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| Bailey Williams |
Photo credits: Francis Hauke
(Senoia, GA – March 18, 2018) Fayetteville teenager Bailey Williams outdueled Newnan’s Oliver Gentry and Alabama’s Cruz Skinner to claim his first career victory at Senoia Raceway on Saturday night. The grandson of Georgia Auto Racing Hall of Famer, Ricky Williams, Bailey led every single lap on his way to victory lane, but had to survive a pair of late race restarts to secure the win.
Saturday night also saw Franklin’s Shannon Stephens win for the first time in the Bombers and Ohio’s Steven Partin nab his first win in his first ever trip south of the Mason-Dixon line. Winston’s Michael Page won the feature for the Super Late Models while Senoia’s Ashton Winger topped the Crate Late Model division. Alabama’s Dylan Knowles won his first of the season in the Late Model Sportsman as did Harold Leath of Hampton in the Mini Stock. McDonough’s Ted Willingham was best in the Hobby and Jason Turner won the first ever feature in the Griffin Hose & Hydraulics Sportsman Charger class.
Bailey Williams took the lead at the on-set of the feature race for the Limited Late Models winning a three-wide battle with LaGrange’s Dennis Hale and Hamilton’s Thomas Lewis. Williams gained a sizeable lead over the field working lapped traffic to near perfection until lap 23 when Dallas’ Matt Bishop climbed the back straightaway wall and rolled his car over on to the roof.
On the first restart following the lengthy clean-up, Dennis Hale tried to get low on Williams, but pushed to close to the interior barrier catching it on his left front quarter-panel. The contact with the concrete wall sent Hale back up the track into on coming traffic where he was hit by Newnan’s Corey Payton. The crash ended a good night for Payton and Hale.
The second restart would not result in anything but elation from the Williams pit area. The young gun moved out front and never looked back posting his first career win over Gentry and Skinner. Chris Fennell and Hamilton’s Brand Lewis rounded out the first five finishers.
The Super Late Model show set the stage for the upcoming Spring Nationals presented by Textron Off-Road Vehicles on Easter weekend. The big dollar double-header weekend will showcase some of the nation’s best dirt late model drivers and Saturday night’s program was a good warm-up for that race weekend.
Former Craftsman Tool World of Outlaws champion, Shane Clanton of Zebulon, claimed the pole in preliminary qualifying rounds and he would be the race’s first leader as TJ Reaid of Acworth and Austin Horton of Whitesburg provided the chase. Michael Page picked his moves wisely in the early stages and was able to get past Horton on the third lap. Page continued his pursuit by passing Reaid on lap nine and then he began to chip away at a straightaway lead that Clanton had built.
Page caught Clanton on lap 16 as the two sliced and diced through lapped traffic. Clanton would pull back out to a five car length lead that made Page have to work harder again to catch him. But, that he did and with a great highside move on lap 25, Page moved past Clanton and then turned it on pulling away to a near two second lead.
Further back in the pack, Horton and Cartersville young gun Zach Leonhardi battled for fourth while Senoia’s three-time defending champion Clint ‘Cat Daddy’ Smith exchanged positions with Dawsonville’s Donald McIntosh.
“All the way through the field they were racing hard,” said an excited promoter Mayes Massey. “Side by side, trading some paint. That was fun to watch. Sets the tone for the Spring Nationals.”
Michael Page claimed the checkered flag ahead of Shane Clanton while TJ Reaid finished third. Horton won the battle for fourth leaving fifth place for Leonhardi.
The young crop of talent at Senoia Raceway is a spectacle in itself. Several drivers twenty-years-old or younger are growing into great racing competitors and many of them showed their skills on Saturday night. Another of those emerging stars is Senoia’s Ashton Winger.
