Russell
Erwin Dominates for Steel Block Bandits Win
(April
13, 2024) Russell Erwin dominated the Rockin’ With
The Stars Vision Wheel Steel Block Bandits race on Saturday night.
Erwin took the initial lead from pole sitter Blake Craft. Craft
gave chase to Erwin before Erwin pulled away for a sizeable lead.
Rusty Ballenger would take second from Craft past the halfway
point of the race. As the leader got into slower traffic, Ballenger
tracked down Erwin. Ballenger cut the lead to car lengths as Erwin
got caught behind two cars racing for position at the end of the
lead lap. Ballenger could not take advantage as Erwin stretched
the lead back out to five car lengths at the finish line. Craft
held off Tyler Bare for third and Tyler Arrington finished fifth.
(MRM Racing Photo)
The sportsman late model feature got off to a rowdy start. It
took three attempts to get the feature under way. One of the attempted
starts saw pole sitter Dustin Ward and Jake Whitehead made contact
on turn 2. Others were involved with Ward receiving significant
body damage. Both Ward and Whitehead were able to continue. Once
under way, Ward shot out to the lead over Whitehead. On a lap
5 restart, Whitehead made a bid for the lead only to see Ward
hold onto the lead on the back straightaway. Whitehead took advantage
of a lap 15 restart to finally pull alongside Ward for the lead.
Whitehead took the lead as the field raced into turn 3. Whitehead
went on for the win. Michael Courtney finished second, Tyler Price
rallied for 8th starting spot to finish third. Ward fell to fourth
and Chandler Hickman finished fifth.
Eric Hughes took the street stock win over pole sitter Jesse
Lowe. Hughes went basically unchallenged throughout most of the
20-lap feature. Robbie Comer finished third with Austin Atkins
taking fourth and Sam Burgess coming in fifth.
Dustin Duncan put a whipping on the front wheel drive division
by winning decisively over second place Travis Weeks. Duncan lapped
up to third place in the 20-lap feature that went caution free.
Dylan Jones came in third, Kavin Greene finished fourth, and Shai
Ritenour held on for fifth.
The next race at Smoky Mountain Speedway will be the King of
the Mountain race when the Hunt The Front Super Late Modle Series
makes their first visit on Saturday, April 27. The $15,000 to
win race is expected to draw some big names in the sport. Also
racing will be sportsman late models for $800 to win, street stocks
for $700 to win, and front wheel drive for $500 to win.
Vision Wheel Steel Block Bandits: 1. 22-Russell
Erwin[2]; 2. 29-Rusty Ballenger[3]; 3. 16C-Blake Craft[1]; 4.
B8-Tyler Bare[7]; 5. 002-Tyler Arrington[4]; 6. 9E-Robbie Emory[8];
7. 71-Pierce McCarter[19]; 8. 84-Ryan Tims[5]; 9. 1-Ellery Leake[12];
10. 3N-Austin Neely[9]; 11. 24-Anthony White Jr[20]; 12. 72-Derrick
Rankin[10]; 13. 49-James Kelso[13]; 14. 31-Wes Tilley[14]; 15.
30-Ryan King[18]; 16. 7-Dan Breuer[6]; 17. 57-Landen Zakalowski[17];
18. 16-Chad Alley[15]; 19. 90J-Jason Trammel[11]; 20. 2-Terry
Poore[16]
Sportsman Late Models: 1. 116-Jake Whitehead[2];
2. 19C-Michael Courtney[6]; 3. 7T-Tyler Price[8]; 4. 22-Dustin
Ward[1]; 5. 6C-Chandler Hickman[3]; 6. 50-Adam Mitchell[4]; 7.
15-Colby Horner[5]; 8. 31-Brady Lee[9]; 9. 20-Daniel Boles[7];
10. 113-Chris McKinney[11]; 11. 32-Cody Gloyne[16]; 12. C4-Cameron
Hawkins[12]; 13. 33-Warren McMahan[10]; 14. 117-Johnathan Williams[19];
15. 92-Corey Cate[17]; 16. 3-David Beeler[15]; 17. 56-Joey Standridge[21];
18. 00-Kelvin White[23]; 19. 99B-Robert Buchanan[20]; 20. 6-Sonny
Huskey[13]; 21. 73-Ray Jarnigan[14]; 22. 19-Sam Oakley[18]; 23.
(DNS) 4-Jacob Kelso; 24. (DNS) 16-Dawson Lowe
Street Stocks: 1. 10-Eric Hughes[2]; 2. 20-Jesse
Lowe[1]; 3. 42-Robbie Comer[4]; 4. 14-Austin Atkins[3]; 5. 88-Sam
Burgess[6]; 6. 1-Cody Satterfield[8]; 7. 88C-Vic Chandler[5];
8. 7-Chris Kelly[11]; 9. 11-Ryan Watson[9]; 10. 8-Brandon Francis[14];
11. 01-Josh Rollins[12]; 12. 51-Allen Burchfield[13]; 13. 21XP-Bobbie
Petty[7]; 14. (DNS) 4-Mark Brady
Front Wheel Drive: 1. 21-Dustin Duncan[1];
2. 85-Travis Weeks[2]; 3. J19-Dylan Jones[4]; 4. 14-Kaven Greene[5];
5. 57C-Shal Ritenour[6]; 6. 96-Chayse McDaniel[9]; 7. 24-Ricky
Ritenour[7]; 8. 26-Michael Lambert[3]; 9. 88-Larry Rudd[8]
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