Anthony White drove to the Late Model win at Smoky Mountain on Thursday night.
Smoky Mountain Speedway hosted a special ‘Thursday Night Thunder’ event that featured action in the Limited Late Model and Street Stock classes to go along with the highlighted United Sprint Car Series. At the end of the evening, it would be Clinton, Tenn. native Anthony White who would walk away with the $2,000 first prize in the Late Model division.
White set the tone early when he led the way in qualifying among the 15 Late Models signed in for competition with a lap of 17.383 seconds around the 4/10 mile oval. Dakotah Knuckles, Jason Manley, Brad Hall and Cory Hedgecock rounded out the top-5.
With no heat races being contested, the feature lineup was set entirely through time-trials.
At the start of the 25-lap feature, White and outside front row starter Knuckles raced each other hard into turn one in hopes of emerging with the race lead. Slight contact between the two allowed White to take the lead while Manley moved around Knuckles to claim second.
Once clear of his pursuers, White set sail and pulled out to a lead of almost the length of one of Smoky Mountain’s long straightaways. Meanwhile, the tightest battles on the track in a race that ultimately ran caution free would be for second and fifth.
For virtually the entire distance, Knuckles shadowed Manley for the runner-up spot. On laps 8 and 15, the two were side-by-side briefly with Manley able to beat back the challenge each time.
Like the two drivers just ahead of them, Hall and Dan Tipton fought for essentially the full distance over the fifth position in the running order. On multiple occasions, Tipton was able to get under Hall, but could never make the move stick.
At the finish, White cruised to the win with Manley, Knuckles, Hedgecock, Hall, Tipton, Bobby Mays and Bobby Giffin trailing.
Marshall Skinner was the USCS winner on Thursday.
In other action on Thursday evening, Marshall Skinner started from the pole and led all the way to score the win in the USCS feature over Terry Gray, Eric Riggins, Jr., Danny Martin, Jr. and Morgan Turpen.
Chris Rickett
Chris Rickett won out in the Street Stock division ahead of Brad Davis and Jonathan Sims.
