Submitted by Ted Austad
Photo credits: Francis Hauke
(Senoia, GA – August 26, 2018) Former World of Outlaws Late Model Tour champion Shane Clanton of Zebulon led all 40 laps of Saturday night’s Ultimate Super Late Model Series feature to win his second series victory at the tough bullring Senoia Raceway. Clanton lapped all but twelve cars on his to a near two second win over Senoia teenager Ashton Winger. Clanton pocketed $4000 for his efforts.
Other winners at Senoia Raceway on Saturday night included Michael Page of Winston in the Crate Late Models, Dylan Knowles of Lannett, AL in the Late Model Sportsman and Baldwin’s seventeen-year-old Parris Simmons in the Chargers. Barnesville’s Landon DeGraff notched the victory in the combined Hobby Bomber feature while Hampton’s Mark Newton won the Mini Stock Hot Shot main event. Christopher Clanton of Brooks won his third Legends feature while Alabama’s Abe Chase picked up the laurels in the Waterless Boat Race.
Shane Clanton jumped out early from his front row starting position. Clanton used lapped traffic to keep his distance from Winger who would gain ground and then make a small mistake to allow his target to move further out front. South Carolina’s Zack Mitchell pressured the young Winger throughout the race, but was never able to wrestle away the lead as Clanton, Winger and Mitchell would finish 1-2-3 when the checkered flag fell over the field.
Cartersville teenager Zach Leonhardi had to use a provisional to get into the feature. Leonhardi started in the 23rd starting spot and raced his way into the top five to be the race’s hard charger. Senoia three-time defending super late model point’s champion Clint Smith ran among the top five all night before a flat tire resulted in a late race fade to eighth.
Smith and Michael Page worked double duty on Saturday as both ran their Super Late Model cars and then hopped behind the wheel of Crate Late Model entries as well. Page kept his Senoia track rival at an arm’s length distance throughout to claim the victory. Smith settled for second while Gray’s Chaz Haskins rounded out the top three. Senoia’s Tina Johnson ran her best race of the season finishing in fourth and Sharpsburg’s Wayne Harbin was fifth.
A scary crash hushed the crowd on the third lap of the Crate Late Model feature after Pearson’s Woodrow Mullis’ car was launched into the air was racing three wide on the front stretch. The airborn car spun upon landing where Douglasville’s Marty Massey clipped the disabled car and almost flipped over. Massey’s car was up on it’s side before settling back on to it’s wheels.
In the Late Model Sportsman feature, ‘Thrillin’ Dylan Knowles used the top racing groove to gain the lead over Macon’s Cory Compton and then ran away to victory lane. The current points leader Compton finished in second ahead of Griffin’s Keith Fields, Locust Grove’s Jason Williams and Jamie Nicholson, Jr. Jackson’s ‘Kid Smooth’ Levi Campbell recovered from slamming into the back stretch wall with two laps remaining to still claim sixth place.
Powder Springs’ Keith West and Whitesburg’s James Swanger were entrenched with a great race battle through the first part of the combined Hobby and Bomber feature. The duo traded the lead several times until lap fourteen when Swanger came off turn two with West directly in front of him. Swanger’s momentum carried him right into the rear end of West lifting the point’s leaders car off the track. Swanger spun and collected the back stretch outside wall while West spun to the inside and crashed hard into the concrete. Third and fourth place competitors Ryan Ray of Mableton and Landon DeGraff scooted past unscathed.
Ray and DeGraff would finish in first and second after a green-white-checkered finish was called to end the lengthy race, but Ray would be found to be fifteen pounds light at the scales afterwards. The win was handed over to DeGraff giving him his first career win at Senoia Raceway. Former champion Ben Wells of Milner was moved to second place and Carrollton’s Dustin Smith to third.
Parris Simmons held off every challenge that was thrown at him in the Charger feature. The seventeen-year-old high schooler won his first career feature in his Sportsman car winning a special tribute race for fallen competitor Bud Roland who passed away after suffering injuries in a non-racing related accident.
Christopher Clanton kept his family’s namesake in victory lane as the nephew of Shane Clanton won his third feature of the season in Legends Car competition. Mark ‘Mad Dog’ Newton also won his third of the year and third straight with the Mini Stock Hot Shot victory.
The fun and excitement of this year’s Waterless Boat Race was extinguished in the final moments when a crash sent a young participant to the hospital. The huge crash brought out the red flag and signaled the early end to the event with Abe Chase being declared the event’s winner.
Senoia Raceway will take off Labor Day weekend before resuming racing on Saturday, September 8th with the make-up race for the Senoia Summer Nationals IX and the winged outlaw sprint cars. The night will also be the final points race of the season for the Limited Late Models, Crate Late Models, Late Model Sportsman, Hobby Stock, Bomber, Mini Stock and Hot Shots.
The pits will open at 4pm this weekend with the grandstands opening at 5pm. Hot laps and qualifying will begin at 6:30pm with racing at 7:30pm.
