Scott Bloomquist took the lead with two laps to go
The Spring Nationals mini-series kicked off its 2018 campaign on Friday night at Senoia Raceway in Senoia, Georgia with a $3,000-to-win feature that served as the first of a two-race weekend with a $10,000-to-win event to follow on Saturday evening. When the dust settled, it was Scott Bloomquist who drove up from his ninth starting spot and came away from the track located just southwest of Atlanta with the victor’s trophy and the first place check.
Michael Page began the show by setting fast time in Group A qualifying and overall with a lap of 15.214 seconds around the 3/8 mile clay oval bettering the lap of Clint Smith. Those two drivers would be locked into the feature by way of their qualifying efforts.
Zach Leonhardi proved to be fastest in Group B time-trials as he posted a lap of 15.685 seconds to beat out Austin Horton. Those two competitors would also earn starting positions in the feature based on their qualifying times.
Donald McIntosh won the first heat race of the night to earn the fifth starting position for the feature by beating out Bloomquist, Kyle Hardy and Austin Smith while Shane Clanton won the second preliminary ahead of Shanon Buckingham, Casey Roberts and Dalton Cook.
Aaron Ridley would line up sixth on the feature starting grid by virtue of his win in the third heat over Mason Massey, David Payne and Brandon Kinzer just before Cody King outran Eric Wells, John Henderson and Toithy Culp in the night’s final preliminary.
At the start of the 40-lap feature there was an incident that could very well have changed the final outcome if not for some good fortune on Bloomquist’s part. As the cars raced into turn three for the first time of the night, Bloomquist’s car got sideways as he battled with Clanton for position. Numerous machines piled into the melee, including the car of Buckingham which rolled onto its top.
Bloomquist was able to drive away from the incident with minimal damage, as were the other drivers involved with the exception of Buckingham, who was reported to be uninjured in the crash, and Hardy. Both of those cars were retired for the night.
Michael Page led the early laps
On the next attempt at a restart, Page jumped from his pole starting position into the lead with Leonhardi, Smith, Horton and McIntosh trailing. Horton went to work early on as he slipped by Smith to grab third on the second circuit. Meanwhile, Page got out to a sizable advantage as his pursuers fought over position.
However, Page margin over the field was lost on lap 8 when Payne spun in turn two to bring out a caution. On the ensuing restart, Smith worked his way around Horton to assume the runner-up spot while Clanton took fifth away from McIntosh.
Bloomquist began to make his move forward on the eleventh lap as he passed by McIntosh for sixth. Just two laps later the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame member wrested fifth away from Horton. That threw Horton and McIntosh into a battle of their own for sixth, which Horton would ultimately hold.
A pivotal moment in the race occurred on lap 17 when Page spun and suffered damage to the right rear of his car after finding himself with no place to go after Austin Smith turned sideways in front of him. After initially ruling that Page would have to restart the race from the tail of the field, Spring Nationals Series officials eventually reversed their ruling and allowed the early front runner to be returned the lead of the race.
Clint Smith, a frequent competitor at Senoia, looked to move forward on 19 when he went inside of Leonhardi for second. But the young driver of the No. 24 held his spot and even bolted ahead to offer a challenge to Page for the lead. On lap 21, those two drivers exchanged slide job passes with Page remaining as the front runner.
Smith took advantage of that battle and seized second away from Leonhardi on lap 23. At the same time, Bloomquist continued his march toward the front as he moved to fourth in the running order.
Over the next several laps, Page, Smith, Leonhardi and Bloomquist would thrill the crowd as they raced in a tight pack with each seemingly running a different line through the turns and each challenging the other on every circuit.
Clint led from lap 26 to lap 38
Smith took the lead away from Page on lap 26 with Bloomquist also passing by the No. 18x machine to grab second four laps later. From that point, it would be left to the two veteran racers to settle the issue.
Smith built what appeared to be a comfortable advantage but the No. 0 began to whittle away as the ‘Cat Daddy’ worked through slower traffic. After looking under the the Smith car several times, Bloomquist was finally able to make his move stick on lap 38 and then drive on to the victory.
Feature Finish: 1. Scott Bloomquist, 2. Clint Smith, 3. Shane Clanton, 4. Michael Page, 5. Zach Leonhardi, 6. Eric Wells, 7. Donald McIntosh, 8. Austin Horton, 9. Casey Roberts, 10. Dalton Cook, 11. Aaron Ridley, 12. Jason Croft, 13. Ryan King, 14. Cody King, 15. John Henderson, Jr., 16. David Payne, 17. Mason Massey, 18. Timothy Culp, 19. Brandon Kinzer, 20. Austin Smith, 21. Shanon Buckingham, 22. Kyle Hardy
