Submitted by Ted Austad
Photo credits: Francis Hauke
(Senoia, GA – July 9, 2017) Dennis Lykins, Jr. of Sharpsburg along with Locust Grove’s Billy Stevenson and Alabama’s Dean Williams clean swept the double features for their respective divisions Saturday night at Senoia Raceway while Senoia’s Clint ‘Cat Daddy’ Smith won a pair of features with victories in the Super Late Models and Limited Late Models. The track entertained fans with a full night of racing and several make-up features from the week prior. A total of twelve feature races took place.
Acworth’s Cass Fowler finally conquered the unique gumbo clay surface to notch his first career win at the 3/8ths mile track. Fowler bested the field of Limited Late Models in the second feature. McDonough’s Ted Willingham won the Hobby Stock feature while Hampton’s Mark ‘Mad Dog’ Newton won his sixth straight Mini Stock main event. Alabama’s Dunie Dillard won the Bomber Bash and pocketed the $1000 winner’s share for that division’s special event.
Fresh off his Southern All-Stars Super Late Model victory on July 1st, Clint Smith battled with Acworth’s TJ Reaid for the lead position during the opening laps of their feature. Reaid slid his mount in front of Smith on the first lap only to have Smith return the favor with a near perfect slide job in the second turn of the second lap. The two continued to swap the lead and slide jobs for the next four turns before Smith finally gained enough momentum to scoot away from Reaid. Smith would never be challenged again posting his fourth Super Late Model win of the season at Senoia Raceway.
Recent Georgia Racing Hall of Fame inductee, Ricky Williams of Fayetteville, had his best run of the season finishing in third while sixteen-year-old Ashton Winger of Senoia was fourth and Newnan’s Craig Scott fifth.
Columbus’ Joseph Brown tried to hold back Smith in the first of two feature races for the Limited Late Models. Brown could only keep the feisty veteran at bay for two circuits before Smith moved ahead and then cruised to the victory. Brown would settle for second ahead of Locust Grove’s ‘Racin’ Jason Williams. Acworth’s Cass Fowler came from near the back of the pack to finish in fourth just ahead of Limited Late Model point leader ‘Magic’ Matt Dooley of Brooks.
The second go around for the Limited Late Models was a war between several drivers Joseph Brown, Oliver Gentry of Newnan, Fowler, Dooley and Tod Darda of LaGrange put on a show for the fans. The drivers swapped the top positions several times during the 20-lap action packed race while racing three wide at times.
Just past the halfway mark, Gentry had squeezed into the lead position with Brown up against the wall exiting the fourth turn. Fowler came up and touched Gentry which sent him into Brown and then Fowler ran up on Brown after the two slowed slightly. All three drivers kept their cars going forward and racing for the lead position. Two laps later, Gentry secured the lead from Brown only to lose it to Fowler the next time around.
Fowler then pulled away to snag his first trip to Bull Ring’s victory lane. Brown was second with Tod Darda narrowly beating Gentry to the finish line for third. Dooley came home fifth with Jason Williams in sixth. Dooley maintained his spot at the top of the standings with a pair of top fives.
Dennis Lykins, Jr. padded his point lead in the Crate Late Models with a pair of flag to flag victories. Lykins, Jr. kept all challengers at bay with strategic restarts that left everyone guessing as to when the green flag would return the field to racing.
Temple’s Zach Shelton had the best night of his career at Senoia Raceway charging through the field in both races to finish second and then third. The 21-year-old ran hard with Tyrone’s Jody Knowles in the first race before having a similar race with Matt Black in the second run. The young guns of Senoia Raceway were a big part of both races as teenage drivers Cruz Skinner of Alabama and Marty Lunsford of Newnan rounded out the first five in feature one. Skinner finished fourth again in the night cap while Lunsford nabbed a sixth place effort.
Billy Stevenson led all but three laps of the two features for the Late Model Sportsman division. Stevenson inherited the lead in first feature after then leader Bobby ‘Wild Child’ Arnold broke on the third lap. Stevenson would lead the rest of the way in the first race and then go flag to flag in the second race to clean sweep the action. Brooks’ Curtis Turner was second in the first one while Cartersville’s Taylor Cole was third. Cole finished second to Stevenson in the second feature while Turner was fourth behind McDonough’s Ted Minnix.
A scary moment in the second race saw Byron’s Brandon McDaniel lose control exiting the fourth turn while in a fierce race for position. McDaniel’s car slammed into the inside retaining wall nearly going over the top and into the busy pit area.
