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| A view of the crowd at the Senoia Raceway Spring Nationals. |
Submitted by: Ted Austad
Photo credits: Francis Hauke
(Senoia, GA – March 26, 2017) Donald McIntosh of Dawsonville passed Brandon Overton while bouncing off a lapped car on the final lap to claim the Saturday night finale of the Senoia Raceway Spring Nationals. McIntosh used a late race caution and lapped traffic to snatch the lead away from Overton who had wrestled away the lead from McIntosh near the halfway mark. The victory was McIntosh’s first career victory on the dirt at Senoia Raceway.
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| Donald McIntosh |
“This is awesome,” said an excited McIntosh in victory lane. “You could race anywhere and when I saw TJ (Reaid) check up, I was like oh oh, I am committed and just went for it. Awesome. Just awesome.”
McIntosh’s victory capped a double-header weekend at the ‘Baddest Bull Ring in the South’. Douglasville’s Michael Page won the opening round for the Super Late Models on Saturday night while Whitesburg’s Austin Horton captured the weekend laurels for the Limited Late Models. Senoia teenager Ashton Winger picked up his first career win at the track topping the Crate Late Models and Blant Duke of Whitesburg won again in the Late Model Sportsman. Joining the weekend honorees were Joe Hillman of Villa Rica, Hobby winner; Dorough Bright of Newnan, Bomber winner and Baldwin’s 15-year-old Parris Simmons winner of the Mini Stock main. Waco’s Shane Davis and Michael Fullmer split the wins for the Hot Shots.
“It was a great weekend of racing,” said promoter Bill Massey. “If you did not like that action, you are not a racing fan.”
Massey was speaking of the exciting move by McIntosh to sneak past Overton on the final lap Saturday night. Evans’ Overton had chased McIntosh for the first 30 laps of the main event before the leader’s tires began to heat up. Overton passed McIntosh and looked to be on his way to victory before a lap 41 caution came out for Clint Smith and TJ Reaid who had spun in turn one.
That set-up the final lap theatrics as McIntosh charged out of turn four with Overton on the top side. McIntosh did a perfect slide job to get in front of Overton in turn two, but then had the lapped car of Reaid in his path. He shot down connecting with Reaid sending his car airborne, but maintained control to stay in front of Overton at the finish line. Chickamauga’s Dale McDowell finished in third ahead of Toccoa’s Casey Roberts and Tennessee’s Mike Marlar.
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| Michael Page |
Friday night’s Super Late Model main event was dominated by Douglasville’s Michael Page as he went wire to wire in a caution free speedfest. McDowell finished second with McIntosh, Roberts and Overton completing the top five on opening night.
“We had some of the best dirt late model drivers in the country racing at the track this weekend,” added Massey. “Thirty-five of the best and boy did they put on a show.”
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| Austin Horton |
Austin Horton flexed his racing muscle in the Limited Late Model feature on Saturday night. The young star raced in two divisions with his most success coming with his Limited Late Model entry. Horton shot out to the early lead and then never looked back posting the win over Senoia’s Clint Smith and Brook’s ‘Magic’ Matt Dooley.
A first time winner visited Senoia Raceway’s victory lane on Saturday as Senoia’s sixteen year old Ashton Winger picked up the checkered flag in the Crate Late Models. Winger battled with veteran short track racing ace Bubba Pollard, also from Senoia, in the middle stages of the race. Pollard was riding the high line of the track and pushed his car too hard on lap 10 as he clipped the turn two concrete retaining wall. That scrape would cost him in the long run as his ride faded late in the race.
Winger’s car did not fade as he bolted to his inaugural visit to the winner’s circle. Canton’s Tate Nicholson ended up second in his first ever visit to the gumbo clay surfaced race track. Kyle Cochran of Atlanta finished in third with Evans’ Ahnna Parkhurst fourth and McDonough’s Jamie Maurice fifth.
Blant Duke worked the high side of the race track to perfection for the second straight week as he made his way past Hampton’s Richard Goode on his way to another feature victory. Goode would settle for second again with Marietta’s Drew Larson winning a great battle for third.
Larson outran Tyrone’s Jody Knowles and Newnan’s Bobby ‘Wild Child’ Arnold to gain the podium finish. The three drivers swapped positions several times during the final two lap sprint to the finish line.
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| Paris Simmons |
Parris Simmons showed his prowess behind the wheel of a race car in the Mini Stock main. The 15-year-old high school student ran down veteran Mark ‘Mad Dog’ Newton on lap 9 and then kept him behind him the rest of the way. Simmons also was found to be legal after a post race protest had officials tearing apart his engine.
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| Dorough Bright |
The same was true for a second straight week in the Bomber division. Newnan’s Dorough Bright won his second consecutive feature and was protested once again. Officials did not find anything wrong again this week as Bright walked away with the victory and a box of engine parts.
Senoia Raceway will take this Saturday, April 1st off from racing before returning to action on Saturday, April 8th hosting the ‘Thousand Dollar Thriller’ with seven divisions of racing.
For additional information, visit the track website at www.senoiaraceway.com or call the speedway at 770.599.6161.
