Brooks Holds Off Kelley For Win

Image

Brooks_SLM_Win1

On Thursday night, the RB Performance Super Late Model Series visited the Stafford Motor Speedway for the fourth race of the season.

In time trials, 27 cars hit the track but it was Justin Brooks who put his car on the pole by setting the fast lap. Brooks led the top 8 cars into the Qualifying Dash where he held the lead for the first four laps, but it was Jarrid Boiros who took over the top spot and went onto pick up the Dash win. Boiros would be inverted after the Dash back to 8th to start the feature, while David Krikorian was inverted to the front of the field.

Krikorian brought the field to the green flag for the 125-lap feature event, and led the first 20 laps of the race. During the course of an early green flag run, Brooks was on the move and worked his way up to take the lead by lap 21 after starting in the 7th spot. From there on out, it looked like Brooks had the car to beat all race long, until a long green flag run in the late stages allowed Cody Kelley to pursue the leader. As the laps wound down, Kelley was able to close on the rear bumper of Brooks for the top spot, but he was unable to make anything happen as Brooks was able to hold him off for the lead, and came around to pick up the checkered flag. The win for Brooks was his 34th career SARA victory.

Cody Kelley finished in the 2nd spot after chasing down the leader late in the race, with Krikorian joining him on the podium in 3rd after leading early and hanging in the top three all race long. Casey Kelley also ran up front all race long after starting 2nd to finish in the 4th spot, while James Linkiewicz rounded out the top five in 5th, after he had to start deep in the field after not getting a valid qualifying lap in.

Just outside the top five, Trey Jarrell finished in the 6th spot after having to come from the back twice, once from his original starting spot and once after a mid-race tangle. Boiros started the race in 8th after his Dash win, but was never able to make his way all the way to the front and would maintain an 7th place finish. Joe Schaffer Jr. stayed inside the top ten all race long to finish 8th, and Dale Owen would finish 9th after holding off Matt Rolfe in 10th. Owen was the biggest mover of the race, picking up 12 spots from his 21st spot to finish inside the top ten.

After another top ten finish, Joe Schaffer Jr., continues to lead the standings by just 6 points over 2nd place.