Henderson drove his Hommel tribute car to victory
Along with the $25,000-to-win Southern Nationals Bonus Series race contested at Ponderosa Speedway on Saturday night for Super Late Models, the track also staged competition in the Pro(Crate) Late Model class in a $2,500-to-win affair. When the checkered flag fell, it was Matt Henderson of Loudon, Tenn. who would claim the winner’s trophy in his first ever visit to the Junction City, Kentucky facility.
In Friday’s preliminary action, Brandon Williams of Crossville, Tenn. set fast time in qualifying with a lap of 13.792 seconds around the 3/8 mile clay oval. Williams then earned the pole for Saturday’s feature by claiming the win in the first heat race. Connor Meade, Ray Cook and Tait Davenport were also heat race winners on Friday evening.
Ronnie Cooper and Eric Centers won the two B-main races used to set the remainder of the starting lineup for the main event.
At the start of the 40-lap feature, Meade quickly jumped to the lead of the race with Williams, Cook and Davenport trailing. However, Davenport went on the move immediately as he made his way quickly to third and began challenging for the runner-up spot.
By the second lap, Davenport made a move for second coming out of turn two. Contact between he and Williams caused both cars to hesitate long enough for Cook to bolt by. But the intense early action would be slowed by a caution on lap 5 due to a spin involving a car in mid-pack.
On the ensuing restart, Cook and eighth starting Matt Henderson moved in to challenge Meade for the top spot. And on lap 8, both the No. 53 and No. H2 moved by the previous front runner.
Cook looked as if he might be poised to pull away from the pack but a caution on lap 11 allowed the field to catch back up.
On the restart from that yellow flag, Henderson made a move to Cook’s inside going into turn one. As the cars emerged from turn two, there was contact as Henderson’s machine moved up the track just before clearing that of Cook. Both cars continued on with Henderson now in front of the field.
Henderson and Cook battled for much of the race
Cook fought back and the two drivers staged an intense battle for the lead over what would amount to almost the entire race distance with Henderson running a high line around both ends of the speedway and Cook pulling to his inside on virtually every circuit through turns one and two.
In the meantime, Adam Bowman, Williams, Meade and Davenport were staging a war of their own for position 3-6 on the track. Bowman would eventually have to go to the rear after entering the pit area under a late race caution, leaving the other three drivers to fight for top-5 spots.
Over the final few laps, Henderson edged away from Cook just a bit and drove on to the win.
Feature Finish- 1. Matt Henderson, 2. Ray Cook, 3. Brandon Williams, 4. Connor Meade, 5. Jeremy Hines, 6. Johnny Wheeler, 7. Grant Garrison, 8. John Gill, 9. Tait Davenport, 10. Todd Coffman, 11. Jake Henry, 12. Adam Bowman, 13. Zane Powell, 14. Alan Magner, 15. Ronnie Cooper, 16. Josh Fields, 17. Joe Godsey, 18. Eric Centers, 19. Jeremy Howard, 20. Elliott Despain, 21. Brian Walters, 22. Perry Barnhardt, 23. Mike Bechelli
Henderson and crew celebrate their win
