Carolina Clash Super Late Models
Cherokee Speedway
September 6, 2015
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Ferguson takes Carolina Clash Hall of Fame race at Cherokee Speedway

Carolina Clash PR
GAFFNEY, SC (September 6) - After hot laps, it was a good assumption that the Chris Ferguson owned track record at Cherokee was in jeopardy. He would need to beat his own record lap of 14.784 to cement himself into Cherokee history. He paced hot laps with a lap of 14.829. So, one would have assumed quicker times in qualifying were sure to come.

However, the track slowed down after several other divisions had their turn on the surface. Nonetheless, Ferguson was able to become the only car in the 14 second bracket as he paced a lap of 14.987 to set on the pole. His Longhorn had a new bull in the pasture in the name of Smoky Chris Madden. With a brand new car just off the assembly line, Madden was only off Fergy's mark by just under two-tenths. That coupled with yet another Longhorn with a seasoned-Cherokee veteran in Rambo Dennis Franklin, who was only 0.012 seconds off Madden's time. Then, Ben Watkins was only 0.043 seconds from Rambo and another Longhorn of Casey Roberts was only 0.008 from Watkins. So the top five were awful close on the time clock. They were at the drop of the green flag also.

Chris Madden led the first 20 laps of the event. Ferguson was closing lap after lap and everyone knew that they could eventually be caught up in a hurricane called "lapped traffic." All it took was one opportunity - one moment - one blink of an eye to see the eye of the storm. Ferguson found the eye of the storm and made one of the boldest moves ever witnessed at Cherokee as he sailed off into turn three using the traffic to his advantage, catching Madden at the perfect time in the middle of the perfect storm. It was all he needed and Fergy went on to lead the remaining 20 laps as his car seemingly got faster and faster. Madden was able to keep Ferguson close, but could not find the moment like Ferguson had to capitalize the traffic. Just as Ferguson ran second in the first half of the event, he had to settle in and run second for the second half. Both cars were superior to the rest of the field on the score sheet (lap times) and all it took was that one moment to make a difference. For this night, the eye of the hurricane was lined up in favor of Ferguson.

Casey Roberts powered his Longhorn to a third place finish after running fourth most of the race to Franklin in third. Rambo pitted on lap 35 with an apparent suspension issue on his Longhorn. Franklin had made passes for second on restarts early in the event before settling in for third.

For Ross Bailes, he made it to fifth place, where he ran all night until Franklin retired. He backed up his Lancaster win with a fourth-place finish.

For the second race in a row with Carolina Clash, Donald Bradsher was the fifth-place finisher over Johnny Pursley in sixth, Brent Dixon (Safety-Kleen Hard Charger of the Race from 17th position) Doug Sanders (who was inducted into the Cherokee Speedway Hall of Fame on this day), Joey Coulter and Anthony Sanders rounded out the top 10.

A-Main                  
1 22 Chris Ferguson
2 44 Chris Madden
3 101 Casey Roberts
4 87 Ross Bailes
5 93 Donald Bradsher
6 09 Johnny Pursley
7 1D Brent Dixon
8 42 Doug Sanders
9 2C Joey Coulter
10 421 Anthony Sanders
11 17 Tim Allen
12 9B Robbie Bailey
13 618 Kevin Wilson
14 03 David Yandle
15 2 Rambo Franklin
16 60 Jim Manka
17 22M Zack Mitchell
18 16 Ben Watkins
19 7 Josh Langley
20 31 Michael Akeson
21 1C Kenny Collins
22 9 Billy Lambert
23 95 Jake Gibbons
24 281 Kyle Pierce

Heat #1
1 22M Zack Mitchell
2 7 Josh Langley
3 421 Anthony Sanders
4 1D Brent Dixon
5 60 Jim Manka
6 9B Robbie Bailey
7 9 Billy Lambert

Heat #2
1 93 Donald Bradsher
2 42 Doug Sanders
3 03 David Yandle
4 31 Michael Akeson
5 618 Kevin Wilson
6 1C Kenny Collins
7 95 Jake Gibbons