Alabama’s Dunie Dillard won for the fourth time in a month topping the Bomber special event. Dillard jumped to the lead early and then held off Newnan’s Dorough Bright and Whitesburg’s Derrick Matthews. Bomber division point leader, Charlie Garrett of West Point, was involved in a mid-race crash that resulted in a poor finish. That unfortunate accident has created a three-way tussle for the season championship chase. Garrett, Bright and Matthews will enter this weekend’s racing action separated by only 18 points.
Mark ‘Mad Dog’ Newton survived the bounty placed on his head by track promoter Mayes Massey. A few out-of-town drivers came in to the Bull Ring to try and knock off the hottest driver of the first half of the season. Newton had won five straight entering the night and would make it six straight winning over Auburn’s JJ Garrett. Locust Grove’s Mike ‘Bam Bam’ Younginer was third. Newton may have his hands full this Saturday as the Kajun Mini Stock Association comes in for a $1000 to win special featuring some of the best four-cylinder drivers in the southeast.
Ted Willingham redeemed himself after last week’s disqualification. Willingham started on the pole and never missed a beat winning again and this time keeping the victory. Villa Rica’s ‘Smokin’ Joe Hillman was second ahead of last week’s eventual victor John Holcomb of Griffin.
Dean Williams swept the action in the newly created, but sparse fields of Hot Shots.
Racing will continue this Saturday, July 15th with a full line-up of action. The Kajun Mini Stock Association will headline a show that will also include the Super Late Models, Limited Late Models, Crate Late Models, Late Model Sportsman, Hobby, Bomber and Hot Shots.
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 for Saturday, July 15th 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, July 8, 2017
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| Clint Smith |
Super Late Models (Feature): 1-Clint Smith, Senoia 2-TJ Reaid, Acworth 3-Ricky Williams, Fayetteville 4-Ashton Winger, Senoia 5-Craig Scott, Newnan 6-Mason Massey, Douglasville 7-Dale Thurman, Cartersville 8-Bubba Pollard, Senoia 9-Will Roland, Jasper 10-Shane Fulcher, Thomaston 11-Dalton Polston, Lithia Springs 12-Glenn Morris, Fayetteville 13-Brandon Carpenter, Grovetown 14-Landon Bagby, Lithia Springs 15-Corey Payton, Newnan 16-Ryan Crane, Panama City, FL 17-Zack Mitchell, Enoree, SC Fast Qualifier: Reaid (16.264 – 83.0 mph)
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| Clint Smith |
Limited Late Models (Make-up Feature from 7.1.17): 1-Clint Smith, Senoia 2-Joseph Brown, Columbus 3-Jason Williams, Locust Grove 4-Cass Fowler, Acworth 5-Matt Dooley, Brooks 6-Dennis Hale, LaGrange 7-Jack Mills, Griffin 8-Jimmy Price, Oxford 9-Rucker Orr, Newnan 10-Dylan Holmes, Smiths Station, AL 11-Thomas Mewborn, Greenville 12-Bailey Williams, Fayetteville 13-Glenn Morris, Fayetteville 14-Jason Lively, Birmingham, AL 15-Lawson Hill, Dallas 16-Justin Hammett 17-Justin Angle, Anniston, AL 18-Michael Turner, Dallas 19-Jamie Carr, LaGrange 20-Russell, Schell 21-Joey Armistead, Senoia 22-Brant Hardin, McDonough
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| Cass Fowler |
Limited Late Models (Feature): 1-Fowler 2-Brown 3-Tod Darda, LaGrange 4-Oliver Gentry, Newnan 5-Dooley 6-Jason Williams 7-Holmes 8-Lively 9-Bailey Williams 10-Orr 11-Hill 12-Mewborn 13-Hale 14-Hardin 15-Angle 16-Price 17-Turner 18-Mills 19-Joseph Darda, Greenville 20-Carr 21-Schell 22-Armistead
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| Dennis Lykins Jr. |
