rd Annual Frostbuster at the high banked east Tennessee oval. With rain on the radar that morning and more approaching from the west the car counts in both the Super Late Models and Modifieds were light, but the local classes came through with solid counts to bring the total in the pits to nearly one hundred.
The Crate Late Model 25-lap feature would be the first of six on the afternoon with quick qualifier Anthony White starting from the pole. Despite three cautions along the way there would be nobody that could stay with the "Dirty White Boy" as White cruised to a flag-to-flag victory. Two-time UCRA champion Rusty Ballenger started seventh and finished second with Cory Hedgecock and Trevor Sise next in line. Josh Henry started last or 19th on the field after losing a wheel during qualifying and he raced his way up to fifth at the checkers.
The Classic cars at "The Gap" are the old coupes that we see at home, but this is no exhibition racing as they go all out for the checkers. Lee Merritt would lead early before being passed by John Stevens and Merritt's day ended two laps later when his right rear tire went flat. Stevens would continue to lead with Michael Millsap chasing until Millsap popped a radiator hose with two laps remaining. On the green-white-checkered restart Tim Stevens tried to get a run off the top side looking to pass his nephew, but he came up a car length short as John Stevens took the win. Jesse Hickman finished third as only five of the eighteen starters made it to the finish.
Twelve Super Late Models would go for 35 laps with pole-sitter Ray Cook racing to the early lead. On lap seven though Cook would lose a drive shaft and coast to a stop on the back stretch to bring out the caution. Chicky Barton would assume the lead on the restart with Ryan King taking second from Casey Roberts and as Barton pulled away the race for second would entertain the large crowd. Roberts would take back the second spot on lap seventeen before the caution waved two laps later when Joey Standridge spun in turn one.
It would then take a couple of restarts to get back to racing as Billy Ogle Jr. spun in turn three on the first try and on the second attempt Chad Ogle tangled with King before sliding up the track and into the wall ending his race. On both double file restarts Cory Hedgecock had taken second from Roberts, but Casey would now catch a break as the next restart would be single file.
Once back to green King would take the Warrior house car to the infield due to the damage from his skirmish with Chad Ogle and on lap 22 Roberts would have something break on his car causing it to snap spin in turn two. This would now put Hedgecock into second for the restart and when Barton pushed up the track in turn two Cory would take the lead going down the back stretch. Now running second Barton's car started to show some smoke and three laps later the engine let go ending his afternoon and causing another caution.
Only four cars now remained on the track and all four would be able to navigate the final nine laps to the checkers as Cory Hedgecock captured the victory ahead of Jadon Frame, Billy Ogle Jr. and Craig Greer. Chicky Barton would collect fifth-place money at the pay window.
The Modified Street division would take to the track next with Wayne Rader setting the early pace. Rader's race would come to a premature ending though when his entire transmission came out from underneath the leader's car on lap seven. After a lengthy cleanup Michael Woods assumed the lead and he would survive five more restarts over the twenty-lap distance to take the win ahead of Gary Blanken and Kurt Owens.
Twenty-one Sportsman cars signed in with Zach Sise and Aaron Guinn qualifying for the front row. Guinn would take the lead off the top of turn two on the opening lap and while Sise would stay close throughout he could not complete a pass of the leader. Five cautions later it would be Guinn celebrating in victory lane as Sise finished second. Brad Seagle finished where he started in third while Jed Emert and Brandon Miller completed the top five.
Even the Ironman series official expressed his disappointment with the ten car turnout for the Modifieds, but the field was solid with defending champion Shon Flanery earning the pole position. Chase King would get the jump from the two hole though and he would cruise to a convincing flag-to-flag win with Flanery finishing a distant second. Ervin Vance would take the third spot, Wayne James nursed his smoking car in for fourth while Amos Bunch completed the top five.
Notes from The Gap......This was my second visit to Volunteer Speedway, but it has been more than twenty years since I was last here. An old pylon scoreboard sign from the Bristol Motor Speedway still marks the entrance to the speedway that sits just north of Interstate 81 and features a red clay surface with an amazing 31 degrees of banking.....You have to respect the Volunteer Speedway promoter as the weather forecast for Saturday was ominous for the three or four days leading up to the event and it would have been easy to pull the plug early just like they did down the road at the Duck River Speedway. On Thursday a concerned fan posted on Facebook "With an 80% - 90% chance of rain for Saturday when are you going to cancel and reschedule?" Now if Myron Pembleton would have been promoting he would have replied "If and when it rains too much during the races". Seriously though, what a stupid post that does absolutely nothing to help the event. Yes, it rained a bit as predicted during the early morning hours, but by noon it was bright, sunny and warm enough that I wished that I had packed some shorts. And then a couple of hours later a nice overcast settled in making for perfect day race conditions......The flyer for the event stated that the driver's meeting would take place at 12:30 with racing to follow. However, with all but the Classics qualifying the racing didn't start until 3:15 p.m., but the large crowd didn't seem to mind. And in true southern fashion there were no heat races and the features started "straight up" from the qualifying times.......The final checkers waved at 6:30 as I was able to get in my first race of the season during the month of February and I would highly recommend a trip to Bulls Gap if you like some high speed, high backed dirt track action!
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