Oliver Gentry celebrates in victory lane after winning the Late Model feature Saturday night at Senoia Raceway. Photo by Francis Hauke/22fstops.com
Newnan’s Oliver Gentry held off a hard charging Trey White of Jenkinsburg to take home the checkered flag in the Jodeco Auto Sales late model main event Saturday night at Senoia Raceway in Senoia, GA. Gentry led every lap en route to the opening event on the season points chase.
Other season points opener winners included Grantville’s Blake Griffin in the Newnan Bonding B Cadets, Clifton Moran of Roopville in the Summit Racing Equipment Hobby Stocks and Hampton’s Mark Newton in the Mini Stocks. Moreland’s Michael Mills topped the Bomber division while Newnan’s Lane Wilt outlasted everyone in the Modified Mini. Saturday night’s racing began the championship charge for all weekly racers at the 3/8ths mile bullring. Drivers will accumulate points for all races through the middle of September determining the 2013 track titles.
“We keep this old car around to race once in a while,” said Gentry after winning his first at Senoia Raceway since 2010. “We like to race close to home when we can and Tim is doing a good job with this place.”
Gentry used his pole position to snare the race lead at the drop of the green. The outside front row position was held by LaGrange’s Tod Darda after Fayetteville’s Glenn Morris dropped to the back with engine problems. Darda came into the night with more Late Model victories than any other driver since the Moses took over the speedway three years ago.
Darda shot to the high side of the track at the drop of the green, but lost grip is slipped back coming out of the fourth turn. Jenkinsburg’s Trey White shot down to steal away second while Thomaston’s Shane Fulcher continued the slide on the next lap. Darda settled into the number four spot and challenged Fulcher the remainder of the feature.
Gentry ran a strong line around the bottom of the track while White tried valiantly to get a run off the corners. The veteran Gentry slammed the door shut on each of White’s attempts to sneak past and posted the victory.
The Newnan Bonding B Cadet division looks to be the most popular division this season. A solid group of veterans and a growing number of rookie contenders will keep the car counts good and the racing even better. That is, once they can get racing.
The class needed five chances to get their feature race under way. But when they did finally get rolling, the racing was the best of the night. Newnan’s high school sensation Corey Payton shot out to the initial lead over Blake Griffin at the drop of the green. Alabama’s Roger Arnett tried the low groove to get past the two front runners for the first couple of circuits while defending class champion Thomas Mewborn of Greenville began his work from near mid-pack.
As Payton and Griffin pulled away from the field working through lapped traffic, Mewborn pulled to sixth and began working on Lake Spivey’s Dow Kirkland. Mewborn and Kirkland battled, bumped and raced through slower cars for several laps before Mewborn made a daring pass between two cars on the front stretch joining the top five.
Next on Mewborn’s charge to the front was Kelly Leonard and then Roger Arnett. He shot past both and then cloased the gap on Griffin for second. As the checkered flag flew over Corey Payton first, Griffin held the low post and held off Mewborn at the line for the runner-up spot. Roger Arnett and Kelly Leonard would round out the first five.
Payton’s victory was short lived though as the young gun rolled across the post race tech scales one pound lighter than what is allowed. The win was handed over to Griffin making it his second win on the season.
“We changed a battery in the race car and the new battery was six pounds lighter than the old one,” said Pam Payton, mother and crew member for Corey. “One of our crew members sat up all night trying to figure out why were light.”
Clifton ‘Hog Head’ Moran chalked up another victory in the Summit Racing Equipment Hobby Stock division. Moran overtook Newnan’s Marcus Caswell on lap 7 and then never looked back posting his forty-third win over the past two seasons plus. Mike Jenkins was third despite slamming the back stretch wall near the half way point of the race.
Mark ‘Mad Dog’ Newton battled with Griffin’s Bo Chambers in the Mini Stock main event. Chambers passed Newton on lap three before having engine trouble a few laps later. Newton retook the lead and left the racing for the three drivers behind him.
Rookie contenders Scotty Rider, Brandon Libri of Newnan and LaGrange’s Jeremy Stokley exchanged positions second through fourth over the final four circuits before Rider narrowly beat Libri to the line at the checkers. Newton claimed the win. Rider was second. Libri was third followed Stokley and another rookie 15-year-old Brandon Brock from Hampton.
Lane Wilt was the only car left running in the Modified Mini feature after Logansville’s Dan Bennett blew an engine on the white flag lap. Wilt passed Bennett and then spun in his oil slick coming to the checkered flag.
Michael Mills bested the short field of cars in the Bomber feature.
Kids Rides in the Race Cars highlights this Saturday’s racing action. Children ages 12 and under are invited to hop on board with their favorite driver and cruise a couple of controlled laps around the 3/8ths mile speed plant. All divisions will be racing including the Jodeco Auto Sales Late Models, Newnan Bonding B Cadets, Summit Racing Equipment Hobby Stocks, Mini Stocks, Bombers and Modified Minis.
For more information, visit senoiaraceway.com.
Senoia Raceway – Senoia, GA
Race Results – April 13, 2013
Jodeco Auto Sales Late Models
1. Oliver Gentry
2. Trey White
3. Shane Fulcher
4. Tod Darda
5. Laddie Fulcher
6. Jamie Carr
7. Dusty Jones
8. Glenn Morris
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10. Chris Carr
Newnan Bonding B Cadets
1. Blake Griffin
2. Thomas Mewborn
3. Roger Arnett
4. Kelly Leonard
5. Dow Kirkland
6. Johnny Stinchcomb
7. Billy Stevenson
8. Jayce Southwell
9. Jason Miller
10. Richard Goode
11. James Southwell
12. Stephen Hill
13. Chad Etheridge
DQ: Corey Payton
Summit Racing Equipment Hobby Stocks
1. Clifton Moran
2. Marcus Caswell
3. Mike Jenkins
4. Sam Carter
DQ: Chad Foster
Mini Stocks
1. Mark Newton
2. Scotty Rider
3. Brandon Libri
4. Jeremy Stokley
5. Brandon Brock
6. Bo Chambers
7. Rocky Johnson
8. Tyler Waits
DNS: Eddie Shepard
Bombers
1. Michael Mills
2. Michael Nelms
3. David Johnson
DNS: Dean Carey
Modified Minis
1. Lane Wilt
2. Dan Bennett
3. Todd Brewster
4. Huie Stewart
DNS: Robbie Scadron, Heath Brewster
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