By Robert Walden BULLS GAP, Tenn. (June 16) — Fan Appreciation Night at the Races (presented by Pizza Plus and Moon Tuxedo Rentals & Sales) has always been one of the biggest weekly racing programs of the season at Volunteer Speedway, and the 2007 version Saturday held true as a huge crowd came out for some exciting action on the high banks. Vic “The Thrill” Hill of Morristown passed Tommy Kerr for the lead on lap 12, and once out front he never looked back en route to capturing his second straight “Gateway Ford” Super Late Model victory worth $2,000. Kerr set fast-time at 12.446-seconds to earn the pole position for the 35-lap main event, and starting alongside of Kerr on the outside of row one was defending track champion Mike Smith. At the drop of the green flag, Kerr won the drag race down the front straightaway into the first turn to grab the lead over Smith, Hill, Joe Armes and Randy Davidson. Back around to the stripe to complete the opening lap Billy Ogle Jr. had pulled door-to-door battling Davidson for the fifth spot. Racing down the backstretch the racing action was fast and furious inside the top five, as Hill was making his move to overtake Smith for second place between turns three and four, and Ogle was overtaking Davidson to move into fifth. The event’s first caution waved on lap 3 for a multi-car accident at the end of the front straightaway involving veteran Herman Goddard, Shane Roberts, Michael Jackson, Ken Hall and Dwight Sams. The top five on the restart were Kerr, Hill, Smith, Armes and Ogle. With a clear track ahead of him, Kerr shot out to a quick eight car-length advantage over Hill. Just behind the lead duo the racing action was heated from third-place back to eight in the running order involving Smith, Armes, Ogle, Kerry Jones, Davidson and Bryan Hendrix. Hill had closed to Kerr’s rear bumper by lap 10, and over the next couple of circuits he rode the high-line through the corners on both ends of the track trying to overtake Kerr for the point. Racing into the first turn on lap 12 Hill had pulled alongside of Kerr on the top-side, and carrying the momentum off turn two he powered into a lead he would never relinquish. With Kerr’s tires beginning to give-up due to the blistering early pace he had been setting, Smith closed in and started working him over wanting second. Racing off the fourth turn on lap 13, Smith passed Kerr to move into the runner-up spot – though it would be short-lived. Working lap 14 racing down the backstretch, Smith tangled with the lapped car of Ryan Brewer and spun into the outside wall to bring out the caution flag. Quickly heading into the pits for action from his crew got Smith back out to restart at the rear of the field. Going back green Hill was riding on the point followed by Kerr, Armes, Ogle and Jones. Jones wasted no time in getting by Ogle to move into fourth in the running order. While Hill was comfortably cruising out front holding right at a half-straightaway advantage over Kerr, Armes had his hands full trying to hold off the hard-charging Jones and also Ogle. A strong run for Ogle ended on lap 27 when he cut-down a left-rear tire between turns three and four and slowed to bring out the caution. With the field bunched back up for a dash to the checkers, Kerr closed to the rear bumper of Hill to give him one final challenge for the win. But Hill, driving the Landair Transport Inc./Pilot Travel Centers/Qualcomm/Jerry’s Auto Salvage/Beamer’s Flooring Outlet/The Hightower Advertising Agency/Dan Estes Construction/Peterson Fluid Systems/Klushman Racing Components/Comp Cams/JE Pistons/Brodix/Lunati Cranks/Hoosier Tire South/CV Racing Products/Joe Gibbs Performance Synthetic Racing Oil/RaceQuest Motorsports/Edelbrock/Vic Hill Racing Engines/Fastlane Signs & Graphics/GRT Race Cars/No. 1 Monte Carlo, would not be denied his second consecutive victory (worth $2,000) as he easily won over Kerr, Armes, Jones and Dale Ball (who charged to a fifth-place finish from his 14th-place starting position). Completing the top-10 finishers at the checkered flag were Shanon Buckingham, Austin Dillon (16-year-old grandson of NASCAR team owner Richard Childress), Travis Greer, Smith and Greg Burchett. The six remaining Super Late Model competitors still eligible for the special “Lawson Chevrolet” Ultimate Survivor Challenge, a 35-lap event paying $1,000-to-win, drew for their starting positions on the front straightaway prior to the race. If any driver dropped out of the race or finished a lap down they would be eliminated from the weekly Ultimate Survivor Challenge. And if no competitor should either fall out or be a lap down when the checkered flag waved, then the last-place finisher would be eliminated. Randy Davidson drew the pole position and Bryan Hendrix picked the second starting spot. Hendrix roared into the early lead, bringing Mike Smith along for the ride in second place, with Davidson, Jeff Maupin, Shanon Buckingham and Michael Jackson rounding out the top six in the running order. After pressuring Hendrix for the lead for three circuits, Smith dropped low racing off the fourth turn to pull alongside of Hendrix as they raced down the front straightaway. Smith, driving the Pizza Plus/Techni-Glass/Kingsport Fastners/Lowe Trucking/Smith Audio/RaceQuest/Ohlins/Fastlane Signs & Graphics/Vic Hill Racing Engines/GRT Race Cars/No. 4 GTO, grabbed the lead from Hendrix as they raced off turn two and never looked back as he rolled to the feature win over Jackson, Davidson and Buckingham. Both Hendrix and Maupin dropped out due to mechanical problems, thus they are eliminated from the weekly Ultimate Survivor Challenge events. Tony Trent earned the pole position for the 25-lap “Ramey Ford” Crate Late Model feature, and Shanon Buckingham timed-in second-quickest to nail down the outside front row starting berth. But Buckingham shot out to the lead over Trent at the drop of the green, with Jonesborough’s Bobby Mays, Rusty Fox and Brad Kenyon in tow as the field completed the opening lap. Jerry Broyles was on the move early, as he worked under Kenyon for the fifth spot on the third lap racing off turn two. And matters only got worse for Kenyon, as contact in the left-rear quarter panel from John King Jr. racing into the third turn on the sixth circuit momentarily got Kenyon out of shape, with King making the pass to move into sixth place and dropping Kenyon back to seventh. Out front it was all Buckingham, as he appeared to have the cruise control set at a fast-pace as he had stretched his advantage over Trent and Mays at the mid-point in the race to a half-straightaway. After pressuring Trent for several laps for the runner-up position, racing off the second turn on lap 13 Mays got a strong run on the outside to take the spot and set his sights on the race leader Buckingham. Just one lap later the caution waved when Kelly Glass spun between turns one and two, as he looped his mount to avoid making contact with Josh Henry. Going back green Buckingham had a rear view mirror of Mays, who was trailed by Trent, Fox and Broyles. While the front-running duo put some distance between themselves and their closest challengers, King was rim-riding up top trying to overtake Broyles to move into the top five. And on lap 16 between turns three and four, King made the pass to drop Broyles back to sixth in the running order. But the huge Fan Appreciation Night crowd’s attention was focused on the intense battle up front for the lead, as Buckingham was running the low groove and Mays was riding up high in the banking through the corners. Racing into the first turn on lap 19 Mays was alongside of Buckingham on the outside, and he carried more momentum off turn two to grab the lead. Mays managed to put a few car lengths between his El Matador Mexican Restaurant/Mike McCroskey Trucking/Whynot Chiropractic of Johnson City/B & B Auto Repair/Califonia Tans/James Crouch Garage (Tractor Trailer Repairs)/TNT Race Cars & Parts/No. 19 Grand Prix and Buckingham. But lapped traffic quickly came into play, as Mays was looking for the right holes to shoot the gap while Buckingham was trying to trap the race leader in behind slower cars. And it briefly worked, as Buckingham barely pulled ahead of Mays as they received the white flag. With Mays still rim-riding up high in the banking around turns one and two, he pulled back dead-even with Buckingham racing down the backstretch into the third turn. Mays used the run off the high-side of turn four to beat Buckingham to the start/finish line to capture his second straight Crate Late Model victory, with Buckingham finishing a close second. Rounding out the top five at the checkers were Trent, Fox and King. Completing the