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Kelley Carlton
LAVONIA, Ga. (March 22) - Georgia wheelman Jonathan Davenport led every lap of the $5000 to win O'Reilly Southern All Star Racing Series portion of Lavonia Speedway's "Late Model Extravaganza" on Saturday night. Davenport, who drives the Beaver Motorsports Barry Wright Race Cars Monte Carlo, scored his second career OSAS win after starting from the outside of row number one. Davenport also went on to pick up the winners purse in the Fastrak Champions Series crate race later in the evening.
Thirty-five drivers signed in for Sunoco Race Fuels Pole Qualifying at the newly reconfigured 3/8ths mile northeast Georgia oval. Troutman, North Carolina's Randle Chupp grabbed the pole award with his quick lap. The driver known as the "Showstoppa" laid down a lap of 15.301 seconds - just over a tenth of a second off the track record. Davenport was second fast with his lap of 15.374 seconds. 2007 OSAS Rookie of the Year Stacy Holmes, second generation race Travis Pennington and 2007 OSAS-East Champion Casey Roberts rounded out the top five in qualifying.
With the top ten qualifiers locked in to the feature, two last chance heat races set positions eleven through twenty-two. Benji Cole and Ronnie Lee Hollingsworth scored the wins in the heats. Cole came from deep in the field to take the win while Hollingsworth took his win from the pole position. With all of the drivers who were eligible for point provisionals were already in the feature, James Roulette and Dingus Griffin were added to the field as the two fastest drivers from qualifying not in the race. Shane Clanton withdrew from the feature and Randy Nichols was added as the alternate starter.
At the drop of the green Davenport launched his machine into the lead while Chupp was left to battle with Holmes. Holmes rolled by Chupp for second as the field crossed the line to complete lap number one. Chupp suddenly found himself under fire once again as youngster Travis Pennington and Casey Roberts moved in to challenge him for third. Chupp slipped up the banking through turns three and four allowing Pennington and Roberts to slip past. Chupp struggled to pedal his machine but was unable to stop the bleeding. NASCAR Sprint Cup regular Ken Schrader bypassed Chupp one lap later. Chupp's night came to an end on lap seven when he was part of a multi-car crash.
Also involved on the crash was Hollingsworth and David Smith. Hollingsworth suffered minor injuries to his hand in the incident. All three drivers retired from the event. When the field went back to green flag racing, Davenport once again set sail and opened up a huge lead. The race was on for the runner-up position however as Pennington began to apply the pressure to Holmes. Pennington took several looks beneath Holmes before finally making the pass on the fifteenth circuit. Holmes quickly fell into the clutches of the hard charging Roberts who made his way by just one lap later.
Davenport, who had found heavy lapped traffic, seemed to be able to move around effortlessly on the choppy track surface to get by the backmarkers. But the time used in being patient allowed Pennington to chop into the lead. But just as quickly as Pennington had caught the leader, he once again began to lose touch with Davenport as he now had to deal with the lappers. Pennington was also then forced to deal with the advances of a very fast Casey Roberts. Pennington was able to fend of Roberts but the hard racing between the two had once again allowed Davenport to drive away.
The margin was then just too much as Davenport flashed across the line beneath the checkers nearly a full straightaway ahead of Pennington. Roberts held on for third while Schrader moved up to finish fourth. Dennis "Rambo" Franklin rallied to round out the top five. Davenport was very happy in victory lane. "We have been working hard on this new Barry Wright Race Car. I can't say enough about how well it performed. And our Clements motor was just flawless. It was just our night tonight. I need to thank Mark Beaver for a great car and team and I need to thank Barry Wright for all of his help."
The event was slowed by a total of six cautions. The race marked the first event under new Lavonia operator / promoter Brad York. During the off-season York and staff completely resurfaced the facility and made many improvements to the grounds. York also had a positive attitude about the facility. "Lavonia has sort of gotten a bad name because of bad dust and shows running late. We wanted to really show people that we are serious about fixing those problems. I believe we are off to a good start." said York. York also moved the OSAS feature up in the order of events when the show got behind schedule.
Official Finish
1 - 75 Jonathan Davenport - Blairsville, GA
2 - 01 Travis Pennington - Winston, GA
3 - 101 Casey Roberts - Toccoa, GA
4 - 9 Ken Schrader - Fenton, MO
5 - 2 Dennis Franklin - Gaffney, SC
6 - 116 Randy Weaver - Crossville, TN
7 - 121 Benji Cole - Cannon, GA
8 - 7 Jason Fitzgerald - Jacksonville, FL
9 - D1 Dion Deason - Greenwood, SC
10 - 99 Derek Ellis - Chatsworth, GA
11 - 44 Clint Smith - Senoia, GA
12 - 21 Ivedent Lloyd - Ocala, FL
13 - 007 Jeff Weber - Clayton, GA
14 - H2 Stacy Holmes - Munford, AL
15 - 26 Dillon Wood - New Smyrna Beach, FL
16 - 03 Randy Nichols - Toccoa, GA
17 - 49 Dingus Griffin - Alexandria, AL
18 - 10 Anthony Hill - Carrollton, GA
19 - USA1 Doug English - Clayton, GA
20 - F21 Frankie Beard - Hartwell, GA
21 - 8 Ronnie Lee Hollingsworth - Northport, AL
22 - 22 Randle Chupp - Troutman, NC
23 - 2 David Smith - Inman, SC
24 - 05 James Roulette - Cumming, GA
DNS: Jimmy Ivester, Daryl Freeman, Ethan Hunter, Travis Stoner, Rickey Harvey, Shane Clanton, Tony Knowles, Bruce Taylor, Jeff Madden, Joel Rice and Matt Dillard
Sunoco Race Fuels Pole Award: Randle Chupp
PPM Race Products Hard Charger: Dion Deason
Double H Race Fabrications Award: Travis Pennington
Schaeffer Lubricants Award: Dillon Wood
Mechanix Wear Crew Chief of the Race: Robert Bramlett (75 Davenport)
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