THE FIRST race at the newly refurbished Gresham Motorsports Park will be remembered for a lot of reasons.
Not the least of which will be that the winner of the event, the prestigious World Crown 300, didn’t find out he was the victor until a few hours after the checkered flag fell.
Pendergrass racer Paul Kelley, a three time World Crown champ, was awarded the trophy for his unprecedented fourth win in the event after two other cars failed post-race technical inspection.
Jeff Choquette, of Mooresville, N.C., took the checkered flag on the track Sunday, but he failed post-race inspection. Second place finisher Max Gresham also failed post race tech.
Kelley finished third and when his car was declared legal, his designation as “King of the World Crown” was cemented.
Kelley won the event in 2001, 2006 and 2007. No other driver has ever won the World Crown more than twice.
“It’s almost unreal to be a four-time champion of the World Crown 300,” Kelley said. “Just winning this race once would be saying a lot. To be on the same list as guys like Darrell Waltrip, Dick Trickle and a lot of other great racers is really special. To be a four-time winner is beyond belief.”
With a capacity crowd on hand, pole sitter Chase Elliott led the field to the green flag. The thirteen-year-old Elliott had shattered the track record with a stunning lap around the high banked half mile in 16.178 seconds, a speed of 111.262.
Choquette started on the outside of the front row, and jumped out to an early lead. He would hold that lead through the first 52 laps.
Trouble took out one of the pre-race favorites on lap 77, when defending World Crown champ Russell Fleeman, of Dacula, tangled with the car of Jerrick Johnson on the front stretch.
Johnson was able to continue, but Fleeman suffered a broken right front spindle that ended his day.
Tucker’s Ryan Sieg had pushed his way up into the top three, but on lap 99 his day ended when he suffered a broken wheel, resulting in hard contact with the second turn wall.
Meanwhile, the field headed for the pits for the first of two competition cautions to allow crews a chance for a pit stop.
When the race resumed, it was Maine driver Cassius Clark leading with Choquette giving chase.
Hoschton racer Jimmy Garmon saw his day end on lap 111 when his car stepped out on him, sending him hard into the turn two wall.
On the restart, Choquette again took the lead, and would stay in the top spot until lap 200.
Meanwhile, drivers T.J. Reaid, Taylor Satterfield of Jefferson and Kelley would give chase while jockeying for the third position. Kelley would move up to second over the next 50 laps, slowly stalking Choquette.
Alabama’s Augie Grill took the top spot following a competition caution on lap 200, which he would hold over the next 42 laps.
The scariest moment of the day occurred on lap 223, when the cars of Bubba Pollard and Colt James made contact while trying to avoid the slower moving car of Dakota Stroup on the front stretch.
Pollard’s car slid backwards into the inside wall, then flipped over, sliding on its roof into the first turn.
Pollard, of Senoia, was uninjured and climbed from the upside down racer moments later.
Grill’s day came to an end on a restart, when something in his transmission broke, sending his car to the garage.
That gave Gresham the lead again, but he couldn’t hold off a hard charging Choquette, who made the final pass for the lead with 25 laps to go.
As the laps wound down, the only car that seemed to be able to challenge Choquette was Austin Hill, who was closing fast. But Hill’s day came to an end against the front stretch wall after contact with a lap car.
Choquette led the final laps to take the checkered flag. After both Choquette and Gresham were disqualified, giving Kelley the victory, that also moved Colt James to second, Beau Slocumb to third, Satterfield to fourth and Tanner Berryhill to fifth. Michael Lance, Scott Sutherland, Stephen Nasse, Tyler Millwood and Dylan Presnell rounded out the top ten finishers.
Local divisions raced at the track on Saturday, with Shawn Campbell winning in the renegade division, Todd Vanderford winning the Iceman event, Paul Antley winning the truck race and B.J. Thrasher winning in mini-stocks.
“We want to thank everyone for the support and the work that was put in to make this a huge success,” said GMP General Manager Dan Elliott, including the Jackson County Sheriff’s office and the Georgia State Patrol who handled security and traffic control, along with government officials from Jackson County and the neighboring Jackson County Airport.
GMP will host its next event, an all day Drift Car show, on Nov. 28. For more information, call 706-367-9461, or go online to www.greshammotorsportspark.com.