Official Results for Saturday, March 24 and 25, 2017
Super Late Models (Feature March 24, 2017): 1-Michael Page, Douglasville 2-Dale McDowell, Chickamauga 3-Donald McIntosh, Dawsonville 4-Casey Roberts, Toccoa 5-Brandon Overton, Evans 6-Jonathan Davenport, Blairsville 7-Clint Smith, Senoia 8-Austin Horton, Whitesburg 9-Jason Hiett, Oxford, AL 10-Jason Fitzgerald, Middleburg, FL 11-Riley Hickman, Cleveland, TN 12-Michael Chilton, Salvisa, KY 13-Shanon Buckingham, Morristown, TN 14-Ricky Weiss, Headingly, Manitoba, Canada 15-Dylan Ames, Harvest, AL 16-Zach Leonhardi, Cartersville 17-Kenny Collins, Colbert 18-Robby Moses, Maryville, TN 19-David Payne, Murphy, NC 20-Shane Fulcher, Thomaston 21-Tyler Millwood, Kingston 22-Earl Pearson, Jr., Jacksonville, FL Entries: 35 Fast Qualifier: McDowell (15.015 – 89.9 mph)
Super Late Models (Feature March 25, 2017): 1-Donald McIntosh 2-Brandon Overton 3-Dale McDowell 4-Casey Roberts 5-Mike Marlar, Winfield, TN 6-Michael Chilton 7-Earl Pearson Jr. 8-Michael Page 9-Jason Hiett 10-Jonathan Davenport 11-Ricky Weiss 12-Austin Horton 13-Clint Smith 14-Glenn Morris, Fayetteville 15-Zack Leonhardi 16-T.J. Reaid, Acworth 17-Jason Fitzgerald 18-Dylan Ames 19-David Payne-Murphy 20-Kenny Collins 21-Tyler Millwood 22-Shanon Buckingham 23-Robby Moses 24-Riley Hickman Entries: 34 Fast Qualifier: Overton (15.988 – 84.5 mph)
Limited Late Models (Feature): 1-Austin Horton, Whitesburg 2-Clint Smith, Senoia 3-Matt Dooley, Brooks 4-Dennis Hale, LaGrange 5-Austin Smith, Rome 6-Oliver Gentry, Newnan 7-Glenn Morris, Fayetteville 8-Matt Black, Douglasville 9-Rucker Orr, Newnan 10-Bailey Williams, Fayetteville 11-Landon Bagby, Lithia Springs DNS: Dakota Weeks, Douglasville Fast Qualifier: Horton (15.884 – 85 mph)
Crate Late Models (Feature): 1-Ashton Winger, Senoia 2-Tate Nicholson, Canton 3-Kyle Cochran, Atlanta 4-Ahnna Parkhurst, Evans 5-Jamie Maurice, McDonough 6-Trey Wood, Newnan 7-Chase Baker, LaGrange 8-Colby Darda, LaGrange 9-Dennis Lykins, Jr., Sharpsburg 10-Steven Gaines, Smiths Station, AL 11-Phillip Deal, Tyrone 12-Bailey Temples, McDonough 13-Josh Copeland, McDonough 14-Bubba Pollard, Senoia 15-Corey Payton, Newnan 16-Dylan Knowles, Lanett, AL 17-George Wilson, Canton 18-Wayne Harbin, Sharpsburg 19-Pete Cochran, Douglasville 20-Chris Justus, McDonough 21-Mike Abercrombie, Jackson DNS: Bobby Mills, Griffin; Trey White, Jenkinsburg Fast Qualifier: Winger (15.538 – 86.9 mph)
Late Model Sportsman (Feature): 1-Blant Duke, Whitesburg 2-Richard Goode, Hampton 3-Drew Larson, Marietta 4-Jody Knowles, Tyrone 5-Bobby Arnold, Newnan 6-Taylor Cole, Cartersville 7-Clyde Alexander, Locust Grove 8-Chris Steele, Franklin 9-Brandon McDaniel, Byron 10-Keith Fields, Griffin 11-Jamie Nicholson, Jr., Locust Grove 12-Kayla Boswell, Winston 13-Baker Davis, Rutland DNS: HB Duke; Johnny Stinchcomb, Newnan Heat Winners: Blant Duke; Goode
Hobby Stock (Feature): 1-Joe Hillman, Villa Rica 2-Blake Harmon, Mansfield 3-Marty Beckwith, Auburn, AL 4-Richie Grantham, Columbus 5-Brandon Huffman, Newnan 6-Ted Willingham, McDonough 7-Daniel Doster, Hartwell 8-Griffin Alexander, Locust Grove 9-John Morris 10-Shane Tidwell, Whitesburg DNS: Dalton Poston, Lithia Springs; Jeremy Butler, Lithia Springs Heat Winner: Hillman
Mini Stock (Feature): 1- Parris Simmons, Baldwin 2-Mark Newton, Hampton 3-Jamie Godbee, Carrollton 4-Jamie Nicholson, Sr., Locust Grove 5-Tommy Faulkner, Newnan 6-Bobby Faulkner, Newnan 7-Lucas Pittman, Grantville 8-Darren Parrot, Sharpsburg 9-Cassie Dingler-Still, Newnan 10-Mike Younginer, Stockbridge Heat Winner: Newton
Bomber (Feature): 1-Dorough Bright, Newnan 2-Derrick Matthews, Whitesburg 3-Tim Harmon, Conyers 4-McKenna Nelms, Newnan 5-Carley Arnett, Lannet, AL Heat Winner: Matthews
Hot Shot (Feature March 24, 2017): 1-Shane Davis, Waco 2-Remmington Bryson 3-Nathan Farrow, LaGrange
Hot Shot (Feature March 25, 2017): 1-Michael Fullmer 2-Byron Sisson 3-Nathan Farrow, LaGrange 4-Buddy Edmondson 5-Sahne Davis, Waco