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, August 25, 2018
Ultimate Super Late Models (Feature): 1-Shane Clanton, Zebulon 2-Ashton Winger, Senoia 3-Zack Mitchell, Woodruff, SC 4-Michael Page, Winston 5-Zach Leonhardi, Cartersville 6-Joey Coulter, Concord, NC 7-Kyle Hardy, Linden, VA 8-Clint Smith, Senoia 9-Stephen Roberts 10-Ray Cook, Brasstown, NC 11-Mason Massey, Douglasville 12-Larry Harrod, Plains 13-Dennis Franklin, Gaffney, SC 14-Dusty Jones, LaGrange 15-Ivedent Lloyd, Ocala, FL 16-Anthony Sanders, Charlotte, NC 17-Craig Scott, Newnan 18-Dalton Cook, Columbus 19-Kyler Haygood, Douglasville 20-John Henderson 21-Austin Horton, Whitesburg 22-Johnny Cloer, Chatsworth 23-Glenn Morris, Fayetteville 24-Lamar Haygood, Douglasville DNQ: Shane Fulcher, Thomaston; Mark Page, Winston; Heath Hindman
Crate Late Models (Feature): 1-Michael Page, Winston 2-Clint Smith, Senoia 3-Chaz Haskins, Gray 4-Tina Johnson, Senoia 5-Wayne Harbin, Sharpsburg 6-Jake Rainey, Powder Springs 7-Chase Baker, LaGrange 8-Dow Kirkland, Lake Spivey 9-Lark Haskins, Gray 10-Marty Lunsford, Newnan 11-Matt Dooley, Brooks 12-Phil Deal, Tyrone 13-Woodrow Mullis, Pearson 14-Danny Herrington 15-Marty Massey, Winston DNS: Bobby Mills, Griffin Fast Qualifier: Page (14.693 seconds – 91.9 mph)
Late Model Sportsman (Feature): 1-Dylan Knowles, Lannett, AL 2-Cory Compton, Macon 3-Keith Fields, Griffin 4-Jason Williams, Locust Grove 5-Jamie Nocholson, Jr., Locust Grove 6-Levi Campbell, Jackson 7-Jack Mills, Griffin 8-Lance Chitwood, Ila 9-Jamie Maurice, McDonough 10-Chris Steele, Franklin 11-Trey Wood, Newnan 12-McKenna Nelms, Newnan 13-Billy Stevenson, Locust Grove 14-Morgan Alexander, Locust Grove 15-Shane Payton, Newnan 16-Dustin Newell, Gray 17-Williams Blair, Whitesburg 18-Ted Minnix, McDonough DNS: Bobby Arnold, Newnan Fast Qualifier: Knowles and Compton (15.973 seconds – 84.5 mph)
Hobby/Bomber (Combined Feature): 1-Landon DeGraff, Barnesville 2-Ben Wells, Milner 3-Dustin Smith, Carrollton 4-Ted Willingham, McDonough 5-Curtis Turner, Brooks 6-Griffin Alexander, Locust Grove 7-Stratton Scott, Newnan 8-Brandon Jones, Newnan 9-Larry Bednar, Locust Grove 10-Wilson Boozer, Jackson 11-Vern Miller, Newnan 12-Larry Pierce, Griffin 13-Ricky Neill, Whitesburg 14-TJ Boetz, Heflin, AL 15-Keith West, Powder Springs 16-James Swanger, Whitesburg 17-Dunie Dillard, Phenix City, AL 18-Rusty Johnson, Newnan 19-Michael Couch, Newnan 20-Timothy Anderson, Carrollton 21-Mike Nelms, Newnan DQ: Ryan Ray, Mableton (too light) DNS: Chris Kozusnik, Newnan; Dorough Bright, Newnan; Scott Amoson, Newnan Fast Qualifier: Swanger (16.261 seconds – 83.0 mph)
Mini/Hot Shot (Combined Feature): 1-Mark Newton, Hampton 2-Grant Roberts, Good Hope 3-Bo Chambers, Griffin 4-Joshua Till, McDonough 5-Bob Faulkner, Newnan 6-Nathan Farrow, LaGrange 7-Ernest Turner, Douglasville 8-Richard Powell 9-Cale Burford, Milner 10-Terry Smith, Phenix City, AL 11-Corey Wilson 12-Justin Henderson, Senoia 13-Corey Green 14-Jamie Nicholson, Sr., Locust Grove DNS: Tommy Faulkner, Newnan; Travis Harris Fast Qualifier: Roberts (17.972 seconds – 75.1 mph)
Chargers (Feature): 1-Parris Simmons, Baldwin 2-Mike Abercrombie, Jackson 3-Richard Dale, Winston 4-Jeff Robinson, Hampton 5-Dave McWilliams, Brooks 6-David Turner 7-Josh Allen, Atlanta 8-Shannon Stephens, Franklin 9-Tony McGuire 10-Scott Gaddy, Newnan 11-Jason Turner, McDonough 12-Johnny Stinchcomb, Newnan 13-Todd Brewster, Villa Rica
Legends Car (Feature): 1-Christopher Clanton, Brooks 2-Brian Weimer, Cumming 3-Jami Weimer, Cumming 4-Hunter Johnson, Griffin 5-Steven Partin, West Union, OH 6-Zac Bacon, Buchanan 7-Mike Grindle
