Owens Holds Off Madden for North Georgia Win

CHATSWORTH, Ga. (July 13) Nothing unlucky about Friday the 13th for Jimmy Owens as the Newport, Tenn. racer held off Chris Madden and a stellar field to win round one of the Tarver Distributing Budweiser Southern All Star Thunder in the Mountains at North Georgia Speedway Friday night.

Although he led all 45 laps of the night's feature event, it was not a walk in the park for Owens as Madden and McDowell would kept him honest. In the waning laps with Owens and Madden entrenched in the top spots Skip Arp was the man on the move. With 10 to go Arp moved past Shane Clanton for third and began to hound the leaders, but ran out of laps and ended up third in the final tally. Clanton held on for fourth with Dale McDowell fifth.

Owens would win the first lap drag race from his outside front row starting position and take the lead. Madden, who had fast time, would fall in behind Owens with Clanton, Ivadent Lloyd and McDowell in tow. McDowell would move into third on the fifth lap and begin a crowd pleasing battle with Madden. On lap 16 McDowell would take over second only to have Madden retake the spot four laps later. McDowell would continue to haunt Madden before Clanton would take the third spot only to loose the spot to a hard charging Arp.

Rounding out the top 10 were Ricky Armes, Tommy Kerr, Ray Cook, David Payne and Todd Morrow.

There were 43 Super Late Models on hand with 38 taking their two qualifying laps. Chris Madden was the fastest qualifier with a time of 12.434 seconds. Eventual winner Jimmy Owens was second quick with a time of 12.532 seconds.

In Limited Late Model action Rick Hixson took the lead from Leon Brindle, when Bridle faltered on the eleventh lap of the 20-lap feature. Hixson would go on to take the win with Brian Burke crossing the line in second. Matt Steward, Shannon Beardon and B.J. Pasley rounded out the top five.

Although Brindle's problems put an end to a three race win streak he was able to pick up two points on point leader PD Doss. The two points were just enough to put Brindle in a tie with Doss for the point lead.

Crate Late Model point leader Darryl Owneby took the lead from Allen Green on lap 10 and went on to take the feature win. Green would finish second with Doug Kilgore third, John Ownbey fourth and Corey Roulette fifth.

Greg Callahan wired the Mini-Stock feature taking the win over current point leader Grady Stokes. Following Callahan and Stokes across the line were Chris DeFore, Ralph Langston and Brandon Stokes.

Located in Chatsworth, Ga. North Georgia Speedway is a third-mile clay featuring dirt track racing at it's best from March to October. The track address is 300 N. Georgia Rd. Chatsworth, Ga. 30705. Coming south on I-75 take Hwy. 52 (Exit 333) east approx. 11 miles to Hwy. 225. Go south on 225 approx. six miles. Track is on the right. Coming north on I-75 take Hwy. 225 (Exit 317) north 13 miles. Track is on your left. Go to www.northgeorgiaspeedway.com for more information including area motels.

 

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