Josh Richards picked his first win of 2016 at Golden Isles
After a Thursday night rainout, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series got its season underway on Friday evening at the Golden Isles Speedway in Waynesville, GA. In the end, it was World of Outlaws regular Josh Richards who pulled into victory lane to receive the $10,000 first prize.
Jonathan Davenport began the night’s festivities by setting fast time in Group A qualifying and overall with a lap of 15.326 seconds around the 4/10 mile clay oval located near the resort area of Brunswick, GA. Davenport was awarded the pole for heat race #1 for his efforts while Brandon Sheppard earned the pole in heat race #2 by being the second fastest in this group.
Jared Landers proved to be the quickest in Group B time-trials after posting a lap of 15.399 seconds. He would begin heat race #3 from the pole while second fastest Brian Shirley grabbed the pole for the fourth and final preliminary.
Richards earned the pole for the feature after he took the win in heat race #1 over Davenport, Ivedent Lloyd, Jr. and Tim McCreadie while Sheppard took the checkered flag in the second race used to set the starting lineup for the feature ahead of Steve Francis, Devin Moran and Darrell Lanigan.
Landers was the winner of the third heat race beating out Chris Madden, Kyle Bronson and Donald McIntosh as Brian Shirley won the final heat by besting Eddie Carrier, Jr., Jimmy Owens and Billy Moyer, Jr..
Randy Weaver and Mason Zeigler won the two B-main races used to set the remainder of the starting lineup for the main event.
At the start of the 50-lap feature, Richards surged to the lead from his inside front row starting spot with Landers, Shirley, Sheppard, Madden and Davenport trailing. But it would not take long for the action to heat up as Carrier, Davenport and Madden found themselves in a three-wide battle for the fifth position on lap 2 while Richards began to break away from the pack.
A key moment in the race occurred on lap 7 when Davenport had his car get very loose as he attempted to pass Madden to the inside. As a result, the defending series champion faded back several positions as those looking to make up ground on the leaders seized the opportunity move around the No. 6 car.
Sheppard began to move closer to the front as he hounded Landers for the runner-up spot as the leader began to encounter slower traffic. However, one of the race’s five yellow flags would wave on lap 14 to bring the field back together and provide the lead car with a reprieve from having to negotiate around the slower machines.
On the ensuing restart for that caution, Landers and Madden briefly tangled in turn three, which cause several cars to bottle neck behind them. Capitalizing on the opportunity, Davenport shot around the high side of the track and set about the process of regaining his lost positions from earlier.
Richards, meanwhile, continued to hold a relatively comfortable working margin over Sheppard and the rest of the field. Even the hard charging Davenport was seemingly unable to gain ground.
A lap 42 caution offered the field one last chance to make a move on Richards. However, the No. 1 Rocket machine would withstand the challenge and go on to secure the first victory of the season.
Feature Finish: 1. Josh Richards, 2. Brandon Sheppard, 3. Jonathan Davenport, 4. Jared Landers, 5. Chris Madden, 6. Eddie Carrier, Jr., 7. Tim McCreadie, 8. Darrell Lanigan, 9. Brian Shirley, 10. Steve Francis, 11. Scott Bloomquist, 12. Devin Moran, 13. Dennis Erb, Jr., 14. Jimmy Owens, 15. Mason Zeigler, 16. Ivedent Lloyd, Jr., 17. Kenny Pettyjohn, 18. Billy Moyer, Jr., 19. Earl Pearson, Jr., 20. Don O’Neal, 21. Randy Weaver, 22. Donald MIntosh, 23. Mark Whitener, 24. Gregg Satterlee
