CARTERSVILLE, GA – The year was 2012. It was the year of the “Ironman.” The NeSmith Chevrolet Dirt Late Model Series honored its 2012 at the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame in Dawsonville, GA at its Annual Awards Banquet. For the 2012 Champion, the season went full circle as it ended where it started.

Dawsonville, GA is the birthplace of American Stock Car Racing. In modern history, Bill Elliott put his hometown on the motorsports map, but one can look further back before a group of men met at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach, FL to form NASCAR in 1949 to see where see where another group of men developed a sport that NASCAR drew its base from.

A tour through the Thunder Road Museum in the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame brings the pre-NASCAR days of American Stock Car Racing back into focus. The history runs deep. In 2012, Dawsonville, GA’s Matthew Turner brought the little town Northeast of Atlanta another championship race car driver and another reason to hit the siren at the Dawsonville Pool Hall.

In his hometown, rich in racing tradition, Turner took the stage before his family, friends and neighbors to receive the $20,000 NeSmith Chevrolet Dirt Late Model Series $20,000 National Championship.

The road back to Dawsonville was a long one for Turner, as he was the only driver that had competed in all 146 races to date that the NeSmith Late Models had run since the series inception in 2005. Turner became known as the Ironman of the NeSmith Late Models, but now that moniker would have to step aside and make way for a new title, that of Champion.

Turner had to overcome a tough competitor to hoist the NeSmith Cup at the end of the season. For the second straight season, two-time NeSmith Chevrolet Dirt Late Model Series National Champion David Earl Gentry of Murfreesboro, TN was a player for the title. Turner and Gentry battled for the championship right now to the last race of the season.

The NeSmith Late Models moved into a new home for their season finale, as Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, FL would host the $10,000-to-win 100-lap 8th Annual Chevrolet Performance World Championship Race on December 1, 2012.

This race had become “the race” for dirt late models powered by the economical Chevrolet Performance Circle Track Engines. Each year, the Chevrolet Performance World Championship Race had drawn the best drivers from across the country and 2012 was no exception. For 2012, the race took on the extra drama of deciding the NeSmith Late Model National Champion.

Turner held a 16-point lead over Gentry coming into the weekend. Gentry had a mechanical problem during the Thursday night practice session and had to change engines on Friday morning. Turner was the fastest qualifier in his group, and started the fourth ten-lap heat race from the pole position. Turner dropped back in the race, finished sixth and failed to transfer to the main event.

Gentry started eighth in the first heat race, but rallied to finish fourth and transfer into the main event, earning the 13th starting spot. Turner started fourth in the first 20-lap B-Main race on Saturday night, and failed to finish in one of the top three transfer spots. Turner took a Provisional and started the main event from the 23rd starting spot.

Gentry started the race with four-point lead over Turner in the Championship battle. As the race unfolded, Gentry had charged his way up to third spot, but things changed dramatically on lap 45. After restarting in third spot after a lap 42 caution flag, Gentry fell off the pace and dropped back to the sixth spot, and Turner moved up to 12th and took over the point lead from Gentry.

Lap 45 saw Gentry stop on the track with a cut down left-front tire, and the caution flag came out. Gentry went to the pits, changed the tire, and restarted in the 18th spot. Gentry charged back through the field and ended up finishing seventh, but Turner claimed the 12th spot at the finish to win the Championship by ten points. Gentry would be the Championship Runner-Up for the second straight year.

“After 146 consecutive races and eight years of trying, we finally got this championship, and it was really nerve racking to get it,” Turner said. “David Earl is a tough competitor, and we have traded having bad luck all season. I hated to see him cut down that tire because I really wanted to win the championship racing with him right down the end.”

Larry Harrod of Plains, GA finished third in the 2012 NeSmith Late Model point standings and Chase Edge of LaFayette, AL took the fourth spot. “Dr. Dirt” Johnny Stokes of Columbus, MS was fifth in the standings, and Chris Cantrell of Chester, SC was the 2012 NeSmith Late Model Rookie of the Year with a sixth-place effort in the point standings.

Michael Blount of Sumrall, MS finished seventh in the 2012 NeSmith Late Model point standings and Cody Kierre of Beebe, AR was eighth and finished second in the Rookie of the Year point standings. Anthony White of Clinton, TN took the ninth spot, and William Thomas of Phenix City, AL rounded out the Top 10 in the 2012 NeSmith Late Model point standings.

