Tazewell Speedway
October 8, 2011
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First Annual 411 Speedway and Tazewell Speedway "Fall Rumble"

by Allen Earl
TAZEWELL, Tenn. The high-banked, Tazewell speed plant opened its gates for the final event of the 2011 season.  In a joint venture with 411 Speedway the track hosted the final night of a two race event.  411 hosted night one with Tazewell Speedway regular and up and coming driver Jordon Horton taking the win in Modified Street action.  On the Limited Late Model side of things Brad Hall, son of Tazewell Speedway track owner Gary Hall took the win in that feature.  It was setting up to be a great night of action as the cars traveled up the highway to compete in the Chris Collinsworth Memorial 77.  Tonight’s program featured a 40-lap Late Model feature along with a 37-lap Modified Street feature.  In support of these features the Classics were also added to the program.  The weather was perfect, the crowd was in their seats and the program was ready to start.

With thirty-seven of the seventy-seven lap Chris Collinsworth Memorial in the books it was now time to settle the other forty laps with the Limited Late Model feature.  Fans have been ready for this one for weeks now and it did not disappoint.  Greg Estes also climbed into his late model and began a drive to the front in this feature also.  Travis Fultz and Jason Trammell started the race on row one and Estes would have to push his machine all night in the effort to reach the front runners.  Jason Trammell had little problem staying at the front of this one even with a huge hole in the nose of his car.  Chasing him in the first half of the race was Fultz, Steve Smith and Brad Hall.  Just behind them was Brad Lowe who seemed to be just quietly hanging around the top six spots.  On lap thirty-one Estes had made it up to challenge for the sixth spot.  On lap thirty-five the leader’s race would change when he ran into a pile of cars that had spun in turn four.  Although Trammell did a great job to lessen the contact it would still be his undoing.  Steve Smith also had some issues and had to go pit side but he would recover to get a solid finish.  On a lap thirty-five restart Trammell’s night ended due to the previous contact in turn four and Travis Fultz took over at the point.  Hall had now moved into second with Lowe sliding up into third.  On lap thirty-seven Hall’s night ended also with mechanical issues.  Greg Estes had made it just behind the leaders when he contacted the wall on the front stretch and flipped his 31 on its top and slid down into turn one but thankfully was uninjured.  Nearly at the same moment two more cars made contact and Phillip Nichols and Jason Welshan made hard contact with the inside wall.  Both cars and drivers were able to continue.  On the restart Fultz left the rest of the field to cross the line first and see the checkered flag but a great run by Lowe had him finishing second which later would prove to be very important.  Protest money was presented to Race Director, Rick Brooks and Fultz was asked to move into the cage for inspection.  After it was all over Brad Lowe had taken his first ever win at Tazewell Speedway.  Finishing second was Walker Arthur who remained steady and also had a great ride.  Welshan and Nichols both recovered from the earlier incident to finish fifth and sixth respectively.    Lowe and his crew celebrated the win in victory lane by thanking both tracks for the great series of racing and thanked his sponsors and the fans.  He then asked for that nice three-thousand dollar check.  

1 16 Brad Lowe    
2 87 Walker Arthur    
3 124 Jason Welshan    
4 33 Phillip Nichols    
5 3 Steve Smith    
6 11 Stacy Boles    
7 K3 Chase King    
8 31 Greg Estes    
9 47 Brad Hall    
10 90J Jason Trammell    
11 07 Jason Cardwell
12 51 Mack McCarter  
13 11 Anthony Arnwine    
14 29 Rusty Ballenger    
15 23 Clifton Layne    
16 2 Anthony White    
17 77 Steve Carr    
18 9 Keith Chapman    
19 7 Brian Smith    
20 30 Ryan King    
21 18 Michael Rutherford  
22 7 Heath Alvey    
23 25 Scott Gardner    
24 T0 Travis Fultz DQ


The first feature of the night belonged to the Modified Street racers.  Night one winner Jordon Horton just before the race began found a problem in a wheel bearing and effectively his night was over even before the race even started.  There would be no sweep for “The Natural.”  Greg Estes and Gary Blanken led the field to green with Warren McMahan and the disappointed Horton making up row two.  Estes took control early and left McMahan, Sizemore and Clyde Overholt battling for second.  This may have been the best racing action of the event as they stayed basically nose to tail and fender to fender throughout.  The leaders withstood a couple of cautions including a bad break from Leonard Bray when his machine had rear end problems forcing him to exit from the race.  McMahan would eventually pressure Estes for the lead on several occasions as the race was nearing its end but he would not able to make the pass without using his bumper to do so.  With nine cars left to battle it out after incidents and attrition Estes would go on to finish just ahead of the hard charging McMahan to take home a cool two-thousand dollar paycheck.  Sizemore, Overholt and Larry “Goatman” Burke rounded out the top five.  Tim Hatfield also had a great run and stayed near the front all night to bring home a sixth place finish.  

1 31 Greg Estes    
2 33 Warren McMahan    
3 22 Jason Sizemore    
4 4 Clyde Overholt  
5 54 Larry Burke    
6 3 Tim Hatfield    
7 15 Apaches Quinton    
8 41 Johnathan Miracle    
9 4B Tyler Brown    
10 1 Scott Johnson    
11 18 Rick Welch    
12 10B Bradley Lewelling    
13 17 Leonard Bray    
14 T39 Tim Totherow    
15 5 Gary Blanken    
16 56H Jordan Horton    
17 P21 Robbie Buchanan


One last feature race had to be ran and it was for the Classics.  Reminiscent of the glory days of  racing these drivers and machines always put on a great show.  “Rocket “ Robbie Sands had other ideas on this night as he was simply on a rail.  He started at the front and finished at the front with Charlie Tharp, Phillip Shockley, Scott Russell and Cameron Skinner rounding out the top five behind him.  

1 17 Robbie Sands  
2 59 Charlie Tharp  
3 34 Phillip Shockley  
4 6 Scott Russell  
5 33X Cameron Skinner  
6 4 Tom Conaway  
7 2 Ron Rudder  
8 7 Jim Yeary  
9 69 James Dalton  
10 5 Tim Sands Jr.  
11 20 Logan Dukes  
12 8 Eli Keck  
13 18 Daris Braden DNS

Following the conclusion of the First Annual Fall Rumble the fans, crews and drivers all agreed that this was a start of something special that would be a great event for many years to come.  Both Tazewell Speedway and 411 Speedway would like to thank all involved in making this a huge success.  As far as Tazewell Speedway is concerned, Gary Hall and crew would like to once again thank the greatest fans in all of dirt racing.  Tazewell Speedway fans are the best around and we will do our very best to continue to provide the best Saturday night of racing action possible.  Tazewell Speedway has had its ups and downs throughout the year but when it came to Saturday night the track always had its fans in the seats.  Once again thank you fans for a great 2011!   See everyone in the spring of 2012.