top-10 finishers were Broyles, Kenyon, Jensen Ford, Warren McMahan and Henry. Phillip Nichols of Sneedville battled the entire race with “Rusty Wallace Toyota” Hobby Stock point leader Jess Helton for the lead in the 20-lap event, with Nichols holding on at the checkered flag for his second feature win on the season. Finishing third through fifth, respectively, were Dustin Shaver (making a strong run in his return to racing at The Gap), Chuck Johnson and Mike Mays. The opening lap of the “Century 21 Masengill-McCrary Realtors” Mini Stock feature saw Randy Lane and Toby Jones get together racing off the fourth turn, with Lane’s car slamming hard head-on into the outside concrete wall where it then began barrel-rolling down the front straightaway. The red flag was quickly thrown and the safety crew made their way to the accident scene. After a few moments to allow him to catch his breath, Lane climbed from his badly torn-up car to the cheers of the crowd. Back under green it became apparent that Newport’s Shawn Henry was riding a strong mount, as he roared into the lead over the hard-charging duo of Scotty Thornton and Kevin Atwell. After starting from the rear of the field, Kurt Owens began making a charge towards the front in impressive fashion, and also having a good run was John Broce Jr. A late race caution tightened the field up for a seven-lap sprint to the checkers, and with Henry getting on the gas to maintain his lead just behind him Atwell was getting “roughed up” between turns three and four after contact from Owens, which saw Owens move into second-place and Atwell drop back to fourth, with Thornton riding in third. While Henry held on to capture his first victory of the season, and Owens came home in the runner-up position, Atwell got around Thornton to finish in third, with Broce rounding out the top five at the checkers. “GATEWAY FORD” SUPER LATE MODEL (35 laps) $2,000-to-win 1) Vic Hill #1; 2) Tommy Kerr #4T; 3) Joe Armes #77; 4) Kerry Jones #6; 5) Dale Ball #7; 6) Shanon Buckingham #22; 7) Austin Dillon #3; 8) Travis Greer #11g; 9) Mike Smith #4; 10) Greg Burchett #17; 11) Shane Roberts #32w; 12) Marty Calloway #7; 13) Barry Arnold #15; 14) Ryan Brewer #05; 15) Bryan Hendrix #5; 16) Billy Ogle Jr. #201; 17) Dwight Sams #54; 18) Randy Davidson #28; 19) Michael Jackson #Q; 20) Herman Goddard #22; 21) Ken Hall #44-Morristown, TN Did Not Start: Jeff Maupin #0, Jackie Hughes #27, Dennis Alverson #71, Brandon James #j1, John Tweed #1t “LAWSON CHEVROLET – ULTIMATE SURVIVOR CHALLENGE (35 laps) $1,000-to-win 1) Mike Smith #4; 2) Michael Jackson #Q; 3) Randy Davidson #28; 4) Shanon Buckingham #22 – Eliminated: Jeff Maupin #0; Bryan Hendrix #5 “RAMEY FORD” CRATE LATE MODEL (25 laps) 1) Bobby Mays #19; 2) Shanon Buckingham #44; 3) Tony Trent #18; 4) Rusty Fox #25; 5) John King Jr. #11k; 6) Jerry Broyles #72; 7) Brad Kenyon #98; 8) Jensen Ford #83; 9) Warren McMahan #33; 10) Josh Henry #B00; 11) Greg Burchett #17; 12) Clint Solomon #36; 13) James Cole #5; 14) Ricky Moore #75; 15) Todd Brooks #T1; 16) Luke Laney #9; 17) Kelly Glass #01; 18) Anthony Arnwine #11; 19) John Eller #35; 20) Joe “Dirt” Good #911; 21) Chris Manning #03; 22) Logan Hickey #16 – Did Not Make Field: Brandon Taylor #55, Chuck Laney #91, Frank Hodges #17, Gerald Smith #12, Van Lester #50, Hugh "Wishbone" Scalf #56 “RUSTY WALLACE TOYOTA” HOBBY STOCK (20 laps) 1) Phillip Nichols #33; 2) Jesse Helton #28; 3) Dustin Shaver #7; 4) Chuck Johnson #17; 5) Mike Mays #30; 6) Dale Reed #52; 7) Jamie Whitt #1; 8) Robbie Jones #29; 9) Chris Gregg #9; 10) Roger Hunter #7-11; 11) Patrick Flannery #38; 12) Bobby Reed #54; 13) Tyler Smith #32; 14) Jason Light #5; 15) Robbie Wood #16; 16) Jesse Wilder #79; 17) Rick Fillers #21; 18) R.J. Mayes #6m; 19) Charles Allen #4; 20) Everett Cobb #13 – Did Not Make Field: Ken Orton #33, Emery Harvey #74; Shorty Ledford #41, Ray Jarnigan #31, Ricky Shipley #20 “CENTURY 21 MASENGILL-MCCRARY REALTORS” MINI STOCK (20 laps) 1) Shawn Henry #B00; 2) Kurt Owens #7up; 3) Kevin Atwell #95; 4) Scotty Thornton #T15; 5) John Broce Jr. #44; 6) Kenny Absher #11; 7) Allen Carrier #B1; 8) Chad Jeffers #38; 9) James Feathers #27; 10) Joey Allen #A00; 11) Jeffery Nease #73; 12) Brandon Johnson #B01; 13) Brandon Petit #05b; 14) Toby Jones #66; 15) Randy Lane #5; 16) Jimmy Seay #6 - Did Not Start: Brent Hensley #70