Tim McCreadie picked up his second Georgia-Florida win on Wednesday night
The third night of the Wrisco Winternationals at East Bay Raceway Park saw Tim McCreadie score a $7,000 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win on Wednesday evening. The winner of the season opener at Golden Isles Speedway inherited the lead late in the going when leader Jonathan Davenport encountered major trouble.
Tim McCreadie set the fast time in Group A qualifying and overall after he turned a lap in 14.579 seconds around the third-mile “Clay by the Bay” to better the efforts of Ken Monahan, Shanon Buckingham, Mason Zeigler, Kyle Bronson and Chase Junghans.
Jonathan Davenport proved to be the fastest in Group B time-trials with a time of 14.826 seconds that beat out Dennis Erb, Jr., Boom Briggs, Josh Richards, Tim Dohm and Billy Moyer, Jr.
Tim McCreadie earned the pole for the feature by winning the first heat race of the night ahead of Mason Zeigler and Devin Moran while Kyle Bronson took the second heat over Billy Moyer, Sr. and Ken Monahan.
It was Brandon Overton who took the third preliminary over Shanon Buckingham and Chase Junghans.
Jonathan Davenport clinched the outside front row starting spot for the feature by outrunning Jimmy Owens and Josh Richards in the fourth heat just before Dennis Erb, Jr. grabbed the win in the fifth preliminary over Tim Dohm and Shane Clanton.
Boom Briggs secured the sixth and final heat of the night by beating out Brandon Sheppard and Billy Moyer, Jr.
Jadon Frame, Brian Shirley and Logan Roberson won the three B-main races to make their way onto the starting grid for the feature.
At the start of the 40-lap feature it was Davenport who claimed the early lead with McCreadie, Dennis Erb, Bronson and Overton trailing. However, Overton quickly looked to move up the leader board as he passed by Bronson to take fourth on lap 4.
McCreadie was not content to ride in the runner-up spot as he took the top spot on the leader board by passing Davenport on lap 5. But Davenport would fight back and regain the lead of the race on lap 6.
A lap 7 caution for a Trever Feathers spin briefly slowed the action. On the restart, Erb quickly grabbed the second position away from McCreadie. Again, however, the action was again slowed on lap 8 when a crash involving Jadon Frame, Johnny Scott, Stormy Scott, Tyler Bruening and Mike Marlar brought out another caution flag.
On lap 9, McCreadie took second away from Erb and moved up to challenge Davenport for the lead of the race. Meanwhile, Richards broke into the top-5 when he got around Bronson on lap 14.
A crash involving Billy Moyer, Jr. slowed the action once more on lap 14.
Just after the lap 14 restart a fierce battle between McCreadie, Overton, Erb and Richards was enjoined and lasted for several laps. Overton emerged from that fight with the runner-up spot before another yellow flag was shown on lap 23 when Briggs slowed to a stop on the track.
McCreadie regained the second position on the lap 23 restart. Further back, Richards and Erb engaged in a tussle for fifth that saw them exchange that place on the scoreboard a couple of times before a yellow flag waved for the slowing car of Tim Dohm.
Davenport looked as if victory would be his as he seemingly had control of the race during the closing laps. But with just five laps remaining his No. 49 machine slowed on the front straightaway with body damage to the right front of his car and was slammed into by Bronson.
Both cars were heavily damaged as a result of the incident but both drivers were uninjured. Also, under the caution third-running Richards had to come to the hot pit with a flat tire.
That crash elevated McCreadie to the lead of the race. The No. 39 car pulled away from his pursuers to score his second win of Georgia-Florida SpeedWeeks.
Feature Finish: 1. Tim McCreadie, 2. Brandon Overton, 3. Brandon Sheppard, 4. Tyler Erb, 5. Brian Shirley, 6. Jimmy Owens, 7. Devin Moran, 8. Shane Clanton, 9. Mike Marlar, 10. Mason Zeigler, 11. Dennis Erb, Jr., 12. Hudson O’Neal, 13. Billy Moyer, Sr., 14. Chase Junghans, 15. Tyler Bruening, 16. Trever Feathers, 17. Josh Richards, 18. Shanon Buckingham, 19. Stormy Scott, 20. Ken Monahan, 21. Earl Pearson, Jr., 22. Logan Roberson, 23. Jonathan Davenport, 24. Kyle Bronson, 25. Tim Dohm, 26. Johnny Scott, 27. Boom Briggs, 28. Jadon Frame, 29. Allen Murray, 30. Billy Moyer, Jr.
