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LATEMODELRACER >> SOUTH REGION >> Senoia Raceway - 8/27 Results
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Message started by LMR on 08/28/16 at 10:29pm

Title: Senoia Raceway - 8/27 Results
Post by LMR on 08/28/16 at 10:29pm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 28, 2016
__________________________________________________________

CLOSE RACING & NEW WINNERS HIGHLIGHT SENOIA RACEWAY

by Ted Austad
SENOIA, GA (August 28) - Dennis Lykins, Jr. of Sharpsburg picked up his first career victory at Senoia Raceway Saturday night edging out Tyrone’s Jody Knowles by less than a foot while four other drivers also visited victory lane for the first time at the ‘bull ring’. Knowles made a last lap attempt to steal away a lead that Lykins enjoyed for the entire distance of the B Cadet feature, but came up just short.

“We had a little luck on our side to get it done, but I'll take it anyway,” said Lykins. “Its amazing to see how many of my fellow competitors came up to congratulate me and genuinely be happy for us. Just shows we race with some of the best around.”

Alabama’s Cruz Skinner celebrated his 15th birthday with a first career win in the Crate Late Model feature while Alabama racers Jason Gillilan and Jamie Rowan also visited Senoia Raceway’s winner’s circle for the first time splitting the Mini Stock double mains. Mansfield’s Brent Harmon notched his first career feature win at the track winning the Bomber race while Whitesburg’s James Swanger bested the field of Hobby Stock. All the new winners were joined by Senoia’s Clint ‘Cat Daddy’ Smith who swept the action in the Super Late Models and Limited Late Models. The victories marked the seventh and fourteenth wins of the season in the divisions respectively.

In a racing night that featured some of the best competition of the season, the closest race went to the battle between Lykins and Knowles in the B Cadet. Lykins led the field from the drop of the green, but Knowles and Hampton’s Richard Goode ran three wide with him for the first couple of laps. Goode’s charge ended early when another car made contact with the front end of his car knocking the car’s set-up off.

Lykins and Knowles continued their intense feud at the front of the pack. Knowles would try to get several runs using the top side of the 3/8ths mile track. Lykins would run the bottom of the track keeping his car in front each time when they would motor down the straightaways.

In the final lap, Knowles jumped low to try and surprise Lykins who slipped up the track just enough to create a drag race from the fourth turn. In a photo finish, Lykins beat Knowles by less than a foot at the finish line gaining him his first career win. Knowles was second with Locust Grove’s Billy Stevenson third. Newnan’s Bobby Arnold and Parrish Duncan were fourth and fifth.

Arnold and Duncan now come into the final points race of the season on Saturday, September 10th separated by only fourteen points for the B Cadet championship laurels. Duncan, the defending division champion, leads Arnold by fourteen points. The final race of the points season will also be a double points opportunity. If he is to unseat the reigning champion, Arnold will need to finish three positions better than Duncan at that final race.

Great racing continued in the Crate Late Model feature as season points champion Marty Lunsford of Newnan shot out to the race’s first lead. Alabama’s birthday boy, Cruz Skinner, ran second ahead of Newnan’s Craig Scott and Dylan Knowles of Lanett, Alabama. Behind those leaders, Bobby Mills of Griffin, Atlanta’s Kyle Cochran along with Newnan’s Jonathan Harrell and Corey Payton ran four wide battling for fifth place.

Skinner overtook Lunsford on the third circuit leaving the champ in a battle with Knowles that saw the pair of teenage young guns race side by side for several laps. Craig Scott worked past and began to reel in Skinner as the leaders worked their way into lapped traffic.

Scott’s charge was complete on lap eleven as he took the lead from Skinner while darting in and out of lapped cars. Just after he had stolen the lead, Scott was caught up in a tangle with Lake Spivey’s Dow Kirkland who was trying to get out of the leader’s way. The caution sent Scott to the back of the pack and handed the lead position back to Skinner.

Skinner did not relinquish the lofty spot again as he led the rest of the way to win his first at the tough, racy gumbo clay race track. Knowles would come home second ahead of Lunsford with Sharpsburg’s Wayne Harbin moving up to nab a season’s best fourth place ahead of Harrell.

