Doug Hughes of Decatur won the first-place prize of $5,000 for his victory Saturday night in the 4:70 Heads Up class at the Brainerd Optimist Drag Strip. Hughes won with a 4.72-second run after a .408 reaction time in his 1969 Camaro SS powered by an aluminum modified 738-cubic-inch Chevrolet engine with nitrous assist. Stacy Roderick was second in his 632 Chevy-powered '90 Corvette Sting Ray. Tom Neubert and Jeff McNalley were third and fourth. Brad Freeman of Rock Spring won the 5:70 class with a 5.71 run in his 454 '23 Ford T-model, just nipping Chattanooga's Steven Farrow in a '69 Camaro. Richie Hawk from McDonough, Ga., won the 6:00 class in another very close race against Ooltewah's Jim Brackett, and Red Bank's Dereck Pickle won the 7:00 class with Loudon's Wade Townsend second. Wes Moore received the $100 bonus for 6:00 low qualifier with a perfect 6.000, and Dennis Smith was the 7:00 low qualifier with a 7.003. Mike Grief of East Ridge won the Foot Brake class with Dayton's Ray Bunn second, and East Ridge's Craig Cash got the prize for best-engineered car with his supercharged 454 '63 Corvette prepared by Johnny Cash.
- Riley Hickman of Ooltewah and Jeff Smith of Villanow, Ga., won weekend dirt-track races in northeastern Alabama. Hickman got $2,500 for his Firecracker 50 Super Late Model triumph Saturday night at Fort Payne Motor Speedway, where East Ridge's Todd Morrow was second, Geraldine's Kenny Hall was fifth and Chattanooga's Tod Hernandez was 10th. Smith earned $1,000 for his wire-to-wire Crate Late Model victory Sunday night at Gadsden's Green Valley Speedway and then got another $3,000 in an engine-claim swap offer from the team of Anniston driver Ryan King, who finished third behind Cedar Bluff's Elbert McCullough. "I didn't really want to sell my brand-new motor but had no choice, 'cause in people's eyes I'd been labeled a cheat," Smith told area racing correspondent Steve Hixson. "That was a good win for us, and now I've got a NeSmith-sealed Crate motor built by Vinson Race Engines."
Golf
- Soddy-Daisy's Haley Cothran and Tennessee Wesleyan signee Alexis Spalding from Beech High School in Hendersonville are among the eight 2011 graduates who will begin play Wednesday morning in their final Tennessee Girls' Junior Amateur golf tournament. The 48th annual event runs through Friday at The Club at Foxland Harbor in Gallatin, and two of Cothran's future Middle Tennessee State teammates, Allie Knight of Knoxville and Emily Miller of Livingston, also are in the field. There will be a new champion this year, but 2010 runner-up Samantha Gotcher of Clarksville and third-place finisher Jessica Cathey from Soddy-Daisy High are among the returners. Chattanooga's Blakesly Warren moved up to the 15-18 age group after winning the 10-14 division last year. Other area participants are Jenny Adkins, Haley Davidson and Lauren Johnson of Signal Mountain, Samantha Griffith of Ooltewah, Sloane Rakestraw of McDonald, Katie Bishop of Cleveland, Lydia Triplett of Benton and Katelyn Davenport of McMinnville.