Jonathan Davenport Surges Through Field To Claim Cherokee Checkers

Intermittent rain showers and late-race tire issues complicate series return to Gaffney, SC track

Mark Huey, Carolina Clash PR

Gaffney, SC is world-famous for the peach farms that cover Cherokee County, SC like a patchwork quilt. Interstate 85 at exit 90 is known as the “Peach Exit” with the landmark water tower in the style of a peach. Two drivers from the “Peach State” would cross the state line on I-85 as the top two finishers at the Cherokee Speedway on Saturday night, May 11, 2013. Jonathan Davenport, of Blairsville, Georgia and Chip Brindle of Chatsworth, Georgia finished first and second. It took over eight years for the Carolina Clash series to find its way back to “the place your momma warned you about” and the fans were eager as ever to see many of their favorite super late model drivers from the Carolinas and Georgia tackle the “super short track of the upstate.” The teams that made their way to Cherokee Speedway did not disappoint the large crowd on hand to watch another great super late model race at the track that made super late model racing famous throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Twenty-three cars signed in for race #7 all time and series event #250 at the Gaffney, SC short track. When the Carolina Clash last visited Cherokee, the track was its former ½ mile layout and many of the drivers in the field had raced there and won often on the current surface. Read More