Austin Smith drove from the rear to the front at Tri-County
The Southern Nationals Bonus Series made its way to Ray Cook’s Tri-County Race Track in Brasstown, NC on Thursday night for a $3,000-to-win feature race. At the end of the night it was the late arriving Austin Smith who took the checkered flag after passing every car in the field to earn the victory.
David Payne began the night by setting fast time in qualifying with a quick lap of 12.243 seconds(new track record) around the steeply banked clay oval. He was followed by Kenny Collins, Jamie Oliver, Aaron Ridley, Ross White and Shawn Chastain.
Smith, along with Ashton Winger, missed qualifying completely due to hauler issues that caused them not to arrive until after the time-trial session had ended.
At the start of the 40-lap feature, Collins jumped out to the early lead from his outside front row starting position with Payne, Oliver and Ridley following closely behind. Smith almost immediately began making his way through the field while the leaders were putting on a tremendous battle for the top spot.
By the halfway point in the contest, Smith had worked his way up to third and quickly joined Collins and Payne in their fierce battle for the race lead. Payne offered a strong challenge for the top spot on the leader board at lap 23 when he moved inside of Collins. Those two cars came in contact with each other coming off of turn two but raced on.
At the same time, Smith began to apply even more pressure on the front runners. Finally by lap 27, the 19-year-old Georgia driver went to the lead. After that, the No. 11 car left the others to fight over the runner-up spot as he drove on to his first Southern Nationals Bonus victory of the season.
Feature Finish: 1. Austin Smith, 2. Kenny Collins, 3. Jamie Oliver, 4. David Payne, 5. Aaron Ridley, 6. Ross White, 7. George Mashburn, 8. Shawn Chastain, 9. Ashton Winger, 10. Anthony Rymer, 11. Glenn Barnett, 12. Charlie Parker
