Eddie Carrier, Jr. took the lead in the final turn of the last lap to win at Golden Isles on Thursday
Eddie Carrier, Jr. scored the biggest win of his career last season when he captured the North/South 100 at the Florence Speedway. Now it looks as if the Salt Rock, WV driver has carried that momentum over to the 2015 campaign as he burst through a door left open by Brandon Sheppard on the opening night of Georgia/Florida SpeedWeeks at the Golden Isles Speedway.
Carrier earned $7,000 in the non points paying Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series event held on the Waynesville, Georgia track.
Earl Pearson, Jr. got his season off to a fast start after reuniting with Dunn-Benson Racing during the off-season. The Jacksonville, Fla. resident set fast time in Group A qualifying by laying down a lap of 15.347 seconds around the 4/10 mile clay oval. He was followed in that group by Carrier, Dennis Franklin and Chris Madden.
Jonathan Davenport was fastest in Group B time-trials and overall with a time of 15.172 seconds. He was trailed by Chris Ferguson, Jimmy Owens and Steve Francis.
Pearson earned the pole for the feature by beating out Sheppard, Stormy Scott and Franklin for the win in heat one while Carrier won out over Gregg Satterlee, Don O’Neal and Mike Benedum in the second heat race.
Davenport staked claim on the outside front row starting spot by winning the third heat over Jimmy Owens, Ross Bailes and Scott Bloomquist while Steve Francis won the fourth and final heat ahead of Billy Moyer, Jr., Kenny Pettyjohn and Austin Rettig.
Chris Brown and Devin Moran won the two B-main races used to fill out the remainder of the starting lineup for the feature.
The racing was intense right from the beginning of the 30-lap main event as Davenport and Pearson had slight contact going into turn one on the first lap which allowed Carrier to slip past both cars on the back stretch to seize the lead while bringing Sheppard along in tow. But by the second circuit, it was Sheppard who was flexing his muscle as he darted around Carrier to gain the top spot.
Davenport charged back to the front after the early bobble by moving around Carrier to grab the 2nd position on lap 5 and then past Sheppard for the lead on lap 6. Just as the Blairsville, Georgia driver found himself mired in heavy traffic, he was given a reprieve as the caution waved on lap 10.
During that lap 10 caution period, Davenport’s car slowed to a stop in turn four with a mechanical problem which ultimately forced his earlier exit from the event. When the race went back to green, Bailes began to rumble from the 5th spot as he got by Francis to take 4th.
At the race’s halfway mark, Sheppard held the lead over Carrier, Pearson, Bailes, Francis, Scott, Satterlee and Bloomquist.
From that point, it looked as if Sheppard would drive on to victory as he was able to break away on two separate restarts, one following a yellow flag on lap 24 for Donald McIntosh and another on lap 26 when a caution flew for the 5th running Bailes. On the lap 26 restart, the car of the 3rd running Pearson broke coming to the green and forced the driver to pull off.
After taking the white flag as the leader, Sheppard’s car went high in turn one and jumped the cushion. In so doing, the nose of his machine rolled under and was dragging as he entered turn three for the final time. His car would not turn well enough to maintain speed and Carrier shot by to claim the lead with the checkered flag in sight.
Feature finish: 1. Eddie Carrier, Jr., 2. Stormy Scott, 3. Brandon Sheppard, 4. Steve Francis, 5. Scott Bloomquist, 6. Gregg Satterlee, 7. Kenny Pettyjohn, 8. Devin Moran, 9. Chris Brown, 10. Mike Benedum, 11. Austin Kirkpatrick, 12. Austin Rettig, 13. Earl Pearson, Jr., 14. Ross Bailes, 15. Donald McIntosh, 16. Don O’Neal, 17. Dennis Franklin, 18. Steven Roberts, 19. Jonathan Davenport, 20. Chris Madden, 21. Russell Brown, Jr., 22. Billy Moyer, Jr., 23. Jimmy Owens, 24. Chris Ferguson
