Boyd’s Speedway brought the Southern Nationals Bonus Series to the Ringgold, GA facility on Saturday night but also hosted racing in several of their weekly classes as well. A big crowd was thrilled while watching the competition in Crate Late Models, A-Hobby, B-Hobby and Pony classes along with the Super Late Models.
Ethan Hunter celebrated in Victory Lane after the Crate Late Model feature(photo from his Facebook page)
Cruz Skinner set the pace during Crate Late Model qualifying when he bested a field of 25 cars with a lap of 14.430 seconds around the third-mile clay oval. That placed him on the pole for the feature ahead of Ethan Hunter, Jerry Coffman, Jason Welshan and Booger Brooks.
The starting grid would be determined entirely from time-trials.
On the initial attempt at a start for the feature, Hunter bolted to the early lead from his outside front row starting spot and made the move to get his car to the preferred bottom lane as the field entered turn one. However, the #H3 car lost grip and spun in front of the pack. But since a lap had not been completed, the field was re-set for a full restart.
On the second start, Hunter maintained his outside line and emerged from turn two with the lead over Skinner, Welshan, Coffman, Brooks and Kenny Kizzar. Almost immediately, the leader began to distance himself from his pursuers as battles were waged throughout the top-5.
A trio of cautions on lap 8 and the ensuing restarts saw Welshan and Coffman exchange the runner-up spot and briefly challenge Hunter for the lead. But each time the field had to be return to its previous order since a full lap was not completed. The most serious of those yellows came when Bryan Ownby, Kate Dallenbach, Jordon Horton and Bryan Pritchard were involved in a crash that eliminated all four.
As the race wore on, Hunter proved even more unbeatable. However, the battle for second cooled when Coffman’s car slowed to a stop on lap 16 and the #A-1 was retired from action. From that point, the top-5 stretched out and made their way to the checkered flag.
At the finish, it was Ethan Hunter winning the $1,000 first prize ahead of Jason Welshan, Booger Brooks, Jake Teague, Cruz Skinner, Kenny Kizzar, Craig Burrows, Tod Hernandez, Bobby Mayse, Matt Henderson and Will Roland.
Beau Bice was the A-Hobby victor.
Beau Bice and Josh Beagan each won their heat races in the A-Hobby class to earn front row starting positions. Bice went to the lead early and went on to win the feature ahead of Beagan and Brandon Stanfield.
Ricky Wagner won out in B-Hobby
With only ten cars on hand, there were no heat races in the B-Hobby class. Ricky Wagner emerged as the winner of the feature.
E.J. Bailey was the Pony winner
E.J. Bailey beat out a field of six cars to win the Pony feature.
