Ashton Winger
With its 2021 season winding down, the Southern All-Star Dirt Racing Series rolled into the Senoia Raceway on Friday night for the first of a double-header weekend at the Georgia facility. At the end of a night of managing the slick gumbo clay, it was Ashton Winger who claimed the feature win in the Billy Clanton Classic. The Longhorn Chassis driver from Hampton, Georgia was awarded a check valued at $3,000 for his efforts in a race shown live by FloRacing.com.
The series is set to return to the Senoia Raceway on Saturday night for the $10,000-to-win Hence & Reba Pollard Memorial.
A total of 24 cars were signed in for competition on Friday evening.
Austin Horton was fastest in Group A qualifying with a lap of 15.574 seconds around the 3/8 mile clay oval besting Ashton Winger, Shane Clanton, Dalton Cook, Dallas Cooper, Brandon Overton, Will Roland and Pearson Lee Williams.
Dylan Knowles was fastest in Group B time-trials with an effort of 15.672 seconds beating out Payton Freeman, Jason Croft, Ronnie Johnson, Eric Granger, Matt Dooley, Kyler Haygood and Jason Turner.
At the start of the 25-lap feature it was Horton who bolted to the early lead with Knowles, Winger, Freeman and Clanton trailing. Clanton began to move up in the race named for his father on the second circuit when he passed by Freeman for fourth.
Winger took second away from Knowles on the third lap. Knowles then dropped off the pace which moved Clanton, Freeman and Overton up within the top-5 on the fifth lap. Overton then wrested the fourth positions away from Freeman on lap 6.
As the leaders worked through slower traffic, Clanton slipped by Winger for second then moved in on Horton to challenge for the top spot on the leaderboard by lap 12. However, a caution flag waved on lap 13 for the slowing car of Todd Morrow slowed the action.
On the ensuing restart, Winger went back to second just behind Horton. The No. 89 Brodnax-Shaker Motorsports machine kept Horton in its sights until lap 17 when Winger made the moved to grab the race lead. At that point, Winger began to pull away from the pack and would eventually sail under the checkered flag to score the win.
Feature Finish: 1. Ashton Winger, 2. Austin Horton, 3. Shane Clanton, 4. Brandon Overton, 5. Payton Freeman, 6. Will Roland, 7. Pearson Lee Williams, 8. Jason Croft, 9. Matt Dooley, 10. Ronnie Johnson, 11. Dallas Cooper, 12. Kyler Haygood, 13. Cla Knight, 14. Ricky Williams, 15. Jason Turner, 16. Jordy Nipper, 17. Cruz Skinner, 18. Lamar Haygood, 19. Eric Granger, 20. Mark Dodson, 21. Dylan Knowles, 22. Dalton Cook, 23. Glenn Morris, 24. Todd Morrow
