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| Ashton Winger |
Submitted by Ted Austed
Photo credits: Francis Hauke
(Senoia, GA – April 30, 2017) Sixteen-year-old Ashton Winger has not lost a Crate Late Model feature that he has started at Senoia Raceway this season. The young gun scratched from the field on March 18th, but since that time has been undefeated winning five straight. He has also qualified the fastest each of those five nights.
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| Joe Hillman |
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| Tim Harmon |
Track promoter Mayes Massey challenged Winger on the front stretch after he qualified the quickest of seventeen crate late model entries. “Ashton, if you start at the back of the pack, charge through the field and win the race, we will pay you an additional $700 on top of the $700 winner’s share of tonight’s purse,” offered Massey. A great offer, but Winger declined.
The pole position was the best spot for Winger as he jumped out early and never missed a beat. Winger left the field scrambling behind him as he went flag to flag for his fifth straight victory. Sharpsburg’s Dennis Lykins, Jr., has had a stand-out season thus far, but cannot break through on Winger. Lykins finished second ahead of Alabama’s ‘Thrillin’ Dylan Knowles.
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| Clint Smith |
In the Super Late Models, Fayetteville’s Glenn Morris continued his strong campaign by stealing the lead away from fast qualifier Shane Fulcher on the first lap. Morris led the race until the eighteenth lap when Clint Smith over took him using the perfect slide job in turn two. Smith, the two-time defending track champion in the Super Late Models, would pull away from Morris to post his first win of the season. Morris would settle for second ahead of Fulcher. Douglasville’s Mason Massey came home fourth ahead of LaGrange’s Tod Darda in fifth.
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| Jason Williams |
Jason Williams never let his competitors taste the sweetness of leading the Limited Late Model feature. The former champion led from the initial green flag leaving Brooks’ Matt Dooley, Greenville’s Thomas Mewborn and Newnan’s Corey Payton to battle over the runner-up spot.
Dooley dueled with Mewborn for the first part of the race before settling into the second place position. That left Mewborn in a tight battle with Payton for third.
Williams crossed the finish line first followed by the current points leader Dooley. Mewborn and Payton raced side by side for the entire final lap. Coming off turn four, Mewborn was running the high side and Payton was hugging the inside concrete. By only a few inches, Payton won the drag race to the finish line to grab third. Mewborn was fourth while Fayetteville youngster Bailey Williams rounded out the top five.
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| Richard Goode |
The Late Model Sportsman class warmed up for their May 6th special with a dandy of a race on Saturday night. The front five cars were evenly matched and it showed throughout the race.
Richard Goode bolted out front early while Newnan’s Brandon Bright battled with veteran Joe Armistead, Jr. Not far behind this race were Franklin’s Chris ‘Ironman’ Steele and the ‘Whitesburg Warrior’ Blant Duke. The side by side racing had the crowd on the edge of their seats the entire race.
Goode was able to use lapped traffic to his advantage building a large lead over the battles behind. He led every single lap to gain his first Senoia Raceway victory of the season. Behind him was a wild battle that saw Armistead bump Bright in the third turn of the final lap. Bright held on, but slid up the track while Armistead had his hands full of a race car that was sideways in the turn. Chris Steele jumped on the opportunity racing down low and passing both. He would win the mad dash for the checkers and take home second behind Goode. Bright ended up third ahead of Armistead and Duke rounded out the top five.
For the third season, the Kajun Mini Stock Association visited the ‘bull ring’ Senoia Raceway. Twenty-nine high powered four cylinder race cars signed in and the crowd enjoyed three and sometimes four wide racing throughout the stellar field.
Michael Courtney was the class of the field as he led all twenty-five laps of the main event. Courtney had a short lived challenge from Alabama’s Heath Minor before moving out to a several car length lead in the final stage of the race. Minor would end up third after Derik Duggan battled back to snare second before the final flag fell on the race. Toccoa’s Shannon Ethridge was the event’s hard charger after starting near the middle of the field to finish in fourth. Last year’s KMSA winner, Auburn’s JJ Garrett finished fifth.
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| Jeffery Woodall |
This Saturday, May 6th, Senoia Raceway will host eight divisions of racing with the Super Late Models, Limited Late Models, Crate Late Models, Late Models Sportsman, Hobby Stock, Bomber, Mini Stocks and Hot Shots. The Late Model Sportsman will be the highlighted division as they will compete in the ‘May Day Special’ paying $1000 to the winner.
The pit gates open at 4pm with the grandstand gates opening at 5pm. Hot laps will begin at 6:30pm and racing will follow immediately.
Grandstand tickets are $12; kids 5-12 are $5; four and under are free. Pit passes and trackside parking passes are $30; kids 5-12 are $20; four and under are free.
Senoia Raceway is located just five miles west of Senoia, GA, on Georgia Highway 16. Easy access from both Interstate 75 and 85.
For additional information, visit the track website at www.senoiaraceway.com or call the speedway at 770.599.6161.