Following in suit with the trend of excellent racing action, the Super Late Model race did not disappoint as a pair of seasoned veterans put on a show of shows racing side by side, swapping the lead on almost every lap. Senoia’s Clint Smith and Joe Armistead, Jr. have battled many times over their careers, but not many have been as exciting or as evenly matched as Saturday night’s.

Smith jumped from his third row starting positon to run three wide in the first two turns. The move allowed him to be the race’s first leader. Armistead would settle into the top groove of the race track and would catch Smith by lap three. Armistead would continue to run the top of the track while Smith ran as close to the interior concrete wall as he could.

Armistead snatched the lead on lap nine and looked like he was going to run from Smith, but the four-time Southern All-Stars champion never gave up retaking the lead only four laps later. The duo ran side by side, swapping the slim lead back and forth for next several laps before Smith finally wrestled the position away and moved in front for good with nly a few laps remaining.

Smith won his seventh of the season ahead of Armistead while Douglasville’s Mason Massey made a last lap pass of Joey Armistead to gain third. Senoia’s Bubba Pollard rounded out the first five finishers after starting scratch on the field.

‘Cat Daddy’ Clint Smith also captured the win in the Limited Late Model division. Smith won his fourteenth of the season ahead of Cruz Skinner and Carrollton’s Clifton Moran. Plenty of racing for position was again the norm in this race as well with Skinner and Moran running side by side for several laps. Just behind them was another classic ‘bull ring’ duel with Fayetteville’s Glenn Morris and Brooks’ Matt Dooley waging war for fourth place. Skinner would end up gaining the second place position over Moran while Dooley worked past Morris to snag fourth.

Newnan’s Dorough Bright looked like he was going to spoil the celebration by Brent Harmon when he over took him on the back stretch with one and half laps remaining in the Bomber feature. Unfortunately, a caution came out just as Bright was to take the white flag forcing officials to go back to the last completed lap where Bright was in third behind Brent Harmon and his father Tim Harmon in second.

Bright could not muster the momentum he had prior to the caution and could not get past the father and son racing team allowing for Brent Harmon to won his first career feature in front of his very proud father. Bright would be disappointed in third with Zebulon’s Jim Jackson fourth and Jackson’s Wilson Boozer fifth.

The four cylinder Mini Stock division was scheduled for a pair of 15-lap feature races after the previous week’s event was postponed due to the Coweta County enforced curfew. Nineteen competitors showed up for the opportunity to run two purse events, but trouble with cautions and realignments caused both races to be cut in number of laps.

“The races were plagued with numerous cautions for spins and crashes,” explained race director Chad Harrington. “Then we could not get the drivers to cooperate with us to line up for the restarts. Those situations caused the time limit to run out on both of their races.”

The shortened race victors were a pair of new winners at the speedway. Boaz, Alabama’s Jason Gillilan had been close a few times this season, but had come up short each time. This week others misfortune worked in his favor as he locked up the first feature. Altoona, Alabama’s Jamie Rowan kept a pair of north Georgia drivers at bay in the second go around before the race was halted early again. It was also Rowan’s first win at Senoia.

James Swanger moved past Joe Hillman of Villa Rica on the final lap of the Hobby Stock race to win his second straight. Brooks’ Curtis Turner finished in third as he continues to pursue the points leader Randy Cornwell.

Senoia Raceway will take this weekend off for the Labor Day holiday. The track will reusme one week later on Saturday, September 10th for the Season Points Championship round. All features will offer double points allowing drivers to try and move up positions in the season rankings one last time.

For additional information, schedules, rules and more, visit the Senoia Raceway website at www.senoiaraceway.com. The track also offers an e-mail newsletter (sign-up on the website), Facebook page, twitter feed, instagram and snapchat for social media access to news and information. You can also contact the track directly at 770.599.6161.

