BULLS GAP — John Stevens raced to the win and Bobby Mays was left fuming at the end of Saturday night’s “King of the Gap” Classic feature at Volunteer Speedway.
Stevens, the two-time defending track champion from Harlan, Kentucky, held off Mays for the final 10 laps by running the high side of the four-tenths-mile dirt track in his black No. 7 machine. Mays, the Jonesborough driver of the black No. 5, made multiple bids to pass him on the low side, but Stevens held on.
Mays led the opening 15 laps before contact with second place-running Josh Chesney allowed Stevens to get by.
Mays, who suffered damage to his left rear quarter panel, showed his displeasure by bumping into Chesney after the race. Chesney retaliated, slowing at the entrance to pit road as supporters of both drivers argued in the pits.
“He wants to go into the corner and race 5 miles per hour over his head,” Mays said. “He just destroyed a good-looking car. You can look at his rag over there and tell he doesn’t care about it. Anytime that something gets torn up on our car, it comes from some dummy like him. You’ve got them in every sport, but I will say he never wants to start a race in front of me.”
Stevens had a bird’s eye view of the incident in front of him.
“Josh went in a little hot. I hate that for Josh and Bobby; I like them both,” Stevens said after his fifth win of the year. “We were just in the right place at the right time.”
Mays managed to pull alongside Stevens with two laps to go, but Stevens had the momentum to surge back ahead.
“We had equally matched cars. Mine was a little better in turn 2 and his was in turn 4,” Stevens noted. “I knew at the end he was going to dive under me so I went low, hoping he would follow. It worked out.”
Michael Millsap finished third, Chesney fourth and Tim Bounds fifth.
CRATE LATE MODEL
Knoxville’s Zach Sise started on the outside pole but kept the momentum by rim-riding the top of the track to take the lead from Cam Weaver.
Sise stayed out front for the rest of the 25-lap feature for his second win of the season.
“We took off and got going. We’ve been really fast every time we’ve come up here, so I’m happy about that,” Sise said.
Weaver won a side-by-side battle with Ross White to finish as the runner-up for the fourth time this season. White settled for third.
Michael Bland finished fourth and Rusty Ballenger fifth.
SPORTSMAN LATE MODEL
Clyde Stanton muscled past Adam Mitchell as the two went to the outside of a slower car on the final corner of the Sportsman Late Model feature.
Stanton took the lead first on lap 17, completing a slide job only to have his fellow Knoxville driver return the favor on the next lap. But Stanton continued to hound Mitchell until he could make the winning move.
“I backed up a little to give me room to work,” Stanton said. “A couple of times he pushed, but I was too close to him. I backed it up three or four cars, got a run at him and it worked out.”
Austin Atkins finished third, followed by Trevor Sise and Warren McMahan.
OTHER CLASSES
Bobby Petty made the winning pass on Kaleb Trent on lap 15 to capture his first-ever Mod Street victory. Veteran driver Gary Blanken led the first 12 laps before a mechanical failure.
Wayne Rader emerged from a three-wide battle with Rex Coffey and Tony Trent for his fourth win of the season.
Darrell Teffeteller led flag to flag for his inaugural Front Wheel Drive win.
