SWEETWATER, TN – Cory Hedgecock of Loudon, TN made a couple of big moves to take a big $10,000 victory on Friday night at his home track, I-75 Raceway in the 50-lap Main Event for the Hunt The Front Super Dirt Series. Hedgecock made a big move at the start of the race to take the lead, only to give it up in lapped traffic, but regained it with another big move with ten laps to go.
Hedgecock swept the program as he was the overall Fast Qualifier among the 30 entrants from nine different state and one Canadian Province in My Race Pass Qualifying with a lap around the 3/8-mile clay oval in 13.288 seconds, and he also won the Quicksilver Engines First eight-lap Heat Race.
At the start of the race, Hedgecock made a bold move coming off the second turn by getting a big run and threading the needle down the backstretch between HTF point leader Brandon Overton of Evans, GA and pole sitter Dale McDowell of Chickamauga, GA to take the lead. Overton ran Hedgecock down in lapped traffic to take the lead midway through the race.
Hedgecock regrouped and caught Overton with ten laps to go. Going into the third turn, Hedgecock went full send and dove under Overton to retake the lead. Overton then fell off the pace on the next lap with a flat right-rear tire. Overton restarted 15th after changing the tire under caution and rallied to finish eighth.
Stormy Scott of Las Cruces, NM finished second and National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame Inductee McDowell was third. Kaede Loudy of Rogersville, TN took the fourth spot, and fifth went to Ashton Winger of Hampton, GA. Zack Mitchell of Enoree, SC was sixth and Donald McIntosh of Dawsonville, GA drove to a seventh-place finish.
Overton was eighth and Spencer Hughes of Meridian, MS finished ninth, Jensen Ford of Piney Flats, TN rounded out the top ten. In other preliminary action, the other three eight-lap heat races were won by McDowell in the Earnhardt Technologies Group Heat 2, Winger in the MD3 Heat 3, and Overton in the Minon Construction Heat 4. David Crabtree of Maryville, TN won the ten-lap Augusta Aquatics First Last Chance Qualifier and Josh Henry of Newport, TN won the ten-lap Hoosier Racing Tire Second Last Chance Qualifier.
The Hunt The Front Super Dirt Series returns to I-75 Raceway on Saturday night to close out its 2024 season with a $20,000-to-win Main Event with several top ten point fund paying positions still up for grabs. Overton must complete one qualifying lap to earn 48 points to clinch the $50,000 National Championship.
Just 36-points separate three drivers, Winger in second, Sam Seawright of Fort Payne, AL in third, and Mitchell in fourth, for the Runner-Up spot in the Hunt The Front Super Dirt Series National Point Standings worth $25,000.
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