By Robert Walden BULLS GAP, Tenn. (May 19) — Jeff Maupin of Greeneville remains perfect on the season at Volunteer Speedway, as he captured his third-straight “Gateway Ford” Super Late Model feature win on East Tennessee Masonry Night at the Races. It was a clean sweep for the 27-year-old chauffeur as he set fast-time (12.990-seconds … 110.850 mph) to earn the pole position, then proceeded to lead all 35 laps en route to the victory. Maupin launched into the lead at the drop of the green flag over Mike Smith as they raced down the front straightaway into the first turn, and back around to the stripe to complete the opening lap behind the front-running duo were Michael Jackson, Shanon Buckingham and Randy Davidson. Just outside the top five Bryan Hendrix and Herman Goddard were battling for the sixth spot, with Goddard pulling alongside of Hendrix racing into the first turn on the seventh circuit. After running side-by-side for a lap and a half, Goddard laid claim to the position. Meanwhile, by lap 12 the race leader Maupin and Smith had caught the tail of the field to work lapped traffic, which in the early going would pose to be trouble-free for Maupin. Jackson, Buckingham and Davidson, running third through fifth, respectively, soon caught the slower cars. With both Dennis Stiles and Jackie Hughes directly in front of Jackson, two-wide as the quicker cars closed in, and Jackson down low on the track, Buckingham used the lapped cars as a pick to trap Jackson behind them as he worked around the outside to move into third place. Seeing Jackson having trouble working his way past Stiles and Hughes, Davidson followed the outside line that Buckingham had used to also get around the slower cars and dropping Jackson back to the fifth spot. Finally, between turns three and four Jackson and Stiles made contact on lap 21, with Stiles spinning to bring out the event’s first caution flag. Going back green Maupin was out front showing the way over Smith, Buckingham, Davidson and Jackson. The race only went one lap at speed before Brandon James spun between turns three and four, where he also collected Stiles, who was restarting from the rear following his previous spin. Maupin wasted little time in pulling out to an eight car-length advantage over Smith, with Buckingham only a short distance behind riding in third. Goddard dropped to the inside of Jackson racing off the fourth turn on lap 23 challenging for the fifth spot, and next time around between turns three and four the 73-year-old legendary racing veteran Goddard completed the pass for position. Up front the leader Maupin had his hands full working lapped traffic, and between turns one and two on lap 30 he tangled with Terry Owens, who drove off into the corner on the bottom and got into the driver’s side door of Maupin’s Beamer’s Flooring Outlet/G&W Hauling & Rigging/TEG Enterprises/Landair Transport Inc./O’Reilly Auto Parts/Simpson Racing Equipment/Vic Hill Racing Engines/Team GRT Race Cars/Hoosier Racing Tires/No. 0 Monte Carlo, with Owens coming to a stop down low on the track exiting turn two to bring out the final caution. After track officials surveyed the damaged sheet-metal on Maupin’s car while under yellow to make sure it wasn’t rubbing against the front of rear tires, Smith and Buckingham were poised to capitalize going back green if the race leader experienced problems. But Maupin didn’t, and he completed a flag-to-flag run to the checkers in winning over Smith, Buckingham, Davidson and Goddard. Completing the top-10 finishers were Jackson, Hendrix, Hughes, James and Dwight Sams. “Man, something’s going to have to be done with these slower cars when the leader and faster cars running up front are lapping them,” said an obviously upset Maupin after climbing from his car in victory lane. “I believe a little courtesy is supposed to be shown the race leader, especially when you’re lapping some of these cars for the second or third time. But it’s like those cars want to try to race you when you’re leading like they’re actually racing you for position. It’s crazy. “We were really quite fortunate to win this race, to be honest. I just knew when the 83-car (Terry Owens) slammed into the side of me as I raced off into the first turn that my shot at winning was over. I just figured it had knocked the sheet-metal in against a tire and cut it down. And that would have been a shame to lose a race like that, especially after running so strong throughout the whole race and the checkered flag within sight. Our car was really good tonight, and the longer green-flag run we could get the better we were. It’s awesome to get our third consecutive win and hopefully we can come back next week and make it four straight.” Shanon Buckingham of Morristown narrowly edged-out Bobby Mays for the pole position in the 25-lap “Ramey Ford” Crate Late Model feature, turning a quick lap of 13.775 (104.540 mph) to Mays’ lap of 13.812. And starting out front definitely was the place to be for the pair. Just one lap into the race a major pileup at the end of the backstretch involving 11 cars brought out the red flag