Ballenger, Rader, Atkins, Bates, Duncan, Engel capture 2021 season-opening wins at Volunteer Speedway

Ballenger, Rader, Atkins, Bates, Duncan, Engel capture 2021 season-opening wins at Volunteer Speedway

BULLS GAP, Tenn. (May 1, 2021) — You always hope to get started in impressive fashion by stepping up to the plate and hitting a home run in front of a big crowd. Well, Volunteer Speedway knocked it out of the ballpark with a grand slam Saturday night to begin the 48th season of racing at “The Gap.”

Rusty Ballenger of Seymour captured the Crate Late Model feature win, while Wayne Rader of Parrottsville recorded the Sportsman Late Model victory.

Austin Atkins of Morristown won the Street Stock feature, and Charles Bates of Johnson City captured the Classic victory.

Dustin Duncan of Oneida captured the Front Wheel Drive feature win, and Adam Engel of Knoxville took the Mini Late Model victory.

Rusty Ballenger rocketed out into the lead over Eli Beets at start of the 25-lap Crate Late Model feature and proceeded to lead flag-to-flag in capturing the victory over Beets, Teddy Tate, Gary Crittenden and Ross White. An apparent strong third-place run for Aaron Guinn was negated post-race at the scales when his car weighed light, thus resulting in disqualification. … Completing the top 10 finishers were Brent Cornette, Michael Smith, Tim Maupin, Shannon Emery and Tyler Smith.

Wayne Rader grabbed the lead on opening lap of the Sportsman Late Model feature and never looked back en route to writing his name in the Volunteer Speedway record book as race winner in four different classes over the years. Rader has visited victory lane in Sportsman Late Model, Open Wheel Modified, Modified Street and Street Stock. … While Rader was in command out front from start-to-finish, behind him it was a battle for position to the checkered flag. Rader took the win over Mason Bare, Brad Seagle, Warren McMahan and Addison Cardwell.

The Street Stock feature saw Austin Atkins and Rex Coffey battle the entire distance (20 laps) for the lead, with Atkins holding Coffey off to record the win. Tracy Wolfe, Tony Trent and Jon Cook completed the top five finishers.

Charles Bates of Johnson City and Mac Lockhart raced off the fourth turn to the checkered flag side-by-side, with Bates narrowly taking the Classic win. Finishing third through fifth, respectively, were Jimmy Rayhuff, Mark Sise and Shaun Sise.

Dustin Duncan cruised to the Front Wheel Drive win, with Jason Ketron, Ray Wyatt, Brian Tate and Jeremy Wyatt rounding out the top five finishers.

Adam Engel sped to the Mini Late Model win over Randy Fly, Jack Orr Jr., Danny Pless and Nathan Ingram.