Senoia race fans were given a treat Saturday night when two hometown favorites battled for a win and Clint ‘Cat Daddy’ Smith continued his unbeaten streak in the Super Late Model division at Senoia Raceway.
The four-time Southern All-Star Series champion won for a fourth time in four starts besting fellow Senoia driver Joe Armistead Jr. for the checkered flag.
Grantville’s Austin Horton began his own streak as he won for the second straight week in the Limited Late Model feature.
Other winners included 16-year-old Trey Wood of Newnan in the Crate Late Models, Craig Scott of Jackson in the B Cadet, McDonough’s Scott Moseley in the Legends Cars and Newnan’s Kevin Evans in the Hobby Stock. Returning to the Senoia Raceway winner’s circle for the second week in a row were Whitesburg’s Derrick Matthews in the Bomber and Newnan’s Brandon Bright in the Mini Stock.
Smith was knocked out of the no. 1 spot in qualifying for the first time since the track reintroduced the Super Late Models to the weekly program last month. Colbert’s Kenny Collins timed in the quickest out of the dozen drivers and then rolled a ‘one’ allowing the field to start straight up from their qualifying results.
That pole position did not matter for Collins as Smith jumped on the green shooting to the lead from his outside front row starting spot and then never looked back running flag to flag for the victory. Collins tried valiantly to reel in Smith, but had his hands full with Alabama’s Dana Eiland and Armistead. Sharpsburg’s Brian Reese also climbed into the top five during the first 10 laps.
Cautions slowed the field a few times during the 30-lap main event and each time Smith would hold the field off on the restart. When the checkered flag flew, Smith had won his fourth straight with Armistead moving to second ahead of Collins.
Teenagers ‘Mad’ Maddie Crane of Meansville and ‘Racin’ Mason Massey of Winston ran their best race of the year moving up to fourth and fifth respectively.
Austin Horton also was the lucky man with invert dice as he rolled a ‘one’ placing him on the pole for the Limited Late Model main event. Horton darted to the race lead leaving Stockbridge’s Trey White, Newnan’s Rucker Orr and Thomaston’s Shane Fulcher to race for the second place spot.
On an early race restart, White slid up the track and lost several positions while 17-year-old third generation driver Joey Armistead began an ascent to the front of the pack. Armistead would move up to battle with Rucker Orr while White was left to race for position with Fulcher and LaGrange’s Dusty Jones.
Several cautions created a scramble for racing space creating some great side by side and sometimes three wide racing. At the end, Horton would win his second straight with Armistead matching his father’s Super Late Model finish of second place. Dusty Jones passed Rucker Orr on the final lap to snare third place and Trey White fought back to grab a top five finish.
Picking up his first career victory in the Crate Late Models was 16-year-old Trey Wood. The young hot shoe battled with fellow teenager Taylor Mitcham of Alabama for the first three circuits of the 20-lap main event.
The rising stars dueled side by side with Wood running the upper groove and Mitcham against the inside berm. The berm caught the front nose of Mitcham on lap three and allowed Wood to move safely in front and then he set sail to secure the win. Mitcham was second with Alabama’s Cord Dodgen third. All three drivers are teenagers. Colbert’s Robin Collins was fourth followed by another teenager Zachary Shelton of Sharpsburg in fifth.
The first time was just fine for McDonough’s Scott Moseley as the veteran asphalt Legends Car competitor decided to try dirt racing for the first time in his career. Moseley moved his borrowed Legends Car to the front of the field and then held off former national champion Bubba Harry of Palmetto for the victory. A pair of teenagers, Joshua Hicks of Senoia and Zach Leonardi of Cartersville, ran third and fourth while Covington’s Tony Armbruster finished out the first five. The Legends Cars ran four wide at times on the newly widened Senoia Raceway.
Craig Scott outhustled Douglasville’s Cory Hillman in the B Cadet feature race. Scott inherited the lead after Newnan’s Parrish Duncan had to go to the pit area with overheating issues. Hillman and Concord’s Cindy Anderson battled for the final eleven laps, but Hillman would prevail notching the runner-up spot to Craig. Stockbridge’s Jeff Carter and McDonough’s Benny Croy rounded out the top five.
A wild finish to a crazy feature in the Hobby Stock saw Carrollton’s Dustin Smith take over the lead with two laps remaining only to spin in the final turn allowing Kevin Evans to pass and gain back the top spot. It was a career first for Evans winning the Hobby Stock feature.
