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| Casey Roberts |
Submitted by Ted Austad
Photo Credits: Francis Hauke
(October 23, 2016 - Senoia, GA) After starting from the pole, Casey Roberts of Toccoa took home the victory in the Ultimate Super Late Model Series "Fall Brawl 40" at Senoia Raceway Saturday night. Roberts held off several challenges from Zebulon’s Shane Clanton to lead the race from flag to flag capturing his 19th career win on the Ultimate Super Late Model Series tour and second at the tough 3/8ths mile bull ring Senoia Raceway.
“I knew he was right there,” said Roberts in victory lane afterwards speaking of Clanton’s continuous pressure. “But, my wife was giving me great signals while we were running through traffic.”
Roberts took the lead out of the second turn of the initial lap and then held off Clanton’s attempt to slide underneath while the duo sliced and diced their way through lapped traffic. Kansas’ Chase Junghans and Cedartown’s Austin Smith battled through the middle part of the race before Junghans secured the third place position for good on lap 31. Alabama’s Tom Maddox rounded out the top five finishers by keeping his distance ahead of the race’s hard charger Clint ‘Cat Daddy’ Smith. The two-time Super Late Model track champion at Senoia Raceway climbed from his eleventh place starting position to finish in sixth place using the high line most of the night.
The ‘Fall Brawl 40’ served as a good warm-up for the travelling super late model drivers preparing for the “Showdown at Senoia” special on November 10, 11 and 12. The inaugural event will offer drivers the largest purse ever paid in track history including a $10,000 pay day for the winner of the super late model feature.
“Hopefully we can do a little better here in a couple of weeks,” said runner-up Shane Clanton.
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| Clint Smith |
Clint Smith completed his incredible night with a pair of flag to flag wins in the Limited Late Model and Crate Late Model features. After finishing sixth in the Super Late Model show, Smith bested the young gun ‘Magic’ Matt Dooley of Brooks to win the Limited race. Dooley would stay close through a couple of cautions, but could not catch the veteran.
Fayetteville’s Glenn Morris battled with Thomas Mewborn of Greenville in one of the more intense races of the evening. Morris finally wrestled the third place spot away with only a couple of laps remaining. McDonough’s Gary Hardin rounded the top five finishers.
One week following his first career win at Senoia Raceway, Dallas’ Mike Bruner, Jr. ran second to Clint Smith in the Crate Late Model main event. Smith kept plenty of lapped traffic between himself and Bruner as the race ran caution-free. Newnan’s Corey Payton ran a very strong third besting fellow Newman driver Craig Scott and Josh Copeland of McDonough. Copeland’s fifth place finish was his best of run of the year.
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| Bobby Arnold |
Newnan’s Bobby Arnold made his way to victory lane on Saturday night winning the feature for the B Cadets. Arnold cruised to the win over Parrish Duncan of Newnan and Blake Griffin of Grantville. Griffin had been involved in a early race caution forcing him to come from the back of the pack to snare a podium finish.
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| Joe Hillman |
Villa Rica’s ‘Smokin’ Joe Hillman passed Mableton’s Ryan Ray on lap six before setting sail to the winner’s circle nabbing the Hobby Stock victory. Ray looked to be on his way before his mount began pushing on the slick gumbo clay. Dan Meadows ran third ahead of Griffin’s John Holcomb and Fayetteville’s Randy Cornwell.
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| Mike Younginer |
‘Bam Bam’ Mike Younginer kept his Fall Brawl Series win streak intact. The Locust Grove driver moved to the Mini Stock feature lead on the first lap and then never looked back claiming his third straight checkered flag. Griffin’s Marc Leath ran second ahead of David Brackett, Paris Simmons of Baldwin and Alabama’s Jeremy Griffith. Former champion, Harold Leath of Hampton was sixth followed by Meldrim’s AJ Horton. The 22-car field was the Mini Stock’s largest field of the season for a weekly posted purse. The class will run for a $2500 to win purse at the ‘Showdown at Senoia’ in November.
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| Derrick Matthews |
The first feature race of the night saw Whitesburg’s ‘Kid Quick’ Derrick Matthews take home the laurels for the Bomber division. Matthews jumped out front early and thus never had to contend with the hardest charger Tim Harmon of Conyers. Harmon moved to second place with three laps remaining, but could not track down Matthews before the checkered flag fell over the field. Whitesburg’s Ricky Neill was third ahead of Wayne Griggs and Newnan’s Michael Nelms.
The final event of the ‘Fall Brawl Series’ is scheduled for this Saturday, October 29th and will feature a full night of action in the Super Late Models, Limited Late Models, Crate Late Models, B Cadets, Hobby Stock, Mini Stock, Bombers and for the first time this season, the Legends Cars. The event will be the final opportunity for race teams to prepare for the inaugural ‘Showdown at Senoia’ in November.
The pit gates will open at 4pm with the grandstand opening at 5pm. Hot laps will roll off at 6:30pm with racing at 7pm. Tickets are $12; children ages 5-12 are $5 with ages four and under admitted for free.
To more information, visit the Senoia Raceway website at www.senoiaraceway.com. The track also offers an e-mail newsletter (sign-up on the website), Facebook page, twitter feed, instagram and snapchat for social media access to news and information. You can also contact the track directly at 770.599.6161.
