Hill leads flag-to-flag for first Volunteer Super Late Model victory

jdearing

Administrator
Staff member
By Robert Walden

BULLS GAP, Tenn. (May 8) – Vic “The Thrill” Hill of Morristown has been traveling in 2004 running World of Outlaws and Southern All Stars events. But he proved Saturday night he still knows how to get around the high banks at Volunteer Speedway as he led the 35-lap “Don Smith Ford” Super Late Model feature flag-to-flag for his first victory of the season.

Hill, a three-time track champion, set fast-time at 13.446-seconds (107.104 mph) in qualifying to earn the pole for the feature, with Brad Hall second-quickest at 13.551 to nail down the outside front row starting berth. At the drop of the green Hill and Hall ran door-to-door into the first turn, but Hill grabbed the lead racing off turn two with Hall in tow followed by Kerry Jones, Rick Norris and Mark Douglas.



Douglas pulled alongside Norris between turns three and four on lap 2, and racing onto the front straightaway he powered by to move into fourth. The racing got tight between Norris and Michael Jackson racing off turn four on lap 5, and veteran Herman Goddard dropped to the bottom to make it three-wide. Slight contact between Norris and Goddard got both cars out of shape, and while Norris fought to control his car he eventually spun just past the flagstand, also collecting Greg Burchett.



The top five on the restart were Hill, Hall, Jones, Douglas and Jackson. Goddard wasted little time in moving around Jackson to take over the fifth spot, and riding the rim around the top of the track on lap 7, Douglas passed Jones between turns one and two to move into third. Quickly moving up from his 11th starting position, Jeff Maupin began knocking on the door trying to overtake Goddard for fifth on lap 8. Racing side-by-side for two circuits, Maupin finally got the best of Goddard on lap 10 racing off the second corner down the backstretch.



The caution waved on lap 16 when Jones spun in the fourth turn. Going back green the top five consisted of Hill, Hall, Douglas, Maupin and Goddard. With Hill quickly putting five car-lengths between his Jeff Maupin-owned Don Smith Ford/Peterson Oil Systems/Dynatech Headers/Klushman/Lunati Cranks & Cams/Brodix/Vic Hill Racing Engines/Lowe Trucking/Hoosier by Pup/TNT Race Cars/No. 0 Ford Taurus and Hall, behind the lead duo the action was heating up between Douglas and Maupin.



Maupin stuck his nose under Douglas racing off turn four, and carrying his momentum down the front straightaway and deep into the first turn, he slid up into the side of Douglas sending him for a spin. Douglas showed his displeasure with Maupin under caution, pulling slowly alongside and expressing himself before heading to the rear of the field for the restart.



Back under green a three-way battle up front between Hill, Hall and Maupin had the fans on the edge of their seats. But also a tight, three-way battle for the fifth spot between Jackson, Steve Smith and Travis Greer was developing. Racing three-wide off the fourth turn on lap 23, Greer made a bold move to take over fifth place, bringing Smith to sixth and relegating Jackson back to the seventh spot.



With 10 laps to go Hill had a rear view mirror full of Hall, who was in search of his first career victory at “The Gap,” while Maupin was breathing down Hall’s neck trying to move into the runner-up position. As the lead trio was working heavy lapped traffic on lap 29, Hill used the slower cars to his advantage in trapping Hall and Maupin behind Dennis Alverson and J.W. Musslewhite.



With Maupin peeking his nose below Hall racing off turn two, and Musslewhite directly in front of Hall, Hall tried to maneuver Musslewhite out of the way. The result … both tangled and spun exiting onto the backstretch. A disappointed Hall climbed from his car unhappy with Musslewhite, and after cooling down he elected to pull into the pits instead of tagging on the tail of the field for the final six-lap dash.



Hill held off his car owner for one night (Maupin) in the mad-dash to the checkers to record the victory. Finishing third through fifth, respectively, were Goddard, Greer and Smith.



Completing the top-10 finishers were Douglas, Randy Davidson, Steve Jones, Michael Smith and Jeff Treece.



