Buckingham, Stanton, Rader, Palmer, Stevens, Driskill visit victory lane on ‘Championship Night’ at Volunteer Speedway

Buckingham, Stanton, Rader, Palmer, Stevens, Driskill visit victory lane on ‘Championship Night’ at Volunteer Speedway

BULLS GAP, Tenn. (Oct. 21, 2018) — With rain falling overnight Friday through mid-afternoon on Saturday leaving track conditions unsuitable for racing, “Championship Night” at Volunteer Speedway was rescheduled to Sunday afternoon.

Championship Night at “The Gap” is always a special event because it’s the culmination of hard-fought battles among competitors’ all throughout the season to see who will earn track titles.

Also, with October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, theme for the Championship Points Racing finale was “Think Pink 2.0 – Pink Out” with competitors encouraged to display pink graphics on their race cars.

Shanon Buckingham of Morristown led flag-to-flag in winning the Crate Late Model feature, while Clyde Stanton of Knoxville captured his first-ever Sportsman Late Model victory on the high banks.

Wayne Rader of Parrottsville captured his first Modified Street victory of the season, while Billy Palmer of Knoxville won his first Open Wheel Modified feature.

John Stevens of Wallins Creek, Kentucky, sped to his first Classic victory, with Josh Driskill of Newport recording his third 602 Street Stock win.

Austin Neely of Tazewell captured the Steel Head Late Model championship.

The Sise brothers, Trevor and Zach Sise of Knoxville, entered the point finale holding insurmountable advantages to already secure the Crate Late Model (Trevor Sise) and Sportsman Late Model (Zach Sise) track championships. During the season older brother Trevor recorded three Crate Late Model feature wins, while 18-year-old Zach visited victory lane on five occasions in Sportsman Late Model action.

Gary Blanken of Russellville recorded four feature wins and consistently finished in the top five throughout the season to win the Modified Street track championship.

Terry James of Newport captured the Open Wheel Modified championship.

The Classic division this season belonged to “Lightnin’” Lee Merritt of Knoxville, as he put together a phenomenal campaign by winning eight features to catapult him to the track championship.

Josh Driskill of Newport held a commanding point lead entering the finale to already wrap up the 602 Street Stock title.

Nobody had to give Shannon Buckingham directions to find victory lane, after all he’d visited that location many times in the past with several Crate Late Model wins to his credit. But with Buckingham out on the road running Super Late Model events around the country over the past several years, he decided to return to his home-track and run a topless Crate Late Model show.

Buckingham, Rusty Ballenger and Cory Hedgecock battled for the lead on the start before Buckingham took the position. Behind the front-running trio Mack McCarter, Jesse Lowe, Tim Maupin, Josh Henry, Trevor Sise, Austin Neely, Jackie Hughes, Andy Ogle and Tim Byrd jockeyed for real estate.

With the race reaching the halfway distance, Buckingham had begun to put some distance between himself, Ballenger and Hedgecock. Buckingham went on to capture the win over Ballenger, Hedgecock, McCarter and Lowe.

Brad Seagle and Brad Dyer battled for the lead in the early laps of the Sportsman Late Model feature, with Clyde Stanton and Zach Sise in close pursuit. Racing down the backstretch into the third turn on lap 9, Sise got into the rear of Dyer sending him spinning backward up the banking between turns three and four to bring out the caution. The track’s race director made the call to put Dyer back into second place, and Sise was sent to tail of the field for the restart.

Back under green Seagle led Dyer and Stanton, but Dyer’s ride sustained front-end damage in the incident with Sise and he was quickly passed by Stanton. Stanton began pressuring Seagle for the lead by taking looks underneath him in the corners, but Seagle maintained his advantage until just three laps from the finish when Stanton got around him for the lead. Stanton went on to take the checkered flag over Seagle, Dyer, Sise and Evan Wrinkle Jr.

You could debate the Modified Street division is the most competitive at the track, after all seven different drivers had visited victory lane heading into the finale. Wayne Rader and Lance Creasman started on the front row for the 20-lap feature, and neither had won this season. Creasman jumped out to the early lead before being passed by Wayne Rader.

Behind Rader and Creasman, the action was two- and three-wide battling for position among Gary Blanken, Chris Rickett, David Clark, Eric Hux, Shannon Emery, Bubba Long, Robbie Buchanan and Kaleb Trent. Following a mid-race caution when Clark tagged the outside guardrail around turns one and two, on the ensuing restart trouble occurred again in the same place when Creasman got into the wall and Rickett got collected in the incident to end the race for both.

Rader went on to become the eighth different Modified Street winner by outrunning Blanken, Hux, Emery and Buchanan.

