4/7/2023
Hunt The Front Super Dirt Series
Thornton Charges to $20,000 Victory in HTF Series Opener
LAKE CITY, Fla. (April 7) — The launch of a new series and a new event ended with a familiar face in victory lane at All-Tech Raceway.
Registering his second win in as many starts at the Sunshine State oval this season, Ricky Thornton Jr. of Chandler, Ariz., rallied from his 14th starting spot to lead the final 11 laps of Friday's Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series feature at All-Tech and earned a $20,000 victory in the new regional tour's first ever event.
Thornton, whose victory came in the inaugural running of the Southbound Throwdown presented by Earth Tek LLC, matched his successful performance in Feb. 4’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series feature at All-Tech after snaking through the field to grab the lead from Shane Clanton of Zebulon, Ga., on lap 40. He led the remaining distance in his SSI Motorsports Longhorn Chassis on his way to taking the checkers with a 3.113 second advantage.
“I ran out of tearoffs, and I kind of told myself, ‘You wouldn’t run out of tearoffs if you quit following these guys,’” the 32-year-old Thornton said of his charge through the field. “So I just kind of moved out. And really, the top was so sketchy in three and four, but if you hit it right I think it was way better than the rest.
“I feel like this is probably the biggest place we come to where it’s really in the driver’s hands. A lot of places you go to it’s so aero-dependent and stuff like that, but here it gets so slick. I just think that one little screwup is a big screwup, and it kind of shows. One guy will be out front and make one small mistake and before you know it he’s back to 10th.
“I just like coming here. There’s a lot of great fans and they do a great job with the track prep. Hopefully we can talk these guys into doing a couple more big shows.”
Clanton, who led laps 23-39 after starting third, settled for second ahead of fifth-starting Mike Marlar of Winfield, Tenn. Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y., finished was fourth with 17th-starting Devin Moran of Dresden, Ohio, rounding out the top five.
Second-starting Joseph Joiner of Milton, Fla., led the race’s first 22 laps but faded following the race’s lone restart on lap 22 and finished one lap down in 11th.
The Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series returns to action May 12-13 with a doubleheader weekend at Magnolia Motor Speedway in Columbus, Miss. Visit https://www.magnoliadirt.com for more track and event information.
Southbound Throwdown presented by Earth Tek LLC
A Feature Results (50 Laps): 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[14]; 2. 25C-Shane Clanton[3]; 3. 157-Mike Marlar[5]; 4. 39-Tim McCreadie[8]; 5. 99M-Devin Moran[17]; 6. 40B-Kyle Bronson[6]; 7. 12-Ashton Winger[1]; 8. 1-Tyler Erb[18]; 9. 22-Chris Ferguson[12]; 10. 19M-Wil Herrington[11]; 11. 10J-Joseph Joiner[2]; 12. F1-Payton Freeman[27]; 13. 44D-Dalton Cook[15]; 14. 212-Josh Putnam[24]; 15. 14JR-Trey Mills[9]; 16. 6-Clay Harris[10]; 17. 58-Tyler Clem[7]; 18. 01-Jason Garver[13]; 19. 17SS-Brenden Smith[23]; 20. 10C-Ryan Crane[20]; 21. 9-Jason Croft[25]; 22. 174-Ethan Dawson[16]; 23. 76-Brandon Overton[4]; 24. 6JR-Parker Martin[26]; 25. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[21]; 26. 10-Garrett Smith[22]; 27. 11-Austin Kirkpatrick[19]; 28. 2X-John Henderson[28]
Visit https://www.htfseries.com/schedules/event/449808 for complete event results.
Submitted By: Joshua Joiner