“It’s always good to come back home here to Volunteer Speedway and run good, and even better to come back and win,” said Hill with a smile on his face after climbing from his winning ride in victory lane. “Man, that turned into a wild race there with about six or so laps to go as we (lead trio) were trying to work through those slower cars. Fortunately I was able to get by and maintain my lead, because I knew Brad (Hall) and Jeff (Maupin) were coming hard after me. No way was I about to let lapped cars cost me a win, and I guess Brad felt the same way because he tried to muscle one out of his way and it wound up costing him when he spun.



“Hey, I have to give a lot of thanks to my little buddy Maupin for letting me drive his car here tonight. We’ve been friends for a good while. I recognized he had a lot of talent back when he was racing the open wheel cars, and once he decided to move up to a Late Model I began helping him on his car set-up and building engines for him and just trying to pass along some knowledge I’ve learned over the years in what it takes to drive a Late Model. He’s a very talented young racer and he’s going to win plenty of races before he hangs his helmet up one day. The way my racing engine business is keeping me so busy these days and with me racing some with the World of Outlaws and Southern All Stars, I decided to take time and tear my engine down this past week and freshen it up. I wasn’t even going to race this weekend until Jeff told me the middle of the week that he wanted me to drive his car. And thanks to his generosity here we are parked in victory lane.”



Maryville’s Rusty Goddard jumped into the lead on the opening lap of the “Ramey Ford” Limited Late Model feature and held off a hard-charging Corey “Stormin’ ” Norman for his second win of the season. Norman managed to close to Goddard’s rear bumper on several occasions as the front-runners negotiated lapped traffic late in the 25-lap event, but Goddard would not be denied a visit to victory lane down the stretch as he won over Norman, Marty Calloway, Clint Solomon, who advanced from his last place starting position after failing to cross the scales following his qualifying lap, and Ricky Moore.



Rounding out the top-10 at the checkers were Greg Huskey, Tommy Newton, Dale Huskey, Kip Pearson and Greg Carpenter.



Chad Ogle of Sevierville had recorded two top-five finishes in the “Lawson Chevrolet” UMP (Open-Wheel) Modified division this season, but no feature wins. But that all changed as Ogle started from the pole position and never looked back en route to his wire-to-wire victory over Stanley Donahoo, Louis Hickey, Chris Pendleton and Rodney Kiker in the 25-lap feature.



Newport’s Scott Thornton was never seriously challenged in winning his third “Allied Home Mortgage” Mini Stock feature over Shawn Henry, Ernie Stubblefield, Allen Wright and William Knight.



Jon Cook of Jonesborough flexed his muscle in recording his second “Bachman Bernard” Hobby Stock feature win over Troy Thompson, Dale Reed, R.J. Mayes and Everett Cobb.



Kingsport’s Scotty McMurray streaked to his third-straight “Renegades” Front Wheel Drive over Linton Perry, Terry McMurray, Clifford Stoops and Paul Lampkin Jr.



Another exciting six-division racing program is scheduled next Saturday, May 15 at Volunteer Speedway. Along with the Super Late Model, Limited Late Model, UMP Modified, Mini Stock and Hobby Stock, the Sportsman cars will return to “The Gap” for their first appearance of the season. The Front Wheel Drive division will sit out for a week. For more information, contact the track at (423) 235-5020.



“DON SMITH FORD” SUPER LATE MODEL (35 laps)



1. Vic Hill #0-Morristown, TN
2. Jeff Maupin #32w-Greeneville, TN

3. Herman Goddard #22-Knoxville, TN

4. Travis Greer #11g-Marion, VA

5. Steve Smith #3-Powell, TN

6. Mark Douglas #52-Knoxville, TN

7. Randy Davidson #28-Morristown, TN

8. Steve Jones #j3-Maryville, TN

9. Michael Smith #32-Rogersville, TN

10. Jeff Treece #31-Knoxville, TN

11. Michael Jackson #Q3-Greeneville, TN

12. Dale Ball #2-Johnson City, TN

13. Greg Burchett #17-Church Hill, TN

14. Dennis Alverson #71-Kingsport, TN

15. J.W. Musslewhite #16-Morristown, TN

16. Tracy Wolfe #12-Bean Station, TN

17. Brad Hall #47-Knoxville, TN

18. Bryan Hendrix #5-Knoxville, TN

19. Rick Norris #15-Kingsport, TN

20. Kerry Jones #6-Bristol, TN



DNS: Gary Blanken #05-Russellville, TN



“RAMEY FORD” LIMITED LATE MODEL (25 laps)