John Stevens had a rearview mirror full of the hard-charging Lee Merritt from drop of the green until the checkered flag waved. Merritt was hoping Stevens would make a mistake to allow him to drive by into the lead, but that scenario never materialized and Stevens recorded the win over Merritt. Finishing third through fifth, respectively, were Josh Chesney, Will Carey and Tony Trent.

Veteran chauffeur Billy Palmer led from start-to-finish in winning the Open Wheel Modified feature over Wayne James, Shon Flanary, Terry James and Tyler James.

Josh Driskill outran Shawn Henry, Rex Coffey, Brandon Johnson and Austin Atkins for his third 602 Street Stock feature win on the season.

Angie Meadors won the Ladies Powder Puff race, with Shyan Lichlyter taking the Kids Power Wheels victory.

VOLUNTEER SPEEDWAY – BULLS GAP, TN – OCT. 21, 2018 – CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS RACING FINALE – OFFICIAL RESULTS

CRATE LATE MODEL (25 laps)

1. Shanon Buckingham #50
2. Rusty Ballenger #29
3. Cory Hedgecock #14
4. Mack McCarter #51
5. Jesse Lowe #5J
6. Tim Maupin #3
7. Trevor Sise #73
8. Josh Henry #B00
9. Austin Neely #3
10. Andy Ogle #68
11. Jackie Hughes #27
12. Tim Byrd #24
13. Philip Thompson #24T
14. Terry Poore #2
15. Jordon Horton #57
16. Odie Overholt #4
17. Gary Crittenden #18
18. Adam Ahl #7
19. David Duplissey #D2

SPORTSMAN LATE MODEL (20 laps)

1. Clyde Stanton #C11
2. Brad Seagle #31
3. Brad Dyer #20
4. Zach Sise #9
5. Evan Wrinkle Jr. #7
6. Kyle Manis #25K
7. David Bullington #20
8. Dale Reed #52
9. Derrick Meadors #9
10. Floyd Self #3
11. Phillip Nichols #33
12. Eli Keck #8
13. Lucas Fuller #77
14. Richie Overholser #88
15. Billy Woods #72
16. Vic Chandler #88

Did Not Start: Aaron Jones #7, Michael Kelley #8, Ray Jarnagin #773

MODIFIED STREET (20 laps)

1. Wayne Rader #1
2. Gary Blanken #05
3. Eric Hux #01
4. Shannon Emery #M2
5. Robbie Buchanan #P21
6. Kaleb Trent #3
7. Tyler Haynes #11
8. Bubba Long #10
9. Jason Rollins #01R
10. Rick Utsman #12
11. Lance Creasman #C8
12. Chris Rickett #36
13. David Clark #13
14. Bobbie Petty #XP21

CLASSIC (20 laps)

1. John Stevens #7
2. Lee Merritt #14
3. Josh Chesney #1A
4. Will Carey #16
5. Tony Trent #501
6. Rusty Welch #1W
7. Shaun Sise #59
8. Shane Taylor #20
9. Michael Millsap #37
10. Joshua Chesney #5
11. Hayston Collett #3
12. Nicholas King #66
13. Jim Canning Jr. #31
14. Chase Lawson #4
15. Todd Beeler #J23
16. Dillon Wolfe #1
17. Tim Bounds #11
18. Chris Worsham #3

Did Not Start: Hunter Graybeal #22, Joe Keck #8, Bryan McDaniel #11

OPEN WHEEL MODIFIED (20 laps)

1. Billy Palmer #36
2. Wayne James #4
3. Shon Flanary #98
4. Terry James #J1
5. Tyler James #J4
6. Jeff Akard #00
7. Larry James #47
8. Tyler Strickland #7

Did Not Start: Wade Rookard #82

602 STREET (12 laps)

1. Josh Driskill #D00
2. Shawn Henry #25
3. Rex Coffey #3
4. Brandon Johnson #B01
5. Austin Atkins #14
6. Jeff Page #1

LADIES POWDER PUFF (10 laps)

1. Angie Meadors #9
2. Ashley Ahl #7
3. Crystal Stevens #7
4. Brooke Coffey #14
5. Betty Young #1A
6. Terry Carey #16
7. Sarah Canning #31
8. Rebecca Chesney #5
9. Ashley Wilson #J23
10. Miranda Bounds #11
11. Selena Parrott #20

Did Not Start: Lauren Jarnagin #773, Kaitlin Johnson #3

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Volunteer Speedway (Recording Only): 423-235-5020 www.VolunteerSpeedway.com
Volunteer Speedway General Manager): 865-257-7223
Joe Byrd (Tech Official): 865-776-1798