Knoxville, TN-Bobby Mayse traveled to east Tennessee this past weekend to race in the upstart Tennessee Thunder Series on Friday night at Wartburg Speedway, and then continued on to Maryville, TN for the O’Reilly Southern All Stars race at Smokey Mountain Speedway.

On Friday night, 32 late models were one hand for the opening debut of the Tennessee Thunder Series "Dirty Thunder 30". This was only the second time Mayse had competed at the Wartburg Speedway, but finished 4th in his heat race and was running a solid 5th in the 30 lap feature against a strong field of late models until someone else's mishap sent Mayse back to 12th place halfway during the race. Mayse continued to climb back towards the front, finishing in a respectable 8th place. Mayse will head back to east Tennessee this weekend to race the second Tennessee Thunder Series race at the legendary Atomic Speedway. Mayse, who stands in 8th place in the points standings, will chase this series championship this season.

Saturday was a different story. Racing against 58 of some of the strongest late models in the country at the O-Reilly's Southern All Stars race at Smokey Mountain Speedway, Mayse was off the pace a little bit in his qualifying efforts due to this being his first trip at the 4/10 mile speedway in Eastern Tennessee. Mayse did not get "locked" into the top 16 qualifiers and was relegated to running the consolation race. Four cars would qualify out of the consolation event, with Mayse battling long time legend Ronnie Johnson for that final transfer spot. Johnson finished 4th while Mayse was 5th. After 3 O’Reilly's SAS races this year, Mayse still stands in 20th place in the regional touring series.

Mayse, who won the 2004 Cleveland Late Model Championship last year, has decided to run for the Championship in the new Tennessee Thunder Series for 2005. This series has scheduled event across the state of Tennessee and it looks like this series will have a top class list of late model drivers each week.

When not involved in a TTS race, Mayse will follow certain O’Reilly SAS races. Mayse, who is listed on the new 2005 Tennessee Bad Boy shirts, will also appear in next month's issue of DIRT LATE MODEL Magazine, the premier magazine for dirt late model racers and enthusiasts. Mayse has already appeared in the Muddslinger Magazine. The team has made appearances on ESPN2, as well as the SPEED Channel, piloting his Parker Store Racing #22 Late Model.

So far in 2005, Mayse has raced in the Southeastern states of Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee, with 5 top 10s, and 1 DNS out of 6 races this season.