Winger led every lap of the Crate Late Model race to claim his first win of the season. The seventeen-year-old made it look easy holding back all challenges from veterans Clint Smith, Jody Knowles and defending Crate Late Model points champion Jamie Maurice. The former Legends Car and Bandolero Car champion, Winger, pushed his car to the limit winning the race by 1.947 second over Smith. Knowles was third with Lake Spivey’s Dow Kirkland making the strongest charge of the night to finish in fourth. Maurice ended up in fifth.
The Legends Cars returned to Senoia Raceway after a year and half hiatus. The motorcycle engine powered race cars provide a great learning experience for new competitors to the sport of auto racing. Several drivers from Ohio made the trip down to compete against the local drivers and it turned into a true north vs. south short track war.
Ohio’s Jacob Ownes and LaGrange’s Jason Treschl fought over the lead position through the final five laps of the Legends Car feature. Treschl was finally able to wrestle the lead away just as the final lap began, but a caution would come out before they would get to the end as Senoia’s Joshua Hicks’ engine exploded in a huge fireball along the front straightaway.
The one lap dash set-up a scramble for the night’s laurels as Treschl and Owens touched in the fourth turn and then locked wheels exiting the turn which sent both spinning towards the front stretch concrete wall in front of the entire field which was hammering their gas pedals looking at the finish line. Treschl was collected in a hard crash as Owens limped across the line. Steven Parton was able to avoid all the carnage to win the race ahead of Steve Duderstadt and John Gutman, all hailing from the Buckeye state. Griffin’s Cale Hall was the first local driver to cross the finish line while Owens ended up crossing in fifth.
“That was a wild finish,” said Mayes Massey following the Legends main event. “The Legends have always provided a good show for the fans.”
Shannon Stephens, Harold Leath and Dylan Knowles all dominated their respective divisions leading flag to flag on their way to the winner’s circle while Jason Turner held off Randy Cornwell to claim the victory for the lesser experienced drivers in the very first feature for the Griffin Hose & Hydraulics Sportsman Chargers.
“We wanted to give the lesser experienced drivers an opportunity to learn how ot drive their race cars,” Massey said explaining the new Chargers class. “They can race against drives with similar levels of experience before moving to the class that has some really good talent to compete against. You have to be able to wheel a race car and have confidence before you can be real competitive. Hopefully this new class will be a good training ground for these guys.”
Senoia Raceway now gears up for the Spring Nationals presented by Textron Off-Road Vehicles on Friday, March 30 and Saturday, March 31st. The two-day show will feature racing in the Super Late Models, Limited Late Models, Crate Late Models, Late Model Sportsman, Hobby, Mini, Bomber and Hot Shots. The event will culminate with a $10,000 to win main event for the Super Late Models on Saturday night.
For additional information, event schedule, ticket prices and more, visit the track website at www.senoiaraceway.com or call the speedway at 770.599.6161.
