TENNESSEE’S GRAY WINS HIS FOURTH SENOIA SUMMER NATIONALS TITLE
TENNESSEE’S GRAY WINS HIS FOURTH SENOIA SUMMER NATIONALS TITLE
September 9, 2018
By 
(Senoia, GA – September 9, 2018) Eleven-time USCS Sprint Car national champion Terry Gray of Bartlett, TN made a return trip to Senoia Raceway’s victory lane on Saturday night after overtaking polesitter Jordon Mallett of Greenbriar, AR on lap 18. Gray took home his fourth career victory at the Senoia Summer Nationals, but his first since 2013 as he sped away from Mallett over the final laps of the show.
“That is Terry’s 91st victory with the USCS series,” said series founder and promter Pete Walton of Fayetteville. “He is still winning races at age sixty.”
Gray’s Senoia Summer Nationals IX victory coincided with winning efforts by Cass Fowler of Acworth in the Limited Late Model and Crate Late Model combined feature, Alabama’s Dylan Knowles in the Late Model Sportsman, Keith West of Powder Springs in the Hobby Bomber combined main event and Good Hope teenager Grant Roberts in the four cylinder feature. Macon’s Cole Compton picked up his first career win at Senoia Raceway winning the Riley’s Warriors Charger main event.
Jordon Mallett looked like he was on cruise control and was going to win his first career Senoia Summer Nationals until lap 16 of the USCS Sprint Car feature. Mallett had built a straight away length lead over Alabama’s Kyle Amerson before a caution slowed the action for a crashed Brian Thomas of Pendergrass. The huge lead evaporated in an instance as the field was bunched together for the restart.
The ‘Bartlett Bullet’ Terry Gray used the opportunity to his advantage as he wheeled past Amerson using the top of the Bull Ring to gain second. Mallett piloted his car on the bottom of the track while Gray found speed in the middle groove. The momentum he gained was enough to shoot him past the leader on lap 18 and then he never looked back posting the win and claiming his fourth Senoia Summer Nationals victory. Gray also won titles in 2010, 2011 and 2013. Mallett ended up second with Mississippi’s Michael Miller riding the rim to a third place fnish. Amerson and 2016 Senoia Summer Nationals champion Morgan Turpen rounded out the top five.
Tennessee’s Mike Hall won his first career race at Senoia Raceway as he claimed the checkers in the USCS Mini Sprint feature. Hall scooted past Mississippi’s Bobby Zainotz early on and then held off all challenges from eleven-year-old Trynt Lloyd of Jacksonville, FL, to win. Lloyd was relegated to the back of the starting line-up after failing to scale his car after a great effort in early heat race action.
The action throughout the field during the combined feature for Limited Late Model and Crate Late Model saw three and four wide racing for several positions while up front Acworth’s ‘Fast’ Cass Fowler never missed a beat. Fowler kept Senoia’s Clint ‘Cat Daddy’ Smith behind him through lapped traffic and a couple of restarts. Fowler nabbed his first Bull Ring victory of the season ahead of Smith, Alabama’s Cruz Skinner, Dennis Hale of LaGrange and Columbus hot shoe Dalton Cook.
‘Thrillin’ Dylan Knowles dominated the Late Model Sportsman race running flag to flag to score his ninth win of the season. Macon’s Cory Compton ended up second after an interesting turn of events on lap 8. Compton was battling with Alabama’s Richie ‘Rocketman’ Stevens for fourth place when Compton apparently spun coming off of turn four. Compton was relegated to restarting at the back of the pack until Stevens pulled over to talk to track officials.
“Rocketman told our officials that he should go to the back because he got into the back of Compton and caused the spin,” explained track promoter Mayes Massey. “Officials corrected the restart line-up with Compton placed back in his running position and Stevens relegated to the back.”
In the combined Hobby and Bomber feature, Keith West won his eighth race of the season as he stayed out front of several challengers. Barnesville’s Landon DeGraff kept the pressure on until the final lap when his car slid high in turns one and two allowing Mableton’s ‘Hard Head’ Ryan Ray and McDonough’s Ted Willingham to scoot past to nab second and third behind West.
Thirteen-year-old Joshua Till was leading the Mini Stock Hot Shot main event until lap nine when he lost control of his ride coming out of the fourth turn. The young driver over-corrected his racer and ended up smashing into the front stretch concrete wall. The crash ended his night and allowed for fellow teenager Grant Robert to inherit a lead that he would never relinquish winning his first race of the season at Senoia Raceway. Newnan’s Tommy Faulkner ran second with Hampton’s Harold Leath recovering from an early race altercation that caved in his passenger side door panel to finish in third.
The family of Riley McDowell made an announcement on Saturday night that they will sponsor the track’s Charger division for the remainder of the year to honor the memory of their four-year-old that passed away in May. The first Riley’s Warrior Charger winner was Cole Compton. The Macon driver ran away from Newnan’s Scott Gaddy and Jason Turner of McDonough for the trip to the winner’s circle. Gaddy and Turner could not gain any ground on Compton as they were in an intense battle for second place that actually saw the two drivers trade paint on the back stretch before both hitting the concrete. They were able to keep running, but could not catch Compton.
All divisions will be racing this Saturday, September 15th and competing in their own features without any combining. The Super Late Models, Limited Late Models, Crate Late Models, Late Model Sportsman, Hobby, Bomber, Mini and Hot Shots will race the final event of the point’s season with the opportunity to improve their ranking with a double points race. All of the season point’s champions will be decided this weekend.
