Wednesday, June 18, 2003
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Wednesday, June 18, 2003 |
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Senoia driver wins at Dixie Clint Smith of Senoia turned a rare appearance at Dixie Speedway in Woodstock into a memorable one Saturday night. In his first Late Models race at the track this season, the former Havatampa champion held off a hard-charging Rodney Martin of Cartersville at the finish line to win his first race of the 2003 season. Martin, who has won twice at Dixie this year, edged Frank Ingram of Acworth by 26 points for the first-leg points championship. "I didn't even realize how close he was, but everyone said it was a good show there at the end," said Smith, who had a fourth-place finish and a seventh-place finish at Rome this year. "I usually just come here for the for the real big races, but our Southern All-Stars race got rained out and here I am. It was fun." The fifth and final caution flag came out with four laps left, setting up a four-lap dash to the finish. Martin lined up for the restart in fourth place behind Smith, but jumped around Ingram and into second place almost as soon as the green flag fell. Smith held his line on the bottom as Martin crept closer with every lap. The cars were side by side when they hit the backstretch on the final lap, but Smith held on to win with Martin alongside his rear fender. "If we had one more lap, we'd have won the thing," said Martin. "It's real hard to pass on the bottom, and that's why we stay on the high side every week. All we needed was one more lap." After starting the race on the outside of the front row, Smith battled alongside Wayne Echols of Hiram for almost a full lap. But the outside groove gave Smith enough momentum to put him around Echols and into the lead for good coming out of turn 4. Martin, though, didn't have it so easy. The Cartersville driver started the race in 14th place, needing the first 20 laps just to crack the top five. Ingram came in third, with Rodney Dixon of Fayetteville finishing fourth and Echols in fifth. The rivalry between Scott Howard of Stockbridge and Danny Carter of Woodstock continued in the 'A' Sportsman division. Howard won for the third time this season, but it wasn't enough to keep Carter from winning the first-leg points championship. Chad Smith of Cedartown came in second, as Carter finished third, Kenneth Westmorelan of Cartersville placed fourth and Chuck Padgett of Jasper came in fifth. Jake Knowles of Tyrone won his third consecutive 'B' Sportsman feature at Dixie Speedway, but it wasn't enough to lock up a first-leg points title. Jeffrey Johnson of Cumming finished seventh in the race and won the title by two points over Knowles. Bo Stanley Jr. of Ellijay came in second, Richard Yeomans of Austell finished third, Steve Vowell of Monticello was fourth and David Barrentine of Booger Hollow was fifth. Ricky Lathem of Acworth clinched the first-leg Super Bombers championship with a third-place finish Saturday night. Randy McConnell of Woodstock won the race, as Tony McDowell of Woodstock finished second, Chad Kimbral of Dawsonville took fourth and Chris Castillo of Cartersville came in fifth. Kenneth Burns of Woodstock clinched the Economy Bombers first-leg points title with a third-place finish. Michael Brewer of Avondale Estates won the race, as Ray McNeese of Waleska came in second, Jacob Johnson of Cumming took fourth and Lee Sutton of Taylorsville finished fifth. Joe Trantham and Ross Childs of Kennesaw teamed up to win the Cruisers feature, and Paul McAbee of Acworth won the Spectator Racing event in a Pontiac.
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