Official Results – Saturday, March 17, 2018
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| Michael Page |
Super Late Models (Feature): 1-Michael Page, Winston 2-Shane Clanton, Zebulon 3-TJ Reaid, Acworth 4-Austin Horton, Whitesburg 5-Zach Leonhardi, Cartersville 6-Clint Smith, Senoia 7-Donald McIntosh, Dawsonville 8-Shane Fulcher, Thomaston 9-Dale Thurman, Cartersville 10-Mason Massey, Douglasville 11-Rikcy Williams, Fayetteville 12-Eric Granger, Douglasville 13-Glenn Morris, Fayetteville 14-Adam Ruff, Dallas 15-Chad Wallace, LaGrange Fast Qualifier: Clanton (14.839 – 91.0 mph)
Limited Late Models (Feature): 1-Bailey Williams, Fayetteville 2-Oliver Gentry, Newnan 3-Cruz Skinner, Oxford, AL 4-Chris Fennell 5-Brand Lewis, Hamilton 6-Thomas Mewborn, Greenville 7-Scottie Pritchett, Waleska 8-Landon Bagby, Winston 9-Bobby Mills, Griffin 10-Brant Hardin, McDonough 11-Dennis Hale, LaGrange 12-Corey Payton, Newnan 13-Zach Leonhardi, Cartersville 14-Matt Bishop, Dallas 15-Thomas Lewis, Hamilton 16-Jacques Daniel, Cartersville DNS: Randall Powell, Oxford Fast Qualifier: Williams (15.640 – 86.3 mph)
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| Ashton Winger |
Crate Late Models (Feature): 1-Ashton Winger, Senoia 2-Clint Smith, Senoia 3-Jody Knowles, Tyrone 4-Dow Kirkland, Lake Spivey 5-Jamie Maurice, McDonough 6-Ahnna Parkhurst, Evans 7-Wayne Harbin, Sharpsburg 8-Travis Price, Oxford 9-Chuck Page, Winston 10-Marty Massey, Winston 11-Tina Johnson, Senoia 12-Mike Abercrombie, Jackson 13-Jake Rainey, Powder Springs 14-Trey White, Jenkinsburg Fast Qualifier: Smith (15.168 – 89.1 mph)
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| Dylan Knowles |
Late Model Sportsman (Feature): 1-Dylan Knowles, Lanett, AL 2-Wiley McDaniel, Byron 3-Keith Fields, Griffin 4-Matt Thompson, Powder Springs 5-Levi Campbell, Jackson 6-Jack Mills, Griffin 7-Billy Stevenson, Locust Grove 8-Daniel Brewer, Avondale Estates 9-Morgan Alexander, Locust Grove 10-Ty Ellis, Covington DNS: Brandon McDaniel, Byron Fast Qualifier: Knowles (15.767 – 85.7 mph)
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| Ted Willingham |
Hobby (Feature): 1-Ted Willingham, McDonough 2-Tim Harmon, Conyers 3-Blake Harmon, Mansfield 4-Brandon Henderson, Senoia 5-Jamie Garner, Mableton 6-Phillip Wallace, Locust Grove DNS: Larry Bednar, Locust Grove Fast Qualifier: Blake Harmon (16.616 – 81.3 mph)
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| Shannon Stephens |
Bomber (Feature): 1-Shannon Stephens, Franklin 2-Larry Pierce, Griffin 3-McKenna Nelms, Newnan 4-John Holcomb, Griffin 5-Bud Roland, Molena DNS: Dorough Bright, Newnan; Curtis Turner, Brooks; Marty Lunsford, Newnan Fast Qualifier: Turner (17.567 – 76.9 mph)
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| Harold Leath |
Mini Stock (Feature): 1-Harold Leath, Hampton 2-Bobby Faulkner, Newnan 3-Joshua Till, McDonough 4-Tommy Faulkner, Newnan 5-Wesley Patterson, Williamson 6-John Caldwell, Senoia DNS: Jamie Nicholson, Sr., Locust Grove Fast Qualifier: Leath (18.686 – 72.3 mph)
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| Steven Partin |
Legends Cars (Feature): 1-Steven Partin, West Union, OH 2-Steve Duderstadt, Lynchburg, OH 3-John Gutman, West Union, OH 4-Cale Hall, Griffin 5-Jacob Owens, Dayton, OH 6-Justin Vaughn, Georgetown, OH 7-Chris Clanton, Brooks 8-Jason Treschl, LaGrange 9-Cody Hall, Griffin 10-Joshua Hicks, Senoia 11-Gerad Miller, Dayton, OH 12-Tom Partin, West Union, OH Fast Qualifier: Owens (18.127 – 74.5 mph)
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| Jason Turner |
Griffin Hose & Hydraulics Sportsman Chargers (Feature): 1-Jason Turner 2-Randy Cornwell, Fayetteville 3-Johnny Stinchcomb, Newnan 4-Jamie Nicholson, Jr., Locust Grove 5-Scott Gaddy, Newnan 6-Dave McWilliams, Brooks
