Cleveland, TN (11/17/12) — The biggest GOBBLER of record was recorded Saturday night as 197 raceteams from around the country converged on the Cleveland Speedway. The Southern All-Star Dirt Racing series headlined the event with the annual 50 lap Super Late Model battle for $5,000. With only one early race caution, Randy THE DREAM Weaver of Crossville, TN solidified his 2012 championship run by ford-time GOBBLER champ, Dale McDowell. Weaver in his yellow #116 “Outlaw Race Parts, A.F Stone Professional Medical Services, Stone Land Clearing & Excavating, The Bailey Co, Pipes by Outlaw” GRT / Cornett Race Engines powered machine had to contest more with lapped traffic than anything lapping all by half the field. Jimmy Owens raced to a third place nod, but could only keep McDowell in his sights. McDowell attempted to dig under Weaver a couple times but was never a serious threat. Jamie Lathroum made a solid Cleveland Speedway debut as the Maryland yankee raced to a 4 th place finish just ahead of Jake Knowles.
An early morning rumble greeted the A-Main for the Steel-head LLM’s as 33 teams also entered the $2,000 to-WIN Joe Lee Johnson Memorial. In qualifying local racer Justin Litchford topped the times with a 14:32 fast lap. Unfortunately for the LITCHMOD, at Cleveland the “CAT-BIRDS SEAT” is the outside pole and Chattanooga’s Tod Hernandez knows exactly how to make it work. Third starting Lamar Scoggins made a race out of it, reeling in Hernandez in the late stages of the race, but the #T6 “Tommy Smelley Racing, Scotty Whitmire Construction, Dirty Girl Racing, Ohlins Shocks by Jimmy Owens, Keeblerman, American Racer Tires” MasterSbilt was too strong. Behind Scoggins was Litchford, Billy Mayo and Bobby Mayse. Crate Late Models also took to the track for a special $1,500 race and it was John Cobb Jr. of Loudon, TN dominating the event. In the # 40 Cobb’s NAPA Auto Parts, CVR Racecar. Tazewell’s Brad Hall was a distant 2nd, with newly crowned Cleveland Speedway Track Champion Jason Welshan third. Justin Summars and Rick Hixson rounded out the Top-5.
The B-Hobby disappoint as a huge crash took out almost half the field including pole sitter Booger Brooks, BJ Wilson Stacy Wright and Floyd Brooks. Reagan Williams was black flagged for rough driving and the remaining field took the green Jason Brown, Jimmy Smith and Alan Carter danced a three-step for the checkers lap after lap with Brown being victorious. Jeff Irvin salvaged a fourth place finish with Brandon Champion fifth. In the A-Hobby PEEBO Glenn Seaton III survived a early race battle with Greg Tinker and Richard Dixon. Alabamian’s Jamie Rowan and Lewis Rakestraw finished behind Seaton with Beau Bice and Jimmy Brown rounding out the Top-5. Jamie Cross held off a bunch of competitors for the $500 Pony feature of the night. Champion Danny Burnette lead early but mechanical problems took him outta contention. Joseph Howell, Grady Stokes, Mikey Roberts and Mike Fitzgerald finished second thru fifth officially. In the FWD’s Lucas Pressley defeated local racer EJ Bailey. Kenny Kizzar pulling double-duty was third with Nick Adams fourth and Brad Cross fifth.
