Mike Marlar led all 50 laps of the Grassy Smith Memorial
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series took to the Cherokee Speedway on Friday night to contest the second event in a three-race weekend for the national touring series. Mike Marlar left the Gaffney, SC facility with the winner’s trophy and a check valued at $12,000 for his efforts. It was Marlar’s second Lucas Oil win of the season after having captured the $15,000 ‘Clash at the Mag’ at Mississippi’s Magnolia Motor Speedway on June 1st.
Kyle Bronson won on Thursday night at Fayetteville(NC) Motor Speedway over Brandon Overton and Tyler Erb. The LOLMDS will move on to Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tenn. on Saturday night for a $15,000-to-win event.
Marlar led the way in Group A qualifying by turning a lap in 14.937 seconds around the clay oval. That bettered the times of Jonathan Davenport, Josh Richards, Tim McCreadie and Dennis Franklin.
Ross Bailes proved to be the fastest in Group B time-trials and overall with a mark of 14.909 seconds to beat out Chris Ferguson, Scott Bloomquist, Trent Ivey and Earl Pearson, Jr.
Marlar earned the pole for the feature by taking the win in the night’s first heat race ahead of Franklin, Shanon Buckingham and Don O’Neal while Davenport scored the victory in the second preliminary by besting McCreadie, Brandon Overton and Derrick Ramey.
Bailes would start the main event from the outside of the front row by virtue of his triumph in the third heat ahead of Pearson, Zack Mitchell and Billy Moyer, Jr. just before Ferguson took the checkered flag in the fourth and final heat by beating Jimmy Owens, Tyler Erb and Michael Brown to the finish line.
Noteworthy from the third was that Bloomquist finished second in the race but was disqualified for being too light at the scales following the heat race.
Josh Richards won the lone B-main race used to set the remainder of the lineup for the main event.
At the start of the 50-lap feature it was Marlar who grabbed the early lead with Bailes, Davenport, Franklin and Ferguson trailing. McCreadie made a move into the top-5 when he got by Ferguson on lap 4. But it was all Marlar up front as the No. 157 began slipping away from the pack in the early laps.
Just after Marlar caught up with the tail of the field, a caution came out for Bloomquist(who had made the feature via a hardship provisional) slowed on the track. On the ensuing restart Marlar once again bolted away from the pack but Davenport moved around Bailes to take the runner-up position.
Three more yellow flags would wave to slow the action and bunch the field between laps 16 and 27. On each of the restarts Davenport and Bailes would exchange second place as Marlar would jump out to a relatively comfortable advantage.
The final 23 laps of the Grassy Smith Memorial ran caution free. Marlar’s lead was jeopardized when he caught slower traffic and had difficulty passing with most of the field holding on to the bottom groove. However, those closest to the leader were consumed by a battle of their own as Davenport, Bailes and Owens fought among themselves over the closing laps.
Eventually, Bailes would encounter a problem late in the going that would drop him back.
But the real story was Marlar as the Tennessee native sailed under the checkered flag to score an impressive victory.
Feature Finish: 1. Mike Marlar, 2. 2. Jonathan Davenport, 3. Jimmy Owens, 4. Tim McCreadie, 5. Don O’Neal, 6. Ross Bailes, 7. Chris Ferguson, 8. Brandon Overton, 9. Josh Richards, 10. Tyler Erb, 11. Shanon Buckingham, 12. Dennis Franklin, 13. Earl Pearson Jr, 14. Kyle Bronson, 15. Zack Mitchell, 16. Hudson O’Neal, 17. Chris Madden, 18. Stormy Scott, 19. Billy Moyer Jr, 20. Devin Moran, 21. Adam Yarbrough, 22. Michael Brown, 23. Derrick Ramey, 24. Scott Bloomquist
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