Great Night Of Racing As GAS Series Visits
Winner gets automatic Berth Into World Crown Race
You would think with all these hot dry days we have had in the north Georgia area, getting in a race would be no problem. But so far the last two race events scheduled at Peach State Speedway have had rain fall. The event in April was totally washed out, and it looked for a while like that may be the case this weekend. Race officials were determined to get the event in as scheduled, and the fans hung in there and waited also, and were well rewarded with a great card of racing action.
The GAS series got in their afternoon practice before torrential rains moved in. The rain sometimes came down sideways, and some of the teams tents even blew over. After the rain ended completely the track crew set about drying the track and going about their usual racing activities. The drivers meetings were held, and quick practice session for all the divisions, and we were set to go racing.
Mini Stock
The first event of the evening was the Mini Stocks. A nice field was on hand despite of the bad weather. No doubt the weather kept the the fields and race crowds both down, but they missed a heck of a show.
The Mini Stock division fielded 13 cars. Brad Burdette, and Scott Hamby lead the field down to the green flag.
Burdette jumped out to a lead, but was always just a few cars lengths ahead, with second through 4th place waging a fierce battle for those positions. Steve hill started near the back of the field and was having to work his way through traffic, and by 1/2 way had worked his way up toward the front. On lap #14, the #9 car driven by Jody Willard spun and bunched up the field.
ON the restart Burdette brought them down to the green, followed by Hamby, Jeff Bruce, Steve Hill, and Spanky Hicks. Again a tight battle ensues for the top five positions. Entering turn number three Burdette breaks a rear axel and spins the car. Caught up in the aftermath is the cars of Eric Sargent, and William Earnest.
ON the final restart Hamby has now assumed the lead, followed by Bruce, Hill, Todd Stevenson, and Hicks. Hill makes a good move on the restart and passes Bruce to take over second place. WIth four laps to go Hill takes the lead and holds on to win the race. He is followed across the line by Hamby, Bruce, Hicks, and Tim Lanier.
SuperTrucks
The Super Truck field was a little short this week because of the weather but what it lacked in size, it made up for in action. Wes Whitfield drew the pole, and Roger Adkins joined him on the front row. At the drop of the green Roger Adkins jumped to the lead, while Josh Adkins followed him into second place. Cohen Motes started back in the pack in 8th position, but by lap number 10 had moved his way into the third position. At this time it was a three truck break away with the two Adkins trucks and Motes placing a nice distance on the rest of the field and rolling away. Whitfield and Larry Jordan were running fourth and fifth.
Motes was clearly faster than the Josh Adkins truck, and Adkins was even starting to hang the rear end out as it seemed to be breaking loose coming off the corners. Motes looked inside to pass on a couple occasions, but Adkins chopped him off. As they come off of turn number two and headed down the back straight, Motes got the nose for his truck inside all the way up to the rear wheels. Adkins turned left across Motes nose and went spinning into the infield. Lucky for him he got stopped before hitting the inside wall and was able to continue with no damage. AT the half way point of the 50 lap race the running order was Roger Adkins, Motes, Whitfield, Paul Antley and Randy Stoudemire.
Motes was pressuring Adkins for the lead. Near lap 30 he was able to duck low coming off of turn number four, establish the inside position on the front straight and take the lead going into the first turn. All the while Josh Adkins was on a mission to get back up to the front. Nine laps from the end the trucks of Larry Jordan and Chris Topping touched and crashed into the front stretch inside wall. Topping truck was pretty wadded up and was done for the evening. Jordan was able to continue on. IN fact Jordan was bale to get back up into fourth position but broke with four laps to go in the event. At the end Motes was flagged the winner, Roger Adkins was second, and Josh Adkins third. Rounding out the top five was Paul Antley and Biff Mossman.
Motes was disqualified on post-race tech, giving the win to Roger Adkins
Sportsman
The Sportsman field was a little short also. Just hate when the weather is like when it was this weekend. Still we have to press on. The #42 of Chuck Cooper, and #35 David Murphy brought the field down to the green. Cooper jumped out to the lead with Murphy hot on his heels. Keith Barrett was running right behind. ON lap number seven Murphys car gave up, and he was through for the night. He was able to get to the pits and no yellow was needed. Barrett closed the gap on Cooper, and it was a nose to tail battle for the lead. Cooper had just enough motor under the hood to keep Barrett at bay, and keep him behind him for the full distance of the race as the green went green to checker without a yellow. Daniel Johnson came in third.
Iceman
The IceMan was another event that went green to checkers on this great night of racing action. Fans that follow this division have grown accustomed to see the #42 car and Phil Peppers up front and pulling away. This evening would be different. The #10 machine driven by Brian Hardman drew the pole position, and Peppers was starting on the outside front row. When the green flew, Peppers was WAY to early on the gas and jumped the start. As is Peach State policy, there is no second chances. Jump the start, you go to the rear. So the #5 car of Corey Hardy moved up to the outside front row, and Peppers moved to the rear. The green flag flew, and the crowd expected Peppers to come busting threw the field. Seems that in the winter months some guys have went to work on their race cars, and this is going to be a competitive field this year. Hardman jumped into the lead, and lead green to checkers. But what everyone "expected" to see did not transpire. The #99 of Joey Perry moved into second place, and by lap number 10 the black #2 of Todd Vandeford was in third. Peppers had moved up to forth position. Russell Shore in the #33 was running fifth.
