Greenville-Pickens race notes 2004-04-03

Porter takes ASA break, scores win for the crates at GPS

GREENVILLE, SC (April 3, 2004)- A 'do drop in' turned into an after race victory lane party for Toby Porter and the Brad Jeter race team at Greenville Pickens Speedway on Saturday. Porter, who's doing time in 2004 in the ASA series, used an off week in the series to hone up his skills on his hometown track, but the outing quickly turned into a driving lesson in the crate engine versus custom engine debate that is raging in the early season on the historic half mile.

Porter turned a fast time in qualifying, then drew to invert the top five qualifiers for the start of the 40 lap feature event. The early going had 2000 champ Gene Morgan, defending track champion Marty Ward and Kenneth Headen battling for the lead, with Headen moving to the front and maintaining the lead for the first half of the race. Meanwhile, Porter was picking his way through the field, and on lap 21 he managed to move door to door with Headen to get the advantage around the first turn. He coasted the next 17 circuits and appeared to be heading to an easy win, but Headen was not out of the running and found new momentum around turns three and four with only 2 laps remaining. Headen managed to move within one car length in the final lap but his charge was not enough to deny Porter the victory.

Headen held on for a respectable second, followed by defending track champion Marty Ward and Gene Morgan. David Roberts, who won the first Late Model race of the new season, rounded out the top five.

"It's always good to come home and race, and to win means a lot," said Porter, in victory lane. "I need to thank the folks who worked so hard on this racer."

The win for Porter equaled the wins for the new crate engines with the custom engines, each with one season Late Model trip to victory lane in 2004.

Tim Sams took his second victory of the season in the new Super Charger division. Sams held off a hard charging Robbie Jackson of Iva, with Greg Carroll placing third. Stanley Pressley was fourth.

In the Charger I race, Jason Morrow of Hendersonville got a quick jump on the start, and never relinquished the lead enroute to his first victory of the season. Steve Guthrie was second, followed by Mike Hughes and Chris Black.

Ryan Dombrosky didn't have Morrow's luck in starting from the front row and jumping quickly to the lead in his Charger race. Dombrosky came all the way from 8 positions back to overtake leader Zane Jannelli to take the Charger II checkers. Jannelli fell to second, with Greenville's Josh Sams placing third. Ben McCall was fourth.

In the first Renegade race, Johnny Padgett was declared the winner when the apparent winner did not pass post race technical inspection. Tim Crowe was second, Jim Reynolds was third and Scotty Bumgardner was fourth.

Chad Hunter took the win in the second Renegade race after the apparent winner was declared illegal for having improper springs. Trey Padgett was second, James Hall was third and Andy Norris was fourth.

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