Fort Payne Motor Speedway
July 2, 2011
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RILEY HICKMAN SPARKLES AT FORT PAYNE MOTOR SPEEDWAY's FIRECRACKER 50

by Steve Hixson
FORT PAYNE, AL (July 2) - Saturday night Corr Wireless and Coca-Cola presented the 4th annual Firecracker 50 Super Late Model race at Fort Payne Motor Speedway in Northeast Alabama. The 1/3 mile sweeping clay oval, dirt track hosted a 50-lap $2,500 to-WIN unsanctioned event that saw a packed house of fans, witnessing awesome racing action and a special fireworks display. At the checkers it was Ooltewah, Tennessee's Riley Hickman parking his #R1 "Hickman Manufacturing, American Billet, Austin Trucking, Bodies by Hixson, RH Designs, Mayo Racing Components, AllStar Graphix, Hoosier Tire" sponsored, Racetek powered MasterSbilt machine in victory lane. Climbing from the racecar the jubilant Hickman spoke to exiting crowd. "Thanks to these guys that help me... They just jump onboard when I need them and I can count on them doing the rite thing. RJ gave me some good advise on tire set-up, which is actually what beat us last time we was here, so gotta thank him too. Having a legendary racer like Johnson willing to give us some insight, you can't go wrong there either." Hickman concluded by thanking his Mom and Dad before his little R1 clan and crew filed in for winner photo ops.

At the start 24-cars took to the green flag based on their qualifying laps. Hickman from the pole was flanked by Alabama's rising hot-shoe Jason Hiett of Oxford. After a ceremonious 4-wide salute, complete with 24 American flags, the FRONT ROW JOE's took to Russ Whisenant's greenflag with Hiett taking the early advantage. Caution plagued the field early on lap-3 as local Greg Chumley and Tennessee/Souix Falls transplant John Winge had problems. Crowd favorite Tom Maddox vacated the track early as the field reset for the Fort Payne SHUFFLE, a double-file restart, like used in NASCAR. Hickman made no quarms about being the dominant car as he overpowered Hiett, sending the #11 reeling back to third. Enter the QUARTERMASTER-BLASTER fan-favorite Kenny Hall into the #2 position. Still plagued by yellow's, Hickman showed the way as Kacey Hall, Todd Morrow, Brandon Roberts and Daniel Miller raced around the Top-5. Montana Dudley never took to a threat ending his night early as Kenny Hall and Brandon Roberts tangled off turn one. Tod Hernandezes disasterous qualifying effort (24th - with no official time) was amended with a solid 10th place finish, with only five cars taking the checkers on the lead lap.

Firecracker 50 - Fort Payne (AL) Motor Speedway
Unsanctioned SLM's - $2,500 to-WIN

1. Riley Hickman (# R1) of Ooltewah, TN
2. Todd Morrow (# T48) of East Ridge, TN
3. Jason Hiett (# 11) of Oxford, AL
4. Mario Gresham (# 21) of Rome, GA
5. Kenny Hall (# 38) of Geraldine, AL
6. Lucas Burns (# 27) of Atalla, AL
7. Bobby Pruitt (# B6) of Gadsden, AL
8. Jason Morris (# 10) of Gadsden, AL
9. Destin Purvis (# 38D) of Cedartown, GA
10. Tod Hernandez (# T6) of Chattanooga, TN
11. Kip Fossett (# 66F) of Albertsville, AL
12. Marty May (# 45) of Pisgah, AL
13. DJ Hayes (# 393) of Ider, AL
14. Darrell Hayes (# 393) of Ider, AL
15. Brent Roberts (# 9) of Oxford, AL
16. Montana Dudley (# 55) of Phenix City, AL
17. Brandon Roberts (# 10) of Oxford, AL
18. Kasey Hall (# 4R) of Geraldine, AL
19. Daniel Miller (# 16) of Shelbyville, TN
20. Craig Burrows (# G4) of Chickamagua, GA
21. Chris Beck (# 2C) of Cedar Bluff, AL
22. Tom Maddox (# 119) of Centre, AL
23. John Winge (# 17J) of Chattanooga, TN
24. Greg Chumley (# 35) of Atalla, AL