Official results from Saturday, October 22, 2016
Super Late Model Fall Brawl 40: 1-Casey Roberts, Toccoa 2-Shane Clanton, Zebulon 3-Chase Junghans, Manhatten, KS 4-Austin Smith, Cedartown 5-Tom Maddox, Centre, AL 6-Clint Smith, Senoia 7-Hunter Peacock, Macon 8-Tod Darda, LaGrange 9-Ray Cook, Brasstown, NC 10-Dennis Franklin, Gaffney, SC 11-Bubba Pollard, Senoia 12-Joey Armistead, Senoia 13-Tyler Millwood, Kingston 14-Jason Croft, Woodstock 15-Dale Thurman, Cartersville 16-Ashton Winger, Senoia 17-Laddie Fulcher, Thomaston 18-Glenn Morris, Fayetteville 19-Mason Massey, Douglasville 20-Kenny Collins, Colbert 21-Glenn Elliott, Sykesville, MD 22-Jody Knowles, Tyrone 23-Joe Armistead, Jr., Senoia 24-Shane Fulcher, Thomaston 25-Brian Connor, Lavonia 26-Zach Leonhardi, Cartersville B-Main #1 Winner: Clint Smith; B-Main #2 Winner: Ray Cook Fastest Qualifier: Roberts (15.360 second/87.9 mph) Total Entries: 29
Limited Late Model (Feature): 1-Clint Smith, Senoia 2- Matt Dooley, Brooks 3-Glenn Morris, Fayetteville 4-Thomas Mewborn, Greenville 5-Gary Hardin, McDonough 6-Jody Knowles, Tyrone 7-Scotty Chatham, Hoschton 8-Aubrey Merritt, Carrollton 9-Oliver Gentry, Newnan 10-Jimmy Price, Oxford, AL 11-Brandon Bright, Newnan 12-Chris Carr, Newnan 13-Jason Williams, Locust Grove Fast Qualifier: Dooley (15.872 seconds/85.1 mph)
Crate Late Models (Feature): 1-Clint Smith, Senoia 2-Mike Bruner, Jr., Dallas 3-Corey Payton, Newnan 4-Craig Scott, Newnan 5-Josh Copeland, McDonough 6-Kyle Cochran, Atlanta 7-Wayne Harbin, Sharpsburg 8-Jim Manka, Savannah 9-Marty Lunsford, Newnan 10-Chris Justus, McDonough 11-Petey Cochran, Ball Ground 12-Jimmy Waldrop, Seffner, FL 13-Dow Kirkland, Lake Spivey 14-Randall Powell 15-Matthew Barrow, Hinesville 16-Lonnie Brant, Bloomingdale 17-Jonathan Harrell, Newnan 18-Chase Baker, LaGrange 19-Eddie Peacock, Macon 20-William Blair, Whitesburg DNS: Tom Maddox, Centre, AL Fast Qualifier: Clint Smith (16.185 seconds/83.7 mph)
B Cadet (Feature): 1-Bobby Arnold, Newnan 2-Parrish Duncan, Newnan 3-Blake Griffin, Grantville 4-John Anderson 5-Ted Minnix, McDonough 6-Billy Stevenson, Locust Grove 7-Keith Fields, Griffin 8-Johnny Stinchcomb, Newnan 9-Jamie Nicholson, Jr., Locust Grove 10-Jamie Maurice, McDonough 11-Russell Teal, Ranburne, AL
Hobby Stock (Feature): 1-Joe Hillman, Villa Rica 2-Ryan Ray, Mableton 3-Dan Meadows 4-John Holcomb, Griffin 5-Randy Cornwell, Fayetteville 6-Larry Bednar, Hampton 7-George Purgason, Hogasnville 8-Chris Kozusnik 9-Jamie Simmons, Tyrone 10-James Swanger, Whitesburg 11-John Michael Schmear, Auburn, AL
Mini Stock (Feature): 1-Mike Younginer, Locust Grove 2-Marc Leath, Griffin 3-David Brackett 4-Parris Simmons, Baldwin 5-Jeremy Griffith, Attalla, AL 6-Harold Leath, Hampton 7-AJ Horton, Meldrim 8-Denver Stepp, Powder Springs 9-Roger Cothran 10-John Caldwell, Senoia 11-Jamie Nicholson, Sr., Locust Grove 12-Robert Knight, Cedar Bluff, AL 13-Grant Roberts, Good Hope 14-Bobby Faulkner, Newnan 15-Dickie Caldwell, Carrollton 16-Rocky Johnson, Douglasville 17-Cassie Dingler-Still, Newnan 18-Lucas Pittman, Grantville 19-Trey Rogers 20-Ronnie Teal, Lithia Springs 21-Shane Griffith, Attalla, AL 22-Tommy Faulkner, Newnan DNS: Caleb Moss, Brooks
Bomber (Feature): 1-Derrick Matthews, Whitesburg 2-Tim Harmon, Conyers 3-Ricky Neill, Whitesburg 4-Wayne Griggs 5-Mike Nelms, Newnan 6-Wilson Boozer, Jackson 7-Randy Cornwell, Fayetteville 8-Joe Phillips, Hogansville 9-Andrew Barton, Covington 10-Chris Chase, Valley, AL 11-Jim Jackson, Zebulon 12-Trent Pijnenburg, Five Points, AL
