SENOIA, Ga. — Rain from 24 hours earlier presented competitors at Senoia Raceway with challenging track conditions in Friday night’s Castrol FloRacing Night in America presented by Kubota event during the opening round of the fourth annual Peach State Classic.
As tough as Mother Nature’s challenge may have been, Ricky Thornton Jr. was even tougher, claiming the $20,000 top prize in the 40-lap feature.
The Arizona native raced to the lead on a lap-two restart and turned back a late-race challenge from series point leader Bobby Pierce to snare the victory.
“I kinda figured out on that restart (Jonathan Davenport’s) crew guy was screaming to JD to move down on the restart and I’m like well heck ‘if he’s telling him to move down, I’m gonna try it,’” Thornton said. “It just kinda worked out for us, I could really change into one super hard and skip across the first hole and then just hit the cushion down the back straightaway … It was pretty demanding, I don’t think we’ve been on a track this demanding all year. I’m really proud of everything we’ve been able to accomplish with Koehler Motorsports the last half of this year.”
Pierce finished second and now holds a 21-point advantage over Thornton heading into Saturday’s $30,000-to-win finale.
Garrett Alberson finished third with 19th-starting Daulton Wilson finishing fourth and Jason Feger crossed the finish line in fifth.
The finish:
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[2]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[5]; 3. 58-Garrett Alberson[3]; 4. 18D-Daulton Wilson[19]; 5. 25-Jason Feger[6]; 6. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[11]; 7. 1T-Tyler Erb[14]; 8. 14JR-Trey Mills[13]; 9. F1-Payton Freeman[8]; 10. 19M-Spencer Hughes[25]; 11. 17SS-Brenden Smith[26]; 12. (DNF) 49-Jonathan Davenport[1]; 13. (DNF) 12-Ashton Winger[7]; 14. (DNF) 93-Carson Ferguson[23]; 15. (DNF) 10-Joseph Joiner[12]; 16. (DNF) 66K-Dylan Knowles[4]; 17. (DNF) 9-Nick Hoffman[9]; 18. (DNF) 16H-Austin Horton[10]; 19. (DNF) 4-Max McLaughlin[15]; 20. (DNF) 16-Sam Seawright[17]; 21. (DNF) 38T-Matthew Taylor[18]; 22. (DNF) 74X-Ethan Dotson[22]; 23. (DNF) 25C-Shane Clanton[20]; 24. (DNF) 18X-Michael Page[16]; 25. (DNF) 42-Cla Knight[24]; 26. (DNF) 2-Tyler Stevens[21]