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PAGE 2B - THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2007
Kelley Grabs Third World Crown Victory
The pass for the win: Paul Kelley passes leader Matt Hawkins with two laps remaining, after
which he held off all challengers to grab the win and a $10,000 payday.
By Brandon Reed
Racing legend Richard Petty
once said only the last lap of the
race counted.
Paul Kelley proved that point
Sunday, as he led only two laps
— the last two — on his way to his
second straight World Crown vic
tory at Peachstate Speedway.
Kelley made the late pass on
Canton’s Matt Hawkins, who led
244 of the event’s 250 laps, to
grab the victory.
“It’s awesome,” Kelley said after
his third overall World Crown vic
tory. “We had a really good car,
good crew, good tire guy. The
crew chief and everybody worked
together. Thank the Lord.
“We had so many problems just
trying to get here, motor prob
lems, rear end problems, you
name it, we had problems. But
we got it all shaken out, got here
this weekend, and everything just
fell right into place.”
Victory nearly eluded the Snell-
ville driver. After running in the
top five for the first 100 laps, Kel
ley’s crew made the decision to
take only two tires during the
first competition stop.
Kelley found himself losing
more and more ground during
the second 100-lap segment. But
a caution flag on lap 185 gave
Kelley the break he needed. His
crew called their driver in for
fresh tires, gambling that the few
green flag laps they would get be
fore the second scheduled com
petition yellow on lap 200 would
give them a chance to make up
some ground over the competi
tion’s worn out tires.
The gamble paid off. When
the second competition yellow
flew, Kelley found himself in fifth
place, well within striking dis
tance of the leaders.
“We took two tires that second
segment, and we weren’t sure if
we shot ourselves in the foot or
not. If there had been about four
more laps, I probably would have
been lapped. Luckily, a caution
came out, and we decided to
come in and get our tires, and try
to pick some of them off, because
they would be sitting ducks.”
When the green flag flew on
the final 50-lap segment, Hawk
ins again began to pull away, but
Bubba Pollard, Kelley and 2007
GAS champion Russell Fleeman
gave chase, with Pollard and Kel
ley reeling in the leader. With 25
laps to go, less than a second
separated the three leaders. Kel
ley worked around Pollard and
set his sights on Hawkins as the
two worked lap traffic.
Kelley closed up on the back of
Hawkins’ rear bumper with 10 to
go, setting up the finish.
“I’m not sure exactly how many
tires he took, but evidently he
didn’t take four, because if he
did, I knew he would have been
gone,” Kelley said. “The first 200
laps, we couldn’t do anything
with him.”
The event was slowed seven
times by cautions and was red
flagged on lap 134 when a 14-car
pile-up occurred in turn three.
Several drivers who had been
picked as favorites saw their
chances dashed by the crash,
including Kyle Fowler, Com
merce’s Taylor Satterfield, Brasel-
ton’s Shane Sawyer and Michael
Pope. No one was injured.
In another multi-car shunt on the
front stretch on lap 35, Dwayne
Buggay and Bobby East tangled
with each other. That left several
drivers with nowhere to go, in
cluding Jefferson’s Kevin Perry,
veteran racer Ronnie Sanders,
and Alex Garcia. Buggay, East
and Perry were eliminated in the
accident, while Sanders would
park his car about 25 laps later.
Before the final 50 laps, only
two racers gave Hawkins any
trouble. One was Braselton’s
Jimmy Garmon, who found him
self a lap down. Garmon did ev
erything he could to get the lead
back as he fought to make up
ground. Garmon shot out in front
on each re-start but couldn’t hold
off Hawkins.
Jefferson’s Joey Senter also
gave Hawkins a run for his mon
ey. Senter moved into second
place about halfway through the
second segment of the event and
several times moved alongside
Hawkins in a bid for the lead.
Senter would finish second in
the second segment, but his car
faded in the final 50 laps, as he
finished in sixth place.
Hawkins finished second, Pol
lard third, Fleeman fourth and
Wes Burton fifth. Senter, Satter
field, Ryan Crane, Garmon and
Jack Smith rounded out the top
10. Other finishers of note were
Sawyer, who finished 16th, Den
nis Wilder of Commerce in 27th
and Perry in 36th.
Local divisions took to the track
for their World Crown events Sat
urday night. Troy French won in
the mini-stock division, Russell
Shore took the Iceman victory,
and Kevin Barrett won in the
truck division. The Aaron’s Pro
Challenge series also ended its
season at Peachstate Saturday
night with John Chandler record
ing the win and picking up the
2007 series championship.
An Unusual Trophy
Russ Hodsdon of Commerce killed an unusual deer Nov. 5
in Madison County. The seven-point buck was in full velvet,
which is very unusual this time of year.
HONOR A LOVED ONE
With A
Commerce Library Brick
The Commerce Public Library is selling bricks to be
engraved in honor of or in memory of your loved ones.
The cost is $50. The bricks will be used in the upcoming
library expansion, and the proceeds will help pay for the
expansion.
Printing on the brick is limited to three lines of 13 spac
es each (including letters, punctuation and spaces).
For information
Call 706-335-5946