1) Rusty Goddard #42, 2) Corey Norman #42, 3) Marty Calloway #7, 4) Clint Solomon #30, 5) Ricky Moore #75, 6) Greg Huskey #32, 7) Tommy Newton #T2, 8) Dale Huskey #23, 9) Kip Pearson #00, 10) Greg Carpenter #99, 11) Pug Hodges #2, 12) Randle Self #91, 13) Bobby Mays #19, 14) Curt Taylor #T31, 15) Kevin Jackson #20, 16) Ernie Stuart #31,17) Brian Smith #7s, 18) Richard Adkins #A18, 19) B.J. Morris #45, 20) Jimmy Calloway #77 – DNS: Steve Carr #77, John Tweed #5



“LAWSON CHEVROLET” UMP MODIFIED (25 laps)



1) Chad Ogle #10, 2) Stanley Donahoo #00, 3) Louis Hickey #74, 4) Chris Pendleton #15, 5) Rodney Kiker #H2, 6) Wayne James #4, 7) Petey Hickey #26, 8) Danny James #j4, 9) Wade Ramsey #1w, 10) Jason Bowers #22, 11) Ron Foshie #55, 12) Chris Brady #77, 13) Jamie Harrison #51, 14) Jerry Broyles #72, 15) Lynn Phillips #54, 16) Jerry Williams Jr. #28, 17) Shannon Emery #95



“ALLIED HOME MORTGAGE” MINI STOCK (20 laps)



1) Scott Thornton #T15, 2) Shawn Henry #39, 3) Ernie Stubblefield #21, 4) Allen Wright #27, 5) William Knight #12, 6) Kenny Absher #11, 7) Chad Jeffers #38, 8) Scotty Frazier #13, 9) Allen Carrier #57, 10) Allen Holloway #a27, 11) David Lovin #5, 12) Les Cox #6, 13) Brent Hensley #70, 14) Tom Trivett #5, 15) James Feathers #27, 16) Michael Shelton #34, 17) Kenny Nolen #67, 18) Brandon Johnson #2



“BACHMAN BERNARD” HOBBY STOCK (15 laps)



1) Jon Cook #0z, 2) Troy Thompson #T12, 3) Dale Reed #52, 4) R.J. Mayes #6m, 5) Everett Cobb #13, 6) Chris Gregg #73, 7) Jimmy Dean #8, 8) Robert Corbett #94, 9) Johnny Lane #41L, 10) Ken Orton #33, 11) Todd Brooks #1, 12) Ronnie Dugger #74, 13) Chris Kenyon #71, 14) Ralph Mills #38, 15) Butch Patterson #88, 16) Brad Kenyon #17, 17) Aaron Guinn #87, 18) Jesse Hoover #3, 19) Brian Winstead #3, 20) Richard Ely #28, 21) Jonathon Miracle #50 – DNS: Hugh “Wishbone” Scalf #56, Robby Buchanan #29, Anthony Frye #14, Prentice Harvey #19, Jason Long #15



“RENEGADES” FRONT WHEEL DRIVE (15 laps)



1) Scotty McMurray #08, 2) Linton Perry #83, 3) Terry McMurray #19, 4) Clifford Stoops #37, 5) Paul Lampkin Jr. #33, 6) Clinton Taylor #22, 7) Kevin Darnell #29, 8) Dana Ferrell #23, 9) Robert Darnell #38



Volunteer Speedway: (423) 235-5020 www.VolunteerSpeedway.com



Doug Gillenwater-General Manager: (423) 817-0925



Robert Walden-Public Relations Director: (423) 928-9644 robwald@prodigy.net
 




Back
Top