BULLS GAP — Dale McDowell led from start to finish to win the historic Volunteer 50 Super Late Model feature — and its $50,050 prize— on Saturday night when Volunteer Speedway celebrated 50 years of racing at The Gap.
Saturday’s main event capped a three-day celebration highlighting the track’s history and the legendary drivers who’ve made their mark on the high banks of the four-tenths-mile dirt track over the past five decades.
McDowell, a Georgia native, is certainly one of those.
The 58-year-old driver — dubbed “Mac Daddy” — earned a whopping $100,000 prize in April 2023 for winning the XR Super Series Spring Thaw in front of a record crowd at Volunteer Speedway. On Saturday, he crossed the finish line 2.991 seconds ahead of Mike Marlar to win the Volunteer 50 and claim the $50,050 paycheck.
Celebrating in victory lane, McDowell said, “… this place has been awfully good to us.”
Marlar, who swept this year’s Spring Thaw at The Gap, passed Brandon Overton on a lap-36 restart in the 50-lap main event to finish second. Overton finished third. Donald McIntosh crossed in fourth and Ricky Weiss rounded out the top five.
McDowell and Overton won Friday’s twin Super Late Model features to collect $5,000 each.
The field for the unsanctioned Volunteer 50 Late Model race included Lucas Oil Late Model Series points leader Ricky Thornton Jr. and three others in the top 10 in points (Marlar, Jimmy Owens and Daulton Wilson), as well as Hawkins County’s own Scott Bloomquist.
Bloomquist was back in action following a scary crash at Eldora Speedway in early June. The 2002 National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame inductee from Mooresburg finished 21st overall on Saturday.
Chris Madden, who had been sidelined by health issues, also got the green flag from doctors to return to racing and made The Gap his first stop. He finished sixth.
Thornton finished seventh, followed by Zack Mitchell, Ross Bailes and Zack Dohm. Event promoter and track operations manager Vic Hill drove his way into the main event and finished 15th.
Jeremy Steele won the $8,050 purse in Saturday’s 50-lap Crate Late Model feature. Weiss finished second with Cory Hedgecock third, Travis Fultz fourth and Skylar Marlar fifth. Fultz also pocketed $1,500 for winning the Crate Late Model feature on Friday.
On Thursday, Morristown’s Austin Atkins grabbed the lead on lap 40 and went on to win the Volunteer 50 Street Stock feature and its $5,050 prize.
SUPER LATE MODEL RESULTS
Saturday, June 291. Dale McDowell 17M (1)
2. Mike Marlar 157 (5)
3. Brandon Overton 76 (2)
4. Donald McIntosh 79M (4)
5. Ricky Weiss 7W
6. Chris Madden 44 (7)
7. Ricky Thornton Jr 20RT (9)
8. Zack Mitchell 57 (12)
9. Ross Bailes 87 (10)
10. Zack Dohm 17D (11)
11. Cory Hedgecock 36V (6)
12. Jimmy Owens 20 (20) +8
13. Daulton Wilson 18D (18)
14. Tyler Millwood 31 (13)
15. Vic Hill 1 (22)
16. Forrest Trent 101 (17)
17. Haiden Cowan 14 (19)
18. Pierce McCarter 71 (15)
19. Kaede Loudy 126 (23)
20. Jonathan Rowan 56 (21)
21. Scott Bloomquist 0 (16)
22. Wil Herrington 27H (14)
23. Shane Clanton 25 (3)
24. Christian Hanger 29H (24)
B Feature #1 (10 Laps):
1. 101-Forrest Trent[3]
2. 14-Haiden Cowan[4]
3. 56-Jonathan Rowan[2]
4. 126-Kaede Loudy[5]
5. 15-Noah Phillips[6]
6. 27-Joe Denby[7]
7. 79-Joshua Sneed[8]
8. 316-Mike Bargo[9]
9. 29-Larry Grube[12]
10. 22R-Will Roland[1]
11. 3S-Steve Smith[11]
12. (DNS) 1G-Rusty Ballenger
13. (DNS) 8-Chris Chandler
B Feature #2 (10 Laps):
1. 18D-Daulton Wilson[2]
2. 20-Jimmy Owens[3]
3. 1-Vic Hill[4]
4. 29H-Christian Hanger[6]
5. 55-Benji Hicks[10]
6. 83-Jensen Ford[7]
7. 11-Allen Styck[5]
8. 56H-Jordon Horton[12]
9. 22-Chris Ferguson[1]
10. 3D-Dakota James Smith[13]
11. (DNS) 18-Brad Dyer
12. (DNS) B00-Josh Henry
13. (DNS) 5-John Tweed
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