By Phillip Prichard:
Chris Madden held off a hard charging Jonathan Davenport to win the 17th Annual Bama Bash at East Alabama Motor Speedway. Madden earned $17,017 for his first National Dirt Racing League points event.
Pole sitter Jonathan Davenport finished second. Davenport earned the pole with a 14.049 second lap at the 3/8 mile track. Clint Smith of Senoia, GA , who started 20th finished third, Scott Bloomquist of Mooresburg, TN finished fourth and rounding out the top five was Don O’Neal of Martinsville, IN.
In a caution plagued event, the 75 lap event took more than an hour to complete with two major crashes and numerous cautions for flat tires. The first major crash occurred at the drop of the initial green flag when Steve Francis spun contacting Jonathan Davenport and collecting Bloomquist, Jimmy Mars, Tim Fuller, Bub McCool and Tim McCreadie. The crash put Mars out of the race. The second major crash, occurred on the restart where Fuller and Tony Jackson tangled in turned four. The cars were hooked together on the front stretch that brought out a red flag to untangle the mess.
Flat tires brought out numerous other caution flags: Chris Ferguson on Lap 55, Bub McCool on Lap 53, Bill Moyer sr on Lap 51, Tim McCreadie on Lap 39 and Kent Robinson Lap 22.
Terrance Nowell , a local hometown driver, who started 21st in the 25 car field, moved to second on Lap 43 passing Davenport and Chris Ferguson . On Lap 46, Nowell took the lead from Madden. On Lap 55, under a caution lap for Ferguson’s flat tire, Newell experienced a fuel pick up problem and ending up finishing four laps down in the 18th position.
Another local favorite driver, William Thomas retired after one lap. Thomas was wearing a brace on his left hand as a result of a recent surgery on his hand.
The large crowd of fans were treated to an action packed event with over 200 cars entered that included not only the NDRL Super Late Model Race, a Crate Late Model event, a Limited Late Model event plus Super Street, Hobby, Bomber and Cruiser races.
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