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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