Southern All Stars Series
Smoky Mountain Speedway
June 25, 2011
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Reese Snags First SAS Victory Before A Packed House at Smoky Mountain Speedway



by Richard Allen
MARYVILLE, Tenn. - A jam packed grandstand witnessed a wild night of racing as one of east Tennessee’s most historic racetracks returned to action on Saturday night. The Smoky Mountain Speedway was temporarily closed by its ownership on May 10th but was reopened to host the Southern All Stars Series along with a Crate Late Model event as well as modified street and pure mini class races.

Brian Reese would ultimately wind up as the winner of the 50 lap feature event but there was more to talk about than the Sharpsburg, Georgia driver’s dominating performance.

Reese began the night with a lightning fast qualifying lap of 15.224 seconds around the 4/10 mile clay oval located in Maryville, Tennessee. That time was just a shade slower than the track record set earlier in the spring by Jimmy Owens at 15.187 seconds. With the top-10 locked into their starting spots by Southern All Stars rules, Reese had earned the pole position with his fast lap.

Qualifying just behind Reese were Randy Weaver, series points leader William Thomas, Billy Ogle, Jr., Tony Knowles, Mike Weeks, Chad Ogle, Tommy Kerr, Mark Vineyard and David Crabtree.

Skip Arp won the night’s only B-main race, which was used to set the remainder of the starting lineup.

On the initial start, Weaver jumped to the lead from his outside front row starting spot with Reese trailing close behind. After a lap 5 restart, Reese grabbed the top spot when Weaver’s car bobbled in turn one. From that point, Reese would hold the lead for the rest of the way.

However, that hardly means the excitement was over. Behind Reese there were intense battles within the top-5 on the lightning fast race track as Thomas hounded Weaver for second while teammate Billy Ogle and Kerr contested the fourth position.



It was just after the halfway point when the action would reach a fever pitch. At lap 27, just two laps after a Delaware Double-file restart, Ogle and Weaver raced side by side for 2nd place down the front straightaway. As the two entered turn one contact was made which sent Ogle’s car hard into the outside wall. The #201 machine actually teetered precariously for a moment as if it might go over the fence and out of the facility.

As the cars slowed for the caution, Ogle’s fellow Blount Motorsports driver, Kerr, raced up beside Weaver as the cars entered turn three. After becoming entangled, the two machines ended up nosed into the dirt berm that rings the inside of the track. At that point, a BMS crewmember angrily jumped onto Weaver’s car. Weaver then proceeded to get out of his car and stood on its top as he and Kerr, who had in the mean time climbed from his racer, engaged in a brief shouting match.

Kerr eventually continued in the race and put on quite a charge toward the front until he was involved in an incident while he and Crabtree raced for third around a slower car.

After the lap 27 incident, the race settled into a high speed battle between Reese and Thomas, who made several attempts to get under the leader, but was unable to pull off a winning pass.

Reese collected $5,000 for his efforts. He was followed to the line by Thomas, Crabtree, Chad Ogle, Mike Hill, Mark Vineyard, Hunter Best, Ross White, Jeff Neubert and Jason Welshan.

Reese's Rocket Chassis is sponsored by: Emory Winship Cancer Institue, CSR Aluminum Fabrication and Reese Motorsports.


SOUTHERN ALL STARS
1. #33 Brian Reese
2. #22T William Thomas
3. #C5 David Crabtree
4. #10 Chad Ogle
5. #11 Mike Hill
6. #4 Mark Vineyard
7. #0 Ross White
8. #86 Jeff Neubert
9. #007 Hunter Best
10. #129 Jason Welshan
11. #4T Tommy Kerr
12. #49 James Kelso
13. #22M Mike Weeks
14. #8 David Payne
15. #J12 Jeff Franklin
16. #5 Randy Weaver
17. #201 Billy Ogle, Jr.
18. #26 Tony Knowles
19. #31 Skip Arp
20. #A1 Kayne Hickman
21. #5 Brian Hendrix
22. #29 Ronnie Payne

CRATE LATE MODEL
1. #24 Greg Martin
2. #117 Jake Teague
3. #C5 David Crabtree
4. #14 Weston Gantte
5. #89 Brad Coffey
6. #29 Jason Welshan
7. #7 Robby Moses
8. #19M Bobby Mayes
9. #10 Chris Wilson
10. #17 Mark Rosner
11. #4 Mark Vineyard
12. #15 Jamison Settlemyre
13. #91 Chuck Laney
14. #25 Jason Ritchey
15. #122 Mike Weeks
16. #17 Brett Wyatt
17. #5 David Young
18. #68 Andy Ogle
19. #00 Brian Ownby

PURE MINI
1. #60 Blake Hall
2. #1 David Singleton
3. #72 Angie Young
4. #15 Derik Duggan
5. #23 Sam Burgess
6. #32 Greg Huskey
7. #94 Kevin Burchfield
8. #0 Scott Webb
9. #23M Bobby McClain
10. #24 Steve Epling
11. #21 Logan Lindsey
12. #19 Nick Perry
13. #16 Clifford Sands
14. #7 James Dykes
15. #T22 Brandon Tussey
16. #C11 Anthony Singleton
17. #9 Nathaniel Harrison

MODIFIED STREET
1. #OZ Jon Cook
2. #23 Johnny McLemore
3. #4 David Price
4. #18 Tony Lindsey
5. #EZ1 Tim Kilby
6. #J3 Chad McLemore
7. #1Y Jackie Teffeteller
8. #00 Lloyd Hall
9. #44 Jonathan Sims
10. #10B Bradley Lewelling
11. #70 Phil Davis
12. #27 Charles Bates
13. #1 James Price