There were 22 races on the 2012 NeSmith Late Model schedule at 13 different tracks in six different states with 13 different winners. Gentry, Thomas, and Justin McRee of Woodstock, AL each had three wins. Harrod, Dennis “Rambo” Franklin of Gaffney, SC and Jeremy Shaw of Millport, AL each had two wins.

Single race wins during the 2012 NeSmith Late Model season were earned by Turner, Edge, Jack Nosbisch Jr. of Riverview, FL, Chris Wilson of Crossville, TN, Jeff Smith of Chatsworth, GA, and Greg Fore of Greenville, MS.

The NeSmith Chevrolet Weekly Racing Series would have a new format for 2012, as the Regional concept was replaced by a single point format for the 27-week season that would pay the National Champion $10,000. A total of 445 drivers would earn points at 17 different tracks in five different states.

Two young drivers, Chase Washington of Houlka, MS and Mickey Trosclair of Luling, LA, battled each other and followed each other up and down the roads to several NeSmith Weekly tracks from as far East as Knoxville, TN and as far West as West Plains, MO for the 2012 NeSmith Weekly $10,000 Championship. At the end of the 27-week season, they would race to a tie in the point standings.

Washington would be crowned the 2012 NeSmith Chevrolet Weekly Racing Series National Champion and collect the $10,000 top prize by winning the tie-breaker with one more 50-point win than Trosclair.

In what had already been an exciting season for the NeSmith Late Models in both the Touring and Weekly Divisions, there was room for just a little bit more excitement at the season finale at Bubba Raceway Park with the 8th Annual $10,000-to-win Chevrolet Performance World Championship Race.

It was final points race of the season, and the battle for the $20,000 NeSmith Late Model Championship has been documented. In addition to that drama, super late model drivers “The Real Deal” Don O’Neal of Martinsville, IN, defending race champion Doug Horton of Bruceton Mills, WV, the hometown hero Ivedent Lloyd Jr. of Ocala, FL, Jason Fitzgerald of Middleburg, FL, and NASCAR star Joey Coulter of Charlotte, NC were on site looking for the big money.

There was also a strong contingent of local favorites that included Bubba Raceway Park Late Model Champion Mark Whitener of Middleburg, FL, Shan Smith of Dade City, FL, Keith Nosbisch of Valrico, FL, Kyle Bronson of Tampa, FL, and Jeff Mathews of Valrico, FL looking to defend their home turf.

Whitener set fast time and won the first Heat Race to earn the pole position for the World Championship Race. That put Whitener in a position to go for a clean sweep of the event. Whitener took the lead at the start of the race followed by Bronson, Lloyd and Horton.

O’Neal was in a hurry, as he came from the tenth starting spot to fifth in the opening lap of the race. O’Neal was up to second spot by lap 12, and in the middle of a three-way battle for the lead in heavy lapped traffic with Whitener and Lloyd.

Whitener and O’Neal would swap the lead eight times over the next 57 laps. The battle for the lead heated up and rose to the boiling point on lap 69. With O’Neal leading the race, Whitener threw a slide job on the leader in turn one. The move came up a little short as Whitener and O’Neal came together in turn two.

O’Neal’s car got sideways and he hit the guardrail to bring out the caution flag. Under caution, O’Neil rammed Whitener’s car twice, and O’Neil was sent to the pit area by NeSmith Late Model officials and parked for the rest of the evening.

Whitener led the field for the restart followed by Horton, Smith, who charged into the third spot from the 21st starting spot, and Nosbisch. Lloyd got busy after the green flag came out, coming from sixth to third by lap 81. Lloyd made what would be a very important pass on lap 85 when he got by Smith for the second spot.

Whitener took the checkered flag with a three-second margin over Lloyd. Whitener posed with the $10,000 check and the Chevrolet Performance World Championship Race Trophy in Victory Lane, but he would not get to take it home. After the victory celebration, the cars went to the post-race technical inspection where engines would be disassembled and scrutinized.

The engine in Whitener’s car was disqualified by NeSmith Chevrolet Dirt Late Model Series officials for a piston violation. Lloyd’s engine was also torn down and inspected by NeSmith Late Model officials, and it passed inspection. Lloyd was declared the winner of the 8th Annual Chevrolet Performance World Championship Race at 5:24 a.m. on December 2, 2012. Smith finished second and Horton was third. Nosbisch took the fourth spot and Franklin was fifth.