Official results from Saturday, August 27, 2016

Super Late Model (Feature): 1-Clint Smith, Senoia 2-Joe Armistead, Jr., Senoia 3-Mason Massey, Douglasville 4-Joey Armistead, Senoia 5-Bubba Pollard, Senoia 6-Ricky Williams, Fayetteville 7-Ashton Winger, Senoia 8-Shane Fulcher, Thomaston 9-Zach Leonhardi, Cartersville 10-Laddie Fulcher, Thomaston 11-Lamar Haygood, Douglasville Fast Qualifier: Williams (16.026 seconds/84.3 mph)

Limited Late Model (Feature): 1-Clint Smith, Senoia 2-Cruz Skinner, Oxford, AL 3-Clifton Moran, Carrollton 4-Matt Dooley, Brooks 5-Glenn Morris, Fayetteville 6-Brandon Bright, Newnan 7-Aubrey Merritt, Carrollton 8-Bailey Williams, Fayetteville 9-Jayce Southwell, Brooks 10-Brantley Hardin, Griffin 11-Joseph Darda, Greenville 12-Jason Williams, Locust Grove Fast Qualifier: Smith (15.656 seconds/86.3 mph)

Crate Late Models (Feature): 1-Cruz Skinner, Oxford, AL 2-Dylan Knowles, Lannett, AL 3-Marty Lunsford, Newnan 4-Wayne Harbin, Sharpsburg 5-Jonathan Harrell, newnan 6-Corey Payton, Newnan 7-Josh Copeland, McDonough 8-Craig Scott, Newnan 9-Bobby Mills, Griffin 10-Chase Baker, LaGrange 11-Kyle Cochran, Atlanta 12-Phillip Deal, Tyrone 13-Richard Dale, Winston 14-Bailey Temples, McDonough 15-Colby Darda, LaGrange 16-Dusty Newell, Gray 17-Dow Kirkland, Lake Spivey DNS: Bubba Pollard, Senoia Fast Qualifier: Pollard (15.941 seconds/84.7 mph)

B Cadet (Feature): 1-Dennis Lykins, Jr., Sharpsburg 2-Jody Knowles, Tyrone 3-Billy Stevenson, Locust Grove 4-Bobby Arnold, Newnan 5-Parrish Duncan, Newnan 6-Jack Mills, Griffin 7-Ted Minnix, McDonough 8-Tod Darda, LaGrange 9-Jeff Carter, Stockbridge 10-Jamie Nicholson, Jr., Locust Grove 11-Johnny Stinchcomb, Newnan 12-Keith Fields, Griffin 13-Richard Goode, Hampton 14-Scott Gaddy, Newnan Heat Winners: Lykins & Goode

Hobby Stock (Feature): 1-James Swanger, Whitesburg 2-Joe Hillman, Villa Rica 3-Curtis Turner, Brooks 4-Blake Harmon, Mansfield 5-Dustin Perry, Carrollton 6-Ben Steele, Franklin 7-Mike Jenkins, Brooks 8-Larry Bednar, Hampton 9-Randy Cornwell, Fayetteville 10-Lee McElwaney, Newnan

Mini Stock (Feature #1/Make-up from 8.20): 1-Jason Gillilan, Boaz, AL 2-Austin Brumbelow, Winder 3-Don Don Cook, Fortson 4-Dan Bennet, Loganville 5-Brent Couch, Auburn 6-Jamie Rowan, Altoona, AL 7-JJ Garrett, Monroe 8-Denver Stepp, Powder Springs 9-Jamie Nicholson, Sr., Locust Grove 10-Kevin Tullis, Commerce 11-Jamie Godbee, Carrollton 12-Rocky Johnson, Douglasville 13-Jamie Nicholson, Jr., Locust Grove 14-Caleb Moss, Brooks 15-Bo Minor, Ralph, AL 16-Tommy Faulkner, Newnan 17-Cassie Dinlger-Still, Newnan 18-Marc Leath, Griffin

Mini Stock (Feature #2): 1-Rowan 2-Couch 3-Godbee 4-Nicholson, Sr. 5-Gillilan 6-Nicholson, Jr. 7-Moss 8-Brumbelow 9-Tullis 10-Johnson 11-Faulkner 12-Bennett 13-Stepp 14-Todd Brewster, Villa Rica 15-Minor 16-Dingler-Still 17-Cook DNS: Garrett; Leath

Bomber (Feature): 1-Brent Harmon, Mansfield 2-Tim Harmon, Conyers 3-Dorough Bright, Newnan 4-Jim Jackson, Zebulon 5-Wilson Boozer, Jackson 6-Randy Cornwell, Fayetteville 7-Jr Hardy, Conyers 8-Carly Arnett, Lanett, AL 9-Shannon Stephens, Newnan 10-Pappy Powell, Hogansville 11-John Holder, Milner 12-Josh Roddy, Palmetto 13-Andrew Barton, Covington 14-Michael Nelms, Newnan