Casey Roberts won the battle in Rome…
The Ray Cook promoted Spring Nationals entered its final contest on Sunday night at Georgia’s Rome Speedway with a very tight points battle to be decided as well as a $6,000-to-win feature event. In the end, it would be two home state drivers who walked away with the top prizes as Toccoa’s Casey Roberts won the race and Dawsonville’s Donald McIntosh secured the series championship.
Another Georgia driver stole the early spotlight as Austin Smith set fast time in qualifying with a lap of 14.710 seconds around the half-mile facility. Also earning spots in the dash race that would set the first two rows of the feature starting grid were Ogle, McIntosh and Roberts.
Smith won the dash to earn the pole for the main event with Roberts, Ogle and McIntosh trailing.
Jake Knowles and Clint Smith won their respective heat races to set themselves up on the third row when the field would eventually take the green flag.
At the start of the feature, Austin Smith bolted to the early lead with Roberts, McIntosh, Ogle, Clint Smith and Knowles in his tire tracks. Cautions on laps 1, 3 and 9 interrupted early battles at the front of the field. However, the race found its rhythm after those early yellow flags.
Austin Smith held the lead throughout much of the first half of the event but was stalked virtually all the way by Roberts. At the same time, Knowles began to make his way forward as he passed by the likes of Ogle, Clint Smith and McIntosh to work his way into the top-3.
While Knowles was rising, the series points leader at the beginning of the night began to slip as Ogle fell as far back as seventh in the early going. McIntosh meanwhile maintained a steady pace that kept him securely within the top-5 all night long.
Just before halfway, Roberts moved around Smith to take the lead. Soon afterward, Knowles began to challenge the young driver for the runner-up spot as the new leader separated himself from the pack.
On lap 29, Knowles was able to pass by Smith to claim second and take up the pursuit of the front runner.
A late caution for a flat tire on sixth running Ivedent Lloyd, Jr. allowed the field one more chance at Roberts. But the No. 101 machine would prove to be up for the challenge in the end as he went on to claim the victory.
Donald McIntosh won the war.
By virtue of finishing two positions ahead of Ogle, McIntosh took home the $5,053 check for the Spring Nationals championship.
Feature Finish: 1. Casey Roberts, 2. Jake Knowles, 3. Austin Smith, 4. Donald McIntosh, 5. Clint Smith, 6. Billy Ogle, Jr., 7. Jody Knowles, 8. Steven Roberts, 9. Dale Thurman, 10. Ivendent Lloyd, Jr., 11. David Payne, 12. Derrick Rainey, 13. Matthew Turner, 14. Joe Gorby, 15. Jason Croft, 16. Matt Dooley, 17. Jim Manka, 18. Dillon Tidmore, 19. Ryan Gifford, 20. Dylan Ames, 21. Bo Eaton, 22. Matt Larson