The familiar #42 of Peppers and the black deuce of Vandeford battled back for forth for the third position the rest of the event. Eventually Vandeford was able to establish himself as the better machine and pull away a bit. What makes all this interesting is that all the top 5 car were running nearly identical lap times on the stop watch, so looks like we may possibly have five cars that are nearly identical and we could really have a great shoot out in this division every week for the rest of the season.
At the checkered flag Hardman came home the winner, Perry was second, followed by Vandeford, Peppers, and Shore.
GAS DAWN COMMUNICATIONS 100
The crowd was great and the staff at Peach State appreciates everyone hanging around late into the night. The rain is beyond our control and we did everything we could do to run the race as scheduled. We hope everyone was pleased with the race and glad they waited out the rain to see such a fine, exciting event
With the rain all the 'normal' activities the GAS event got in was the practice sessions. Qualifying was a wash out
so the field was set by points. The point leader polled the dice, and a five came up,.. so the fop 5 were inverted for the start. That put Greg Motes in the flying 9W on the pole. Joining him on the front row was Michael Pope.
When the green flag dropped the field of 25 thundered into turn #1. Dakota Stroup got shuffled high, and it was a hand full to keep the car out of the wall. The youngster did well, got a handle on it, and even though he fell back from his 10th place starting position all the way to the rear of the field, he was able to continue with no damage. No harm, no foul.
On lap number five Ronnie Sanders motor blew up and dumped it's contents on the track in turn number one. The field did a good job tip-toeing through the oil laid down and no one following behind had any problems because of it. After track clean up, the green was back out again. On lap number 11 Russell Fleeman moved into the top spot and wrestled the lead away from Motes. Three laps later the car of Clay Alexander spun on the back straight and the yellow was out. Alexander is the son of long time short track ace Mike Alexander of Franklin TN.
On the restart Fleeman led Motes, followed by Bubba Pollard, Michael Pope, Taylor Satterfield. On Lap 23 Kevin Stephen had a flat and was able to make it to the pits. Apparently it caused some suspension damage because it put him out for the night. Racing was intense among the points leaders. Fredrick Moore was moving up through the field, and he and Taylor Satterfield were having a spirited battle. Moore seemed to have the better car, and on several occasions looked to have the inside position going into a corner on Satterfield. Satterfield chopped down across Moore's nose causing Moore to have to jump on the brakes. Going into turn number one, Moore had a better established position, and got further put beside Satterfield's car, when Satterfield came down, Moore was there. Satterfield spun and went up into the outside wall. The #15 of David Elliott also spun as did the #23 of Paul Kelley. All of the cars had to pit of go to the rear of the field for being in the incident. Moore received damage on his nose in the accident, and the hood was also badly damaged. Elliott had to fall to the rear for spinning and being in the accident. The #23 of Kelley was supposed to go to the rear, but he refused, and restarted near the front. The race officials penalized the #23 car one lap for refusing for follow race procedure. Right after that there was another yellow, and Kelley was told he could double up for a double file restart to get his lap back. Instead for some reason they just decided to park the car.
The next section of racing saw a series of yellow flags. On lap 46 Larry Jordan spun but did not contact anything and was able to continue. Then on lap #52 the #84 of Alexander spun and also had no contact and continued.
On lap #57 the #94 of Mitch Cobb spun, and like the two incidents previous... no contact
All this time Fleeman had been leading but now Pollards car seemed to come alive and the two had a great fight for the top spot. Several other drivers were quietly making their way up threw the field from earlier problems, or just running clean races, and makes a great showing. David Elliott who had gone to the rear mid-race had now worked his way inside the top 10.
On lap 76 Greg Motes had a right front tire failure and it damaged his suspension. He was done for the evening.
It was at this point it seemed to be that many of the top drivers in the points had problems. Satterfield had his incident early in the race with Moore, both were now out. Stephens has suspension problems, Motes was also now out, and during this yellow flag period Dakota Stroup also parked his car. That's five of the top ten in points.
On the restart with 23 laps to go Fleeman still was clinging to the lead. Pollard was right on his rear bumper, followed by Joel Anderson, David Elliott, and Michael Pope. Fleeman took off with and Pollard was hot on his heels. As they came up on lapped traffic it looked like the cars were virtually equal. Fleeman worked the traffic, and make the holes, and Pollard filled the gaps. With 7 laps to go the two leader busted free of lapped traffic and had a large space of traffic to themselves. At this time Pollard simply pulled out, drove around Fleeman and drove off. It appeared Pollard have been saving his stuff and letting Fleeman do all the work,.. then when they got out in the open, Pollard simply said "It's time to go"
At the checkered flag it was Pollard picking up his first GAS series win of the 2007 season, followed by Fleeman, Anderson, Elliott, and Pope.
Elliott made a great run from the back to get back to fourth, and Joel Anderson had a great run from start to finish. Those folks that are long time Peach State fans will remember Joel from many years ago back when he used to race in the Junior Late Model division. Glad to see the youngster have such a good run here at his 'home' track.