as the track was blocked. Jerry Broyles, who started fifth and John Llewellyn who started sixth, got together with Broyles getting tagged from behind and spinning, then it was a domino-effect as the tight-running pack of cars all crashed in a heap of sheet-metal. Besides Broyles, other cars collected in the melee unable to continue were Jensen Ford, John King Jr., Brad Kenyon, Clint Solomon and Gerald Smith. Llewellyn, Warren McMahan, Todd Brooks, Larry Rowe and Josh Henry all returned to the race, albeit with bent sheet-metal. “I just don’t get it, only one lap into the race and a deal happening like this,” said 19-year-old Ford while looking over his badly torn up race car after it was towed into the pits. “You’re not going to win a race on the first lap, and there’s just no sense in putting so many cars in a situation to get wrecked like this. It’s just a shame. “You hate laying the blame and pointing fingers, but I was directly behind the 90-car (John Llewellyn) and he flat-out got into the back of the 72-car (Jerry Broyles). We raced off turn two down the backstretch and Broyles nosed ahead of Llewellyn. As we approached turn three, Broyles just got turned and it bottle-necked us all up, because the whole field of cars was running in such a tight pack. It just turns into a chain reaction deal, because there’s just nowhere to go. This is just disappointing, looking at my car and also the 11k-car (John King Jr.) and at Broyles’ car too. It looks like our three cars suffered the most damage. I’m just glad everybody was OK, though, and no one got hurt. We all can fix our race cars back, but nonetheless it’s just torn up equipment that easily could have been avoided if only a little patience was used early in the race with the field still bunched together.” Buckingham led wire-to-wire to capture his second consecutive feature win, though Mays did manage to stick the nose of his mount underneath Buckingham on several occasions as they raced off the corners. With Mays coming home in second, Kelly Glass had a strong run to finish third, followed by Llewellyn, who worked his way back up through the field following his early race incident, and Tony Trent finished in fifth. Phillip Nichols of Sneedville captured his first-ever “Rusty Wallace Toyota” Hobby Stock victory. Nichols, starting from the pole position, saw fellow front-row starter Jesse Helton get loose racing off the fourth turn on the first lap, making contact with the outside front straightaway wall to bring out the caution. Helton restarted from the tail of the field. Jamie Whitt and Mike Mays put pressure on Nichols during the first half of the race, but a spin on lap 12 put Mays to the rear of the field. Back under green, Nichols began to put some breathing room between himself and Whitt and Chuck Johnson, as the duo raced hard for the runner-up spot. But Nichols would not be denied his first-ever victory at Volunteer Speedway, with Whitt, Johnson, Helton and Roger Hunter rounding out the top five at the checkers. Newport’s Joey Allen survived a last-lap charge by Brent Hensley as he attempted to take over the lead, but Hensley got loose and spun allowing Allen to hold on for the “Century 21 Masengill-McCrary Realtors” Mini Stock victory. Allen was followed to the checkers by Toby Jones, Allen Carrier, Shawn Henry and Jeffery Nease. “GATEWAY FORD” SUPER LATE MODEL (35 laps) 1) Jeff Maupin #0; 2) Mike Smith #4; 3) Shanon Buckingham #22; 4) Randy Davidson #28; 5) Herman Goddard #22; 6) Michael Jackson #Q; 7) Bryan Hendrix #5; 8) Jackie Hughes #27; 9) Brandon James #j1; 10) Dwight Sams #54; 11) Dennis Alverson #71; 12) Terry Owens #83; 13) Dennis Stiles #00; 14) Allan Dearing #53; 15) Alben Watts #0 – Did Not Start: Dewayne Pesterfield #22 “RAMEY FORD” CRATE LATE MODEL (25 laps) 1) Shanon Buckingham #44; 2) Bobby Mays #19; 3) Kelly Glass #01; 4) John Llewellyn #90; 5) Tony Trent #18; 6) Rusty Fox #25; 7) Todd Brooks #T1; 8) James Cole #5; 9) Larry Rowe #R0; 10) Warren McMahan #33; 11) Ricky Moore #75; 12) Allen Champ #11c; 13) Josh Henry #B00; 14) Randy Tipton #02; 15) Hugh “Wishbone” Scalf #56; 16) Brandon Taylor #55; 17) Clint Solomon #36; 18) Jerry Broyles #72; 19) Jensen Ford #83; 20) John King Jr. #11k; 21) Brad Kenyon #98; 22) Gerald Smith #12; 23) Chris Manning #03 “RUSTY WALLACE TOYOTA” HOBBY STOCK (20 laps) 1) Phillip Nichols #33; 2) Jamie Whitt #1; 3) Chuck Johnson #17; 4) Jesse Helton #28; 5) Roger Hunter #7-11; 6) Dale Reed #52; 7) Mike Mays #30; 8) Jim Canning Jr. #31; 9) Robbie Jones #29; 10) Robbie Woods #16; 11) Terry Cobb #14; 12) Patrick Flannery #38; 13) Rick Fillers #21; 14) Ralph Mills #1; 15) Charles Allen #4; 16) Jesse Wilder #79; 17) Ken Orton #33; 18) Chris Gregg #9; 19) Jason Shelton #7; 20) Ray Jarnigan #31j; 21) Tyler Smith #32; 22) Bobby Reed #54 – DNS: Jon Cook #0z, Jason Light #5 “CENTURY 21 MASENGILL-MCCRARY REALTORS” MINI STOCK (20 laps) 1) Joey Allen #A00; 2) Toby Jones #66; 3) Allen Carrier #B1; 4) Shawn Henry #B00; 5) Jeffery Nease #73; 6) Brent Hensley #70; 7) Logan Jaynes #100; 8) Brandon Johnson #B01 – DNS: Kevin Atwell #95, John Broce Jr. #44