This past Saturday night, the Southern Thunder Late Model Series came rolling into Golden Isles Speedway and brought a full field of cars plus some to the Waynesville, Georgia race track. Many drivers came from different parts of the Southeast to run the Ben Sumner ran series and the talent was thick. After a practice session, the cars lined up to take on the track one at a time to qualify. Kyle Bridges came out in the blue #6 late model and put a lightening fast speed of 16.216 and kept the pole position for a while but the top dog for the night would end up being Jason Fitzgerald with a time of 16.138. Ryan Van Sickle started in third with a time of 16.277 and fourth position would be another GRT by Fitzgerald driver Brandon Dewitt with a time of 16.379.
On the start of the race Fitzgerald elected to start on the outside and once the green flag dropped it was all business. Scariest moment of the night award went to Cecil Eunice who ended up hitting the guardrail from behind when he and the car of Kicklighter came into contact and Eunice spun bouncing hard off the barrier. Eunice was fine and went on to race again in limiteds that night. After a few more laps Kyle Bridges and Jak Kicklighter came into contact with each other to bring out another caution which brought Bridges in for some work and back out before they went back green. Ben Faircloth looked to be on the move with a full head of steam charging for the lead and began to have smoke coming from the front left for 2 laps before the motor completely gave way and forced him to retire for the night. The end of the late feature had GRT by Fitzgerald teammates racing side by side for the lead and so close that air couldn't fit between them. Dewitt grabbed the lead but with a few laps to go caught up to lap traffic and that's when Fitzgerald saw his opportunity and took the lead on the outside in true Fitzgerald fashion until the checkered flag dropped and he came home with the win. The GRT by Fitzgerald cars struck the Thunder series with lightning quick cars.
Other winners of the night at the 4/10 mile track were Blake Boyd in the 1X car and in the pure stock race Brian Wooten led the field from the pole with Wendel Clark starting on the outside. In one of the closest finishes in the division, Wooten edged out Kyle Livingood for the win and was a true photo finish. In the limited division, Scott Waters took an early lead and saw Florida's own "Sambo" Hatcher moving charging in second until he hit the wall in turn 4 ending his run for the lead. Scott Waters ended up with the win and was followed by Bill Atkins. With the Superstreet division what else could be said but Scott Crews. He had the pole position with Darron Bailey on the outside and was looking for a challenge. Russell Waters gets the second scary moment of the night award for hitting the wall hard in turn one while he was running fourth. Scott Crews, in only the way he can, dominated the night and ended with the checkered flag. Emods had Garrett Lloyd taking an early lead but was passed by Bud Chancey who was the winner for the night but not without a fight from Lloyd. In the powder puff division Taylor Clark took home the win to cap off the night. All in all, it was an exciting night of racing to start off the season. For more information on the Southern Thunder Series contact Ben Sumner at 229-406-2167 or the website at http://southernthunderlatemodelseries.blogspot.com/ and for more information on Golden Isles Speedway check their website at http://www.goldenislesspeedway.com/.