Official Results for Saturday, April 29, 2017
Super Late Models (Feature): 1-Clint Smith, Senoia 2-Glenn Morris, Fayetteville 3-Shane Fulcher, Thomaston 4-Mason Massey, Douglasville 5-Tod Darda, LaGrange 6-Zach Leonhardi, Cartersville 7-Ty King, McDonough 8-Ricky Williams, Fayetteville 9-Lamar Haygood, Douglasville 10-Blake Spencer, St. Augustine, FL 11-Jeremy Ledford, Mt. Airy 12-Brian Ligon, Augusta 13-Kyler Haygood, Douglasville DNS: Laddie Fulcher, Thomaston Fast Qualifier: Shane Fulcer (15.244 – 88.6 mph)
Limited Late Models (Feature): 1-Jason Williams, Locust Grove 2-Matt Dooley, Brooks 3-Corey Payton, Newnan 4-Thomas Mewborn, Greenville 5-Bailey Williams, Fayetteville 6-Chris Carr, Newnan 7-Dalton Polston, Lithia Springs 8-Chad Duncan, Newnan 9-Jimmy Price, Oxford, AL 10-Dennis Hale, LaGrange 11-Joey Armistead, Senoia Fast Qualifier: Jason Williams (15.504 – 87.1 mph)
Crate Late Models (Feature): 1-Ashton Winger, Senoia 2-Dennis Lykins, Jr., Sharpsburg 3-Dylan Knowles, Lanett, AL 4-Craig Scott, Newnan 5-Marty Lunsford, Newnan 6-Randall Powell, Canton 7-Colby Darda, LaGrange 8-Dow Kirkland, Lake Spivey 9-Chase Baker, LaGrange 10-Jimmy Waldrop, Seffner, FL 11-Jamie Maurice, McDonough 12-Phil Deal, Tyrone 13-Trey White, Jrnkinsburg 14-Jayce Southwell, Brooks 15-Matthew Wyatt, Eastonollee 16-Tina Johnson, Senoia 17-Mike Abercrombie, Jackson Fast Qualifier: Winger (15.231 – 88.7 mph)
Late Model Sportsman (Feature): 1-Richard Goode, Hampton 2-Chris Steele, Franklin 3-Brandon Bright, Newnan 4-Joe Armistead, Jr., Senoia 5-Blant Duke, Whitesburg 6-Jake Traylor, LaGrange 7-Keith Fields, Griffin 8-Matthew Knight, Villa Rica 9-Morgan Alexander, Locust Grove 10-Luke Scott, Swainsboro 11-Johnny Stinchcomb, Newnan 12-Preston Stevenson, Locust Grove 13-Josh Roddy, Palmetto 14-Lee Fuller, Newnan DNS: Jeff Carter, Stockbridge; Blake Griffin, Grantville; Bobby Arnold, Newnan Heat Winners: Goode & Bright
Hobby Stock (Feature): 1-Joe Hillman, Villa Rica 2-Ted Willingham, McDonough 3-HB Duke, Whitesburg 4-John Holcomb, Griffin 5-Shane Tidwell, Whitesburg 6-Josh Pitt, Stockbridge 7-Michael Couch, Senoia 8-Griffin Alexander, Locust Grove 9-Chris Kozusnick 10-Larry Bednar, Griffin 11-Mike Jenkins, Brooks 12-Sam Carter, Covington DQ: Donald Doyle (non-registered driver change)
Kajun Mini Stock Association (Feature): 1-Michael Courtney, Powell, TN 2-Derik Duggan, Lenoir City, TN 3-Heath Minor, Ralph, AL 4-Shannon Ethridge, Toccoa 5-JJ Garrett, Auburn 6-Tony Coffman, Florence, MS 7-Mark Newton, Hampton 8-Rodney Griffin, Rockwood, TN 9-Dustin Stephens 10-Mike Minor, Ralph, AL 11-Kevin Tullis, Commerce 12-Austin Brumbelow, Winder 13-Jamie Nicholson, Sr., Locust Grove 14-Tommy Faulkner, Newnan 15-Jamie Godbee, Carrollton 16-David Singleton, Lenoir City, TN 17-JoJo Morgan, Monroe 18-Bo Chambers, Griffin 19-Todd Brewster, Villa Rica 20-Dustin Hallbrooks, Christiana, TN 21-Jeremy Griffith, Attalla, AL 22-Shane Griffith, Attalla, AL 23-Brannon Knight, Sand Rock, AL 24-Jamie Rowan, Altoona, AL 25-Paris Simmons, Baldwin DNS: Bobby Faulkner, Newnan; Jason Ward, Scottsboro, AL; Tim Seals, Maylene, AL Heat Winners: Duggan; Simmons; Courtney; Knight
Bomber (Feature): 1-Tim Harmon, Conyers 2-Derrick Matthews, Whitesburg 3-Randy Cornwell, Fayetteville 4-Brent Harmon, Mansfield 5-Dunie Dillard, Phenix City, AL 6-Charlie Garrett, West Point 7-McKenna Nelms, Newnan 8-Joshua Allen, Atlanta 9-Dorough Bright, Newnan 10-Shane Hammock, Newnan 11-George Purgason, Hogasnville
Hot Shot (Feature): 1-Jeffrey Woodall 2-Tony Newman 3-Michael Follmer, Canton 4-Mark Meyer, Ellijay 5-Shane Davis, Waco 6-Kenny Mathis 7-Morgan Pittman, Grantville 8-Buddy Edmondson 9-Dave McWilliams, Fayetteville 10-Nathan Farrow, LaGrange 11-Cody Carr, Dallas 12-Jerry Lee Sisson, Rockmart