The pits will open at 4pm this weekend with the grandstands opening at 5pm. Hot laps and qualifying will begin at 6:30pm with racing at 7:30pm.
For additional information, event schedule, ticket prices and more, visit the track website at www.senoiaraceway.com or call the speedway at 770.599.6161.
Senoia Summer Nationals IX Official Results – Saturday, September 8, 2018
USCS Sprint Cars (Feature): 1-Terry Gray, Bartlett, TN 2-Jordon Mallett, Greenbrier, AR 3-Michael Miller, Ocean Springs, MS 4-Kyle Amerson, Matthews, AL 5-Morgan Turpen, Cordova, TN 6-Tim Perry, Mooresville, NC 7-Joe Larkin, Suwanee 8-Jeff Oliver, Pendergrass 9-Jeff Willingham, Ripley, MS 10-Danny Oliver, Pendergrass 11-Tony Agin, Ft. Meyers, FL 12-Sean Hosey, Lebanon, TN 13-Shawn Murray, Jacksonville, FL 14-Terry Witherspoon, Jacksonville, FL 15-Brian Thomas, Pendergrass Fast Dash: Turpen Heat 1: Gray Heat 2: Turpen
USCS Mini Sprints (Feature): 1-Mike Hall, Knoxville, TN 2-Trynt Lloyd, Jacksonville, FL 3-Bobby Zainotz, Columbus, MS 4-Jim Kradel, Navarre, FL 5-Alex Lyles, Arlington, TN 6-Don R Quinn, Wesley Chapel, FL 7-Jim McNully, Navarre, FL 8-Don T Quinn, Wesley Chapel, FL 9-Chase Garner, Tuscaloosa, AL DNS: Brad Sutton Fast Dash: Zainotz Heat 1: Zainotz Heat 2: Kradel
Limited/Crate Late Models (Combined Feature): 1-Cass Fowler, Acworth 2-Clint Smith, Senoia 3-Cruz Skinner, Oxford, AL 4-Dennis Hale, LaGrange 5-Dalton Cook, Columbus 6-Ahanna Parkhurst, Evans 7-Thomas Lewis, Hamilton 8-Joey Armistead, Senoia 9-Dusty Jones, LaGrange 10-Jamie Maurice, McDonough 11-Brandon Brown 12-Wayne Harbin, Sharpsburg 13-Jake Rainey, Powder Springs 14-Brad Lewis, Hamilton 15-Thomas Mewborn, Greenville 16-Tina Johnson, Senoia 17-Ricky Williams, Fayetteville 18-Zach Leonhardi, Cartersville 19-Jimmy Price, Oxford 20-Bailey Williams, Fayetteville 21-Randall Powell, Oxford 22-Lee Fuller, Newnan 23-Glenn Morris, Fayetteveille 24-Shane Fulcherm Thomaston 25-Craig Scott, Newnan 26-Marty Massey, Newnan Fast Qualifier: Fowler (15.895 seconds – 85.0 mph)
Late Model Sportsman (Feature): 1-Dylan Knowles, Lannett, AL 2-Cory Compton, Macon 3-Keith Fields, Griffin 4-Paris Simmons, Baldwin 5-Ted Minnix, McDonough 6-Jamie Nicholson, Jr., Locust Grove 7-McKenna Nelms, Newnan 8-Richie Stephens, Phenix City, AL 9-Jason Williams, Locust Grove 10-Jack Mills, Griffin 11-Jeremy Mayfield, Homer 12-Donovan Singer, Salem, AL 13-Keith Baker, Statham 14-William Blair, Whitesburg 15-Wiley McDaniel, Byron 16-Blant Duke, Whitesburg 17-Billy Stevenson, Locust Grove 18-Cord Dodgen, Lafayette, AL Fast Qualifier: Williams (16.128 seconds – 83.7 mph)
Hobby/Bomber (Combined Feature): 1-Keith West, Powder Springs 2-Ryan Ray, Mableton 3-Ted Willingham, McDonough 4-Landon DeGraff, Barnesville 5-Marty Beckwith, Auburn, AL 6-Curtis Turner, Brooks 7-Dorough Bright, Newnan 8-Mike Nelms, Newnan 9-TJ Joiner, Lithia Springs 10-Dustin Smith 11-Michael Couch, Senoia 12-Stratton Scott 13-Wilson Boozer, Jackson 14-Ricky Neill, Whitesburg 15-Carley Arnett, Lannett, AL 16-Ben Wells, Milner Fast Qualifier: West (16.856 seconds – 80.1 mph)
Mini/Hot Shot (Combined Feature): 1-Grant Roberts, Good Hope 2-Tommy Faulkner, Newnan 3-Harold Leath, Hampton 4-Tyler McElhannon 5-Jody Jeffrey, Smiths Station, AL 6-Brandon Henderson, Senoia 7-Wayne Chapman, Auburn 8-Corey Wilson 9-Jake McTaggert, Oakland 10-Bob Faulkner, Newnan 11-Cory Green 12-Joshua Till, McDonogh 13-Nathan Farrow, LaGrange DNS: Cale Burford, Milner Fast Qualifier: Till (18.363 seconds – 73.5 mph)
Riley’s Warriors Chargers (Feature): 1-Cole Compton, Macon 2-Svott Gaddy, Newnan 3-Jason Turner, McDonough 4-Dave McWilliams, Brooks 5-Johnny Stinchcomb, Newnan 6-Shannon Stephens, Franklin 7-Todd Brewster, Villa Rica