Newnan’s Brandon Bright went flag to flag winning the Mini Stock feature as did Whitesburg’s Derrick Matthews in the Bombers.
A pair of roll-overs kept the crowd on the edge of their seats early in the evening. During the B Cadet heat races, Hampton’s Paul Holloway’s car jumped over the top of Cory Hillman before going up and over rolling back on to rest on its wheels. The second crash involved Senoia’s Chris Holt during the Bomber feature when his rear axle broke sending him into a wild roll in the third turn. Both drivers were unhurt.
The racing action will continue this Saturday, April 18.
The pit gates will open 4 p.m., grandstands at 5 p.m. and hot laps will begin at 6 p.m. Heat races and qualifying will start at 7 p.m.
For more information, visit the Senoia Raceway website, www.senoiaraceway.com.
Official results from Saturday, April 11
Super Late Model (Feature): 1-Clint Smith, Senoia 2-Joe Armistead, Jr., Senoia 3-Kenny Collins, Colbert 4-Madeline Crane, Meansville 5-Mason Massey, Douglasville 6-Scott Knowles, Lannet, AL 7-Cody King, McDonough 8-Chad Marchman, LaGrange 9-Brian Reese, Sharpsburg 10-Dana Eiland, Salem, AL 11-Ricky Williams, Fayetteville DNS-Benji Cole, Canton Fast Qualifier: Collins (14.531 seconds/92.9 mph)
Limited Late Model (Feature): 1-Austin Horton, Grantville 2-Joey Armistead, Senoia 3-Dusty Jones, LaGrange 4-Rucker Orr, Newnan 5-Trey White, Stockbridge 6-Shane Fulcher, Thomaston 7-Dennis Hale, LaGrange 8-Glenn Morris, Fayetteville 9-Shawn Cater, Roopville 10-Marty Lunsford, Newnan 11-Marcus Caswell, Newnan 12-Hunter Worley, Alvaton 13-Chris Carr, Newnan 14-Mike Turner 15-Jack Mills, Griffin 16-Jayce Southwell, Brooks 17-John Harbin, Talking Rock Fast Qualifier: Horton (14.904 seconds/90.6 mph)
Crate Late Model (Feature): 1-Trey Wood, Newnan 2-Taylor Mitcham, LaFayette, AL 3-Cord Dodgen, LaFayette, AL 4-Robin Collins, Colbert 5-Zachary Shelton, Temple 6-Chris Justus, McDonough 7-Bobby Mills, Griffin Heat Winner: Mitcham
B Cadet (Feature): 1-Craig Scott, Jackson 2-Cory Hillman, Douglasville 3-Cindy Anderson, Concord 4-Jeff Carter, Stockbridge 5-Benny Croy, McDonough 6-Charles Grogan, Heflin, AL 7-Wesley Lyle, Bowden 8-Parrish Duncan, Newnan 9-Johnny Stinchcomb, Newnan DNS: Paul Holloway, Hampton Heat Winner: Duncan
Hobby Stock (Feature): 1-Kevin Evans, Newnan 2-Dustin Smith, Carrollton 3-Chris Steele, Franklin 4-Ben Steele, Franklin 5-John Holder, Milner 6-Clyde Alexander, Locust Grove
Bomber (Feature): 1-Derrick Matthews, Whitesburg 2-Josh Roddy, Palmetto 3-Alex Rudolph, Griffin 4-Winford Minix, Senoia 5-Jason William, Hogansville 6-Joe Phillips, Hogansville 7-Chris Holt, Senoia
Mini Stock (Feature): 1-Brandon Bright, Newnan 2-Dorough Bright, Newnan 3-Bo Chambers, Griffin 4-Harold Leath, Griffin 5-Robert Caldwell, Senoia 6-Darrin Parrott, Sharpsburg 7-Shannon Faircloth, Rockmart 8-Brandon Libri, Newnan 9-Cassie Dingler-Still, Newnan
Legends Car (Feature): 1-Scott Moseley, McDonough 2-Bubba Harry, Palmetto 3-Joshua Hicks, Senoia 4-Zach Leonardi, Cartersville 5-Tony Armbruster, Covington 6-Tina Johnson, Senoia 7-Marty Massey, Douglasville 8-Allen Spence, Sharpsburg 9-Miranda Meredith, Locust Grove 10-Dennis Aiken, Villa Rica 11-Dwight Pilgram, McDonough 12-Jason Treschl, LaGrange Heat Winners: Harry & Pilgram
