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Clint Smith had a rough day on Saturday at Cherokee Speedway. Smith mired up his hauler in the middle of the new pit area and was unable to unload his car to get in some practice on the newly reconfigured 3/8ths mile track surface. Sunday proved to be a new day for the Senoia, GA driver.
Smith bested the other forty-two O’Reilly Southern All Star Racing Series super late models in time trials and in the process established a brand new track record of 15.548 seconds to claim the Ivey Construction / Big A’s Custom Graphics Fast Time money. Petey Ivey, Shane Clanton, Jimmy Owens and Jonathan Davenport rounded out the top five qualifiers.
1990 OSAS Champion James Cline suffered a heavy crash in qualifying after he took the checkered flag. Cline backed his GRT mount into the turn one wall and flipped over onto his rook backwards. Though the car was completely destroyed Cline was unable to walk away uninjured.
Smith continued to make the most of the weekend by winning the first heat of the afternoon and claim the inside pole position for the feature. Ricky Elliott challenged Smith early but a broken front suspension sent him careening off the turn one wall. Davenport rallied to finish second ahead of John Pursley and Ricky Arms.
2006 World of Outlaws Late Model Champion Tim McCreadie took the win in Heat two over Ivey, Randy Weaver and Steve Blackburn. Heat three saw Chris Madden inherit the lead after Shane Clanton crashed. Madden was followed to the line Ivedent Lloyd, Dennis Franklin and Mike Duvall. The final heat was won by Jimmy Owens ahead of Jeff Cooke, Brandon Kinzer and Casey Roberts.
Two ten lap consolation races set positions seventeen through twenty-two. A hard crash on the initial start attempt in the first consi eliminated the entire front row of Mark Vineyard and Josh Echoles. Larry Blankenship took the win over Brent Dixon and Billy Hicks. Freddy Smith won the final consi over Tony Knowles and Doug Sanders. Vineyard unloaded a back-up car to take a points provisional along with Clanton who was able to make repairs to his primary car.
The twenty-four car starting field rolled off at 6:30 PM Eastern. Smith immediately nabbed the lead as the field flashed across the line to complete lap one. McCreadie had his hands full with the likes of Owens and Madden. The reconfiguration of the speedway seemed to really improve racing conditions as the drivers were able to race three wide on several occasions.
It appeared as though trouble would beset McCreadie and Owens as they made contact in turn four with Freddy Smith’s stopped car. But the caution had already been displayed nd the two drivers were able to resume their original position for the restart. Smith was forced pitside with rear damage.
Smith again was able to motor away on the restart. However McCreadie, who had sustained some front end damage, began to lose positions. McCreadie’s Sweetners Plus Rocket slipped back to fifth after sliding high through turns one and two, nearly contacting the wall.
Dennis Franklin had began to progress through the field and was up to the sixth postion when he suddenly slowed dramatically trailing a plume of smoke down the back straightaway. The two time Southern All Star East Champion’s hopes of a March Madness victory ended with a blown engine.
Madden looked to put pressure on Smith but the crafty veteran would have none of it and again moved out to a comfortable advantage. Madden maintained contact with Smith and drew to his rear deck as the leader entered heavy backmarker traffic. Smith chose his lines carefully and tiptoed his way through the lappers.
As the laps wound down some drivers found different grooves to their liking and began marching forward. Larry Blankenship, who had started seventeenth, moved past Ivey for fifth using the ultra low line and set his sights on Davenport. Blankenship pulled door to door with Davenport with two laps remaining but Davenport fended him off.
Madden mounted a late charge but it was not enough as Smith took the three car length win. Owens recovered from his earlier incident to finish third followed by Davenport and Blankenship.
In victory lane Smith was very complimentary of Cherokee’s new configuration “The track owners have done a real good job here of creating a place for us to race. I’ll take the shorter track any day”. “I need to thank my family and all of our sponsors and supporters for standing behind me. We are off to a real good start this year and we hope we can keep it going.” commented Smith.
Smith’s GRT GTO is powered by a RaceTek Race Engine and receives sponsor support from JP Drilling, Cliburn Tank Lines, J&J Steel, Base Race Fuels, RDI, CSR Aluminum Fabrication, Integra Shocks, Sweet Mfg, Hoosier Tires and JFR Graphics.
Official Finish
1 – 44 Clint Smith
2 – 44 Chris Madden
3 – 20 Jimmy Owens
4 – 49 Jonathan Davenport
5 – 32 Larry Blankenship
6 – 6 Petey Ivey
7 – 9 John Pursley
8 – 101 Casey Roberts
9 – 21 Ivedent Lloyd
10 – 4 Mark Vineyard
11 – 4 Ricky Arms
12 – 66 Tony Knowles
13 – 10 Steve Blackburn
14 – 18 Brandon Kinzer
15 – 1H Billy Hicks
16 – 42 Doug Sanders
17 – 99 Jeff Cooke
18 – 39 Tim McCreadie
19 – 116 Randy Weaver
20 – 30 Dennis Franklin
21 – 00 Freddy Smith
22 – 5 Mike Duvall
23 – 1 Brent Dixon
24 – 25 Shane Clanton |
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