MILTON — Two more champions were crowned Saturday night at Southern Raceway.
The race track hosted the season finale for the NeSmith Panhandle Challenge Series for Crate Late Models as well as the Southern Vintage Racing Association.
In the crate late models’ qualifying show, Joseph Joiner and Shep Lucas tied for the fastest-qualifying lap at 15.81 seconds, which was a half-second faster than the third-place qualifier.
When the cars took to the three-eights-mile dirt, Alabama’s Shep Lucas put on a dominating performance, leading all 20 laps for the win.
Lucas, who earned his fourth win in the series, was never challenged on the night.
Cody Smith, who was crowned the Panhandle Challenge Series Points Champion, finished second ahead of Joseph Joiner, Todd Jones and Colton Leyendecker.
Smith finished the season with six wins and 13 top five finishes to easily outpoint Ken Cartwright for the 2016 crown.
In the vintage division, it was another victory for Chris Bayhi, who had to hold off several stiff challenges as nine cautions kept the field bunched together.
As Bayhi tried to stay out of trouble, one of the cautions on a lap eight mishap involved Kelsey Martin and the 2016 Southern Vintage Racing Association Champion Jay Dotson.
Dotson clinched the title by starting the feature Saturday night.
The restart on lap nine saw Blake Martin take the lead from Bayhi and he remained there for several laps until Bayhi managed to regain the lead again on a lap 16 restart.
When the dust settled behind Bayhi and Martin, the top five included Kenneth Tarter in third, John Cody in fourth and Caden White fifth.
The Pure Stock feature also saw the yellow flag several times as it appeared that every driver sustained some type of damage.
The biggest mishap came on lap 10 when Terry Mayhair’s car found the front stretch wall and ended up collecting the cars of Mark Rast, Jerry Lewis, Stephaine Jaye, Dougie Halford and Jacob Ikner.
When the track was cleared, Michael Emmons led the field to the eventual checkered flag followed by Bubba Fletcher, Steven Fretwell, Kevin Mitchell and Tommy Lowery.
The Fretwell car didn’t pass technical inspection and was disqualified and moved the car of Kurt Horne into fifth place.
Another huge red flag situation occurred in the Open Wheel Modified feature as seven cars came together on lap 12 as all the drivers were trying to catch Ryan Fowler.
Fowler, who led from start to finish, was never fazed even when the red flag flew on lap 12.
Involved in the incident were the cars of Shawn Pitts, Mike Lane, Brandon Harris, Nathan Ingersoll, Dale Peaden, Taras Hodivsky and Sean Hickerson.
When the checkered flag flew, Fowler was the first to cross the line followed by Joseph Phillips, Lane, Osman Jones and Johnathon Joiner.
Bo Bailey led the way in the NeSmith Street Stock feature.
At the drop of the green flag, Bailey and Ricky Haugen battled lap after lap until Bailey took control of the race.
Brandon Kilpatrick rallied from a bad starting spot to finish third followed by J.C. Wilson and Larry Faulk.
In the Stinger division, Robert Barber took the lead at the drop of the green flag and never looked back.
While Barber was busy working his way through lapped traffic, Gary Watson managed to finish second followed by Patrick Baker, Timothy Witherington, and Charlie Simmons in fifth.
Season championships in the pure stock, vintage, street stock and open wheel modified divisions are scheduled for Saturday at Southern Raceway.
In addition, the Big One, the Southern 100, returns the weekend of Oct. 27-29. The event includes a $10,000 NeSmith Late Model 100-lap feature and racing in eight classes.
Gates open at 4:30 p.m. Saturday; racing action is set for 7:30 p.m.
See www.southernraceway.com for more information.
COMING UP
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Two champions crowned at Southern Raceway