Crate Late Models (Make-up Feature from 7.1.17): 1-Dennis Lykins, Jr., Sharpsburg 2-Zach Shelton, Temple 3-Jody Knowles, Tyrone 4-Cruz Skinner, Oxford, AL 5-Marty Lunsford, Newnan 6-Matt Black, Douglasville 7-Chaz Haskins, Gray 8-Dow Kirkland, Lake Spivey 9-Jamie Maurice, McDonough 10-Wayne Harbin, Sharpsburg 11-Will Herrington, Cochran 12-Chase Baker, LaGrange 13-Jacques Daniel, Cartersville 14-David Beam, Lindale 15-Tina Johnson, Senoia 16-Matthew Wyatt, Eastonolee 17-Matt Thompson, Douglasville 18-David Burtz, Ball Ground 19-Phil Deal, Tyrone 20-Colby Darda, LaGrange Fast Qualifier: Lunsford (15.663 – 86.2 mph)
Crate Late Models (Feature): 1-Lykins, Jr. 2-Black 3-Shelton 4-Skinner 5-Knowles 6-Lunsford 7-Herrington 8-Haskins 9-Kirkland 10-Baker 11-Maurice 12-Harbin 13-Daneil 14-Burtz 15-Wyatt 16-Johnson 17-Deal 18-Darda DNS: Beam; Thompson
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| Billy Stevenson |
Late Model Sportsman (Make-up Feature from 7.1.17): 1-Billy Stevenson, Locust Grove 2-Curtis Turner, Brooks 3-Taylor Cole, Cartersville 4-Dustin Newell, Gray 5-Blake Griffin, Grantville 6-Ronnie McCullough, Franklin 7-Paul Hollway, Hampton 8-Johnny Stinchcomb, Newnan 9-Brandon McDaniel, Byron 10-Billy Callahan, Chatsworth 11-Matt Larson, Marietta 12-Travis Price, Conyers 13-Ted Minnix, McDonough 14-Jamie Nicholson, Locust Grove 15-Lee Fuller, Newnan 16-Levi Campbell, McDonough 17-Brandon Huffman, Newnan 18-Jake Traylor, LaGrange 19-Keith Fields, Griffin 20-Clyde Alexander, Locust Grove 21-Bobby Arnold, Newnan
Late Model Sportsman (Feature): 1-Stevenson 2-Cole 3-Minnix 4-Turner 5-Larson 6-Fields 7-Callahan 8-Nicholson 9-Traylor 10-Holloway 11-Price 12-McCullough 13-Huffman 14-Thompson 15-Newell 16-Fuller 17-Stinchcomb 18-Campbell 19-Griffin 20-McDaniel DNS: Arnold
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| Ted Willingham |
Hobby Stock (Feature): 1-Ted Willingham, McDonough 2-Joe Hillman, Villa Rica 3-John Holcomb, Griffin 4-Jr Hardy, Covington 5-Mike Jenkins, Brooks 6-Scott Sherrer, Newnan 7-Larry Bednar, Locust Grove 8-Pappy Powell, Hogasnville 9-Ben Steele, Franklin 10-Michael Couch, Senoia Fast Qualifier: Hillman (16.695 – 81.1 mph)
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| Mark Newton |
Mini Stock (Feature): 1-Mark Newton, Hampton 2-JJ Garett, Auburn 3-Mike Younginer, Locust Grove 4-Jamie Nicholson, Sr., Locust Grove 5-Trey Rogers, Villa Rica 6-Grant Roberts, Good Hope 7-Jamie Godbee, Carrollton 8-Josh Carter, Guyton 9-Bobby Faulkner, Newnan 10-Tommy Faulkner, Newnan 11-Rocky Johnson, Douglasville 12-Shawn Sealy, Savannah 13-Denver Stepp, Powder Springs 14-Marc leath, Griffin Fast Qualifier: Newton (18.222 – 74.1 mph)
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| Dunie Dillard |
Bomber Bash (Feature): 1-Dunie Dillard, Phenix City, AL 2-Dorough Bright, Newnan 3-Randy Cornwell, Peachtree City 4-Derrick Matthews, Whitesburg 5-Wilson Boozer, Jenkinsburg 6-Larry Pierce, Griffin 7-Ricky Neill, Whitesburg 8-Abe Chase, Valley, AL 9-Matt Steele, Franklin 10-McKenna Nelms, Newnan 11-Charlie Garrett, West Point 12-Chris Arnett, Lanett, AL 13-Vern Miller, Newnan 14-David Jackson, Whitesburg Fast Qualifier: Dillard (18.047 – 74.8 mph)
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| Dean Williams |
Hot Shot (Make-up Feature from 7.1.17): 1-Dean Williams, Lanett, AL 2-Nathan Farrow, LaGrange 3-Mark Meyer, Ellijay 4-Rick Ricks, Kennesaw 5-Lucas Pittman, Grantville 6-Dave McWilliams, Fayetteville 7-Kenny Taylor
Hot Shot (Feature): 1-Williams 2-Ricks 3-Meyer 4-Farrow 5-Pittman 6-Wayne Chapman 7-McWilliams