S.A.S Gobbler XXIV: 1.Randy Weaver, 2.Dale McDowell, 3.Jimmy Owens, 4.Jamie Lathroum, 5.Jake Knowles, 6.6.Jason Heitt, 7.Jonathan Davenport, 8.Billy Ogle Jr, 9.Derrick Ellis, 10.David Payne, 11.Riley Hickman, 12.Jason Welshan, 13.TJ Alford, 14.Johnny Chastain, 15.Mack McCarter, 16.Brent Holmes, 17.Kayne Hickman, 18.Josh Henry, 19.Skip Arp, 20.Jackson Hale, 21.Gabe Wilson, 22.Mike Weeks, 23.Jason Wilson, 24.Kurt English
DNS: Jamie Oliver, George Mashburn, Rodney Weeks, Michael Ashberry, Skip Freeman, Bill Tinch, Jade Jones, Andy Standridge, Bo Eaton
LLM (Steel-Head) Joe Lee Johnson Memorial: Winner – Tod Hernandez (# T6) of Chattanooga, TN
2.Lamar Scoggins, 3.Justin Litchford, 4.Billy Mayo, 5.Bobby Mayse, 6.Shawn Chastain, 7.Mark Rosner, 8.Brandon Williams, 9.Rueben Mayfield, 10.Derrick York, 11.Brian Smith, 12.Heath Hindman, 13.Levi Hicks, 14.Danny Yoder, 15.Robert Stutts, 16.Matt Steward, 17.Andy Standridge, 18.Lane Clifton, 19.Stone Fuller, 20.Jesse Lowe, 21.Tyler Adams, 22.Joe Crabtree, 23.Riley Hickman, 24.Brandon Brown
DNS: Michael Evans, Bo Allison, Lynn Selby, Jeremy Hicks, Kaleb Boling, DJ Hayes, Johnny Gulizia, Chuck Freeless, Brad Allen
Crate LM’s: Winner – John Cobb Jr. (# 40) of Loudon, TN
2.Brad Hall, 3.Jason Welshan, 4.Justin Summars, 5.Rick Hixson, 6.TJ Alford, 7.Kenny Kizzar, 8.Bobby Mayse, 9.Brett Wyatt, 10.Kevin Gill, 11.Griffin Kinsey, 12.John Ownbey, 13.John Adkins, 14.Glenn Seaton III, 15.Mack McCarter, 16.David Duplissey, 17.Mitchell Stanley, 18.Dustin Golden, 19.Greg Martin, 20.Lamar Scoggins, 21.Michael Arp, 22.Grayson York, 23.George Ervin
DNS: Robert Ballard, Donnie Van Winkle, Scott Hall, Brad Coffey, Riley Hickman
A-Hobby: Winner – Glenn Seaton III (# 2) of Cleveland, TN
2.Jamie Rowan, 3.Lewis Rakestraw, 4.Beau Bice, 5.Jimmy Brown, 6.Amory Chambers, 7.Greg Tinker, 8.Mike Selby, 9.Jody Hixson, 10.Robert Elkins, 11.Johnny Hughes, 12.Mitch Brady Jr, 13.Matt Williams, 14.Robbie Hixson, 15.Jim Twiggs, 16.Doyle Herron, 17.Lee Fredrick, 18.Robbie Greene, 19.Robert George, 20.Dalton King, 21.Brandon Blankenship, 22.Richard Dixon
DNS: Greg Greene, Jimmy York, Aaron Miller, Shane Langston, Caleb Patton, Daniel Young, Joe Freeless
B-Hobby: Winner – Jason Brown (# 42) of Chattanooga, TN
2.Jimmy Smith, 3.Alan Carter, 4.Jeff Irvin, 5.Brandon Champion, 6.Shannon Emery, 7.Dennis Grabble, 8.Ed Bowman, 9.Ray Jarnigan, 10.Chip Henry, 11.Eric Hughes, 12.Boonie Gulette, 13.Scott Adkins, 14.Kevin Burchfield, 15.Patrick Wilson, 16.Warren McMahan, 17.Jonathan Sims, 18.Stacy Wright, 19.BJ Wilson, 20.Floyd Brooks, 21.Booger Brooks, DQ’d Reagan Williams
DNS: Lee Harbin, Ed Bowman, Buck Hoffman, Jim Gilbert, Heath Schepman, Lyndon Wilson, Chris Beavers, Adrian Williams,
Pony: Winner – Jamie Cross (# 55) of Cleveland, TN
2.Joseph Howell, 3.Grady Stokes, 4.Mikey Roberts, 5.Mike Fitzgerald, 6.Jeff Copeland, 7.Steve Parrott, 8.Lee Merritt, 9.David Singleton, 10.Mathew Leonard, 11.Shane Taylor, 12.Bruce Kimber, 13.Jimmy Elliott, 14.Dewayne Rogers, 15.Brad Pressley, 16.Willy Garrett, 17.Shaun Tenpenney, 18.Jason Carter, 19.Nick Perry, 20.Danny Burnette, 21.Jeff Wallace, 22.Chuck McMahan
DNS: Rocky McNabb, Nathan Hair
FWD: Winner – Lucas Presley (# L92) of Crossville, TN
2.EJ Bailey, 3.Kenny Kizzar, 4.Nick Adams, 5.Brad Cross, 6.Gavin Murphy, 7.Cody Herron, 8.Billy Bailey, 9.Cruz Skinner, 10.David Singleton, 11.Steve Boyd, 12.Daniel Sizemore, 13.Dylan Cole, 14.Jeremy Teffeteller, 15.James Salisbury, 16.Ronnie Bibbens, 17.Robert Lewis, 18.Nathan Adams
DNS: Tommy Hughes, Danny Burnette
STEVE HIXSON
PR/Marketing Director (Cleveland Speedway)
www.clevelandspeedway.com