8/23/2024
Hunt The Front Super Dirt Series
Jameson tops Rice to claim Lake Cumberland's HTF Series weekend opener
BURNSIDE, Ky. (Aug. 23) — Jason Jameson of Lawrenceburg, Ind., survived multiple brushes with the wall and held off a hard-charging Josh Rice to kick off the Harold Hardgrove Memorial weekend with a $5,000 Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series victory Friday night at Lake Cumberland Speedway.
After starting from the pole position, Jameson cleared the second-starting Rice of Crittenden, Ky., on lap two of the 30-lapper and led the rest of the way to score his first career HTF Series win in his first appearance with the series.
Jameson and Rice raced close, not only to each other, but also with the concrete retaining walls. After edging ahead of Jameson to lead the opening lap, Rice slipped into second on lap two and ran close to Jameson the entire distance. Rice got close in trying to regain the lead, but couldn’t quite get by Jameson for the point.
On the last lap of the race, Jameson tagged the wall hard enough coming off the second turn to knock the rear spoiler off his Dirt Late Model race car, but he hung on to take a .429-second margin of victory over Rice at the checkered flag.
“I couldn’t get the car to turn with the front end, so I use the back end up against the wall,” Jameson said in Victory Lane, “I sure did give my crew a lot of work to do before tomorrow’s race, but they’ll have it ready to go.”
Rice settled for second ahead of Sam Seawright of Fort Payne, Ala., who gained some points in the HTF tour's title chase with a third-place effort. Seawright came into the race second in the standings, to Brandon Overton of Evans, Ga. Overton had issues with his race car and slowed to bring out a Minon Construction caution flag midway through. He recovered to finish 12th and heads into Saturday's weekend finale at Lake Cumberland with a 66-point advantage over Seawright.
Zack Mitchell of Enoree, S.C., took the fourth spot and Camaron Marlar of Winfield, Tenn., rounded out the top five.
Joseph Joiner of Milton, Fla., was the race's MD3 Hard Charger of the Race after starting 16th and finishing 10th. Jackson Hise of Ocala, Fla., was the ATC Bolts Rookie of the Race with his run from 19th to 13th.
The Hunt The Front Super Dirt Series returns to Lake Cumberland Speedway on Saturday night for the $15,000-to-win 13th Annual Harold Hardgrove Memorial weekend finale. The race will be live steamed at www.huntthefront.tv.
View full results from Friday's event at https://www.htfseries.com/schedules/event/492078.
Article Credit: Roby Helms | Ryan Roberts
