Jimmy Owens may never want to leave his home area again. For the third time in as many weeks ‘The O-Show’ took a check and a trophy back to his Newport, Tennessee home from a nearby track. This week, as was the case two weeks ago, he won at the Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap. Last weekend he scored a victory at the Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville.
On Saturday night, the Ultimate Super Late Model Series made its inaugural visit to the region as it sanctioned a 75 lap feature race dubbed the ‘Late Model Showdown at The Gap’ on the high banked, 4/10 mile Volunteer Speedway.
Owens wasted little time assuming command of the event when he bolted from his outside front row starting spot and never relinquished the lead on his way to claiming the $10,000 first prize.
Chris Ferguson started from the pole position after posting a quick time of 12.449 seconds in time trials and then going on to win his heat race. Owens started second with Scott Bloomquist slated to go off third and Jonathan Davenport starting from the 4th slot.
However, what had begun as a strange night for Bloomquist only got worse before the field even commenced its pace laps. The Mooresburg, Tennessee driver had set fast time on his second qualifying lap only to have the time disallowed because he was out of place by one car in the qualifying order. Only his first lap counted for an official time.
Even with that setback, Bloomquist went on to win his heat race and establish himself as one of the pre-race favorites to take the win. Strangely, however, his car encountered mechanical difficulties(possibly a broken drive shaft) as the field made their way out to line up on the front straightaway and the leader of ‘Team Zero’ never even turned a pace lap.
On the race’s initial start Owens shot to the lead in turn one. ‘The Newport Nightmare’ then stretched his advantage out to almost a full straightaway over Ferguson at first and then Davenport. With a full field of 24 cars on the tight track it did not take long for the front running machines to catch the back of the pack. Rather than give up ground, Owens seemed to extend his advantage in traffic to the delight of the mostly partisan crowd.
Behind Owens, Davenport established himself as the solid 2nd place runner while Ferguson settled into 3rd for much of the race. From 4th back there was some swapping of positions as Eric Wells, Chris Madden, Eric Jacobsen, Ray Cook, Billy Ogle, Kent Robinson and Steve Smith traded positions before finishing in that order.
“We had a good car all night long,” Owens declared in victory lane. “We had to work on our shocks before the feature to get through those humps in the track but we got it pretty good.”
The race was slowed by three cautions for minor incidents.
Ferguson, Owens, Bloomquist and Davenport were heat race winners. Billy Ogle, Jr. and Petey Ivey won the two consolation races.
Feature Results: 1. Jimmy Owens, 2. Jonathan Davenport, 3. Chris Ferguson, 4. Eric Wells, 5. Chris Madden, 6. Eric Jacobsen, 7. Ray Cook, 8. Billy Ogle Jr., 9. Kent Robinson, 10. Steve Smith, 11. Casey Roberts, 12. Tyler Reddick, 13. John Blankenship, 14. Mark Douglas, 15. Chip Brindle, 16. Ross Bailes, 17. Ricky Weeks, 18. Casey Barrow, 19. Chad Ogle, 20. Zack Mitchell, 21. Daniel Baggerly, 22. Ty Dillon, 23. Petey Ivey, 24. Scott Bloomquist