SENOIA, Ga. — Kyle Amerson drove to his third United Sprint Car Series Presented By K&N Filters win of the season on Saturday night at Senoia Raceway.
Amerson took the lead at the start of the 30-lap feature race from his outside front row starting spot and went wire-to-wire to the checkered flag.
Tyler Blankenship was the apparent second-place finisher, however, the impressive rookie driver racing in only his second winged sprint car race ever, failed to present his car in the designated area for post-race technical inspection and was disqualified and credited with the 14th-place finishing position.
The defending 15-time USCS National Champion National Sprint Car Hall of Fame Inductee Terry Gray took the second spot and Bobby Breen was third. Bryce Comer drove to a fourth-place finish and fourth generation driver P.J. Reutimann completed the top five.
In preliminary action, Blankenship won the six-lap Hoosier Racing Tire Speed Dash to earn the Pole Position for the 30-lap feature race. The two eight-lap Heat Races were won by Amerson in the Engler Machine & Tool First Heat Race and Comer in the Butlerbuilt Racing Products Second Heat Race.
Amerson led Blankenship, Brandon Grubaugh, Porter and Gray at the start of the race. By the fifth circuit, Amerson held a 1.323 second lead over Blankenship, but that was erased by the first of four caution flags. Amerson quickly opened up a 1.5 second lead over Blankenship on the restart.
The second yellow light came on lap 13 when Grubaugh dropped out of the race from the third spot. It was Amerson, Blankenship, Porter, Gray and Comer in the top five for the restart. The only time Blankenship got close to Amerson was in lapped traffic on lap 19, but once the leader cleared the lapped cars, he opened up a one second lead by lap 21.
Blankenship wasn’t ready to throw in the towel because with five laps to go, he closed up on Amerson again in lapped traffic. Blankenship closed to within .229 seconds on lap 28, but that was slowed by a caution flag. Another caution flag came out on lap 29 when Porter had an issue while running in the third spot.
Amerson pulled away from Blankenship on the restart for the two-lap dash to the finish. Amerson’s margin of victory over Blankenship at the checkered flag was 1.386 seconds in a race that took 18 minutes and 55.371 seconds to complete.
Feature Finish (30 Laps)
1. 29a Kyle Amerson, Montgomery, AL (2); 2. 10 Terry Gray, Bartlett, TN (5); 3. 9b Bobby Breen, Fort Worth, TX (8); 4. 6 Bryce Comer, Apollo Beach, FL (6); 5. 00 P.J. Reutimann, Zephyrhills, FL (7); 6. 16 Tyler Porter, Pinellas Park, FL (3); 7. 28 Jeff Willingham, Ripley, MS (9); 8. 33 Joe Larkin, Suwanee, GA (10); 9. 0 Clint Weiss, Jesup, GA (12); 10. 83 Bob Auld, Largo, FL (14); 11. 67 Blake Mallette, Vancleve, MS (11); 12. G6 Brandon Grubaugh, Ocala, FL (4); 13. 61 Sean Wimpee, Mobile, AL (15); 14. 9 Tyler Blankenship, Bakersfield, CA (1) DQ; 15. 29j Jeff Oliver, Pendergrass, GA DNS.