May 7th - Once again the people of Tazewell Speedway came through the gates with our neighbors in the middle of the country still suffering from the effects of epic flooding. Again with those people in our thoughts and prayers the racing action drew closer. A warm but partly clowdy day awaited race fans as they found their seats to watch the STARS Volunteer Late Models and a full Tazewell Speedway racing program. As usual track packing got underway first and hot laps came and went yielding to qualification runs. The Tazewell Late Models hit the track first with Travis Fultz setting the fast time at 11.978 seconds. Jason Trammell just missed tying his time by running a 11.979 first lap before breaking the center of a wheel out on the second lap.
Next to hit the clay, high-banks was the STARS super late models and Eric Jacobsen grabbed quick time with a scorching lap of 11.165 seconds which was getting dangerously close to Jeff Wolfenbarger's record lap of 10.947 seconds.
Next to battle the clock was the modified street class and with a lap of 13.225 seconds Gary Blanken took the pole. The classics were next to battle the electronic timer and Logan Dukes was the fastest with a 14.478 second lap.
The next action on the track was the STARS consolation race and Steve Smith took the win just before the STARS "locked-in" cars were called back to the track for a short hot lap session.

The modified street cars were next on the surface to race their feature race and to begin a night of speed and thrills. Gary Blanken led the pack to the green and Warren McMahan was in his shadow. Jordon Horton was in third. Caution was displayed when Kenneth Holt spun his machine in turn four but the race quickly got back underway. Another yellow flag flew and the drivers restarted again. A car got crossed up coming off turn four and collected several others including Brad Davis, Chris Collinsworth, Larry Burke and Tony Horton. Davis and Horton restarted. Last Weeks winner, Jason Sizemore was making a mad dash through the field and was now fourth. On each restart Jordon Horton got close to passing Blanken in turns one and two but he kept holding off the young Horton. On lap eight Tony Horton went into the outside wall with heavy force but was ok; however, his car was done for the night. On the restart McMahan got shuffled back to fifth with Sizemore taking his spot. Horton pressured Blanken the remainder of the race but Blanken held him off for the win.

Modified Street Results:
1 5 Gary Blanken
2 56H Jordan Horton
3 22 Jason Sizemore
4 17 Leonard Bray
5 3 Tim Hatfield
6 33 Warren McMahan
7 20 Scottie Adkins
8 88 Brad Davis
9 56 Tony Horton
10 P21 Robbie Buchanan
11 1 Scott Johnson
12 24 Kenneth Holt
13 54 Larry Burke
14 77 Chris Collingsworth
15 4 Clyde Overholt
16 55 Howie Sturgill DNS

The STARS Volunteer Racing Series feature was next and Eric Jacobsen and Jason Trammell made up the first row. After the salute to the fans, it was race time. At the start of this one, eight cars got piled up going into turn one leaving tempers flaring and Jason Trammell and Vic Hill banged up physically. Hill looked to have an injury to his hand and Trammell was working a sore shoulder. After getting the cars untangled the pack was lined up again but in an unprecedented move the decision was made to race the Tazewell Speedway late model race and resume the STARS race immediately following its conclusion allowing repair on the wrecked cars.

The Tazewell Late models came out and Travis Fultz was on the front row with Jason Trammell supposedly alongside but it wasn't clear if Trammell was going to able to run his TLM after the earlier incident. Trammell was able to mount his ride and the speedway dropped another green flag. This start was also interrupted when one engine let go and dropped fluids down on the surface. It was one of those nights when the feature events struggled to get going as we had a car spin in turn one this time. Still they lined up back up and we went racing. The third time wasn't the charm as Trammell jumped the start and Bruce Caylor called for a restart and an even start at the line. This time the start was good and Fultz took the point. By lap 12 he was lapping cars and had a half a straight away advantage but on lap thirteen, three cars were piled up between turns one and two; Anthony Arnwine, Greg Estes and Chris Long. That caution gave the field a shot at Fultz. Trammell was still Second and Rick Rogers third. On lap fifteen Steve Smith was working on Rogers for third. Fultz was holding off Trammell as he drove around the lapped cars but Estes looped his machine in turn four while driving its wheels off racing with Steve Carr in the middle of the field. Fultz had to hold off Trammell for only a few laps and did just that for the win.

Tazewell Late Model Results:
1 T0 Travis Fultz
2 90J Jason Trammel
3 33 Rick Rogers
4 3 Steve Smith
5 11 Anthony Arnwine
6 77 Steve Carr
7 B00 Josh Henry
8 31 Greg Estes
9 97 Keith Chapman
10 111 J. Allen
11 75 Chris Long
12 53 Allen Dearing
13 24 Andy Wilder
14 G7 Billy Gordon
15 24 Allen Holt
16 4 Josh Hendrick DNS

The track control went back over to the STARS series and the front row was now Eric Jacobsen and Jeff Maupin. Once again there was trouble on the start as Maupin ended up two-wheeling it on the turn three wall as a moderate rain began to fall. Jeff Wolfenbarger took Maupin's place on the grid and we went racing again. After a good try at it the starter did not like that one and made them do it again. After the start Jacobsen moved out and got seven laps of dirt under his wheels before the caution flew. Jacobsen rolled away from vic Hill and Jeff Wolfenbarger as Billy Ogle Jr. battled hard to get Wolfenbarger's third place. Lap cars helped Hill get to the rear of Jacobsen but by lap 24 the black five was pulling away again. Hill again started to challenge on lap 31 but Jacobsen took the win on lap thirty-eight in a rain shortened event. It was a fitting end to a strange night of racing.

STARS Volunteer Racing Series Results:
1 5 Eric Jacobsen
2 1 Vic Hill
3 28 Jeff Wolfenbarger
4 201 Billy Ogle Jr.
5 10 Chad Ogle
6 0 Ross White
7 3 Steve Smith
8 4T Tommy Kerr
9 201 Glenn Vanover
10 25 Jeff Maupin
11 97 Michael Chilton
12 c9 Steve Casebolt
13 22 Mike Weeks
14 90J Jason Trammel
15 14 Terry Wolfenbarger

Tazewell Speedway returns to its regular weekly racing schedule next week, May 14th. For more information on the schedule of events log on to www.tazewellspeedway.net or check out the tazewell Speedway page on Facebook.