On Tuesday night, the Sportsman Street Stock Series made the trip to the Irwindale Speedway for their second event of the 2014 Fall Season, as 25 drivers would make the trip out to Cali for the 75 lap race. Time trials would set the lineup for the field and it would be Justin Brooks who put his #33 on the pole, with Bill Martin qualifying in the 2nd spot for the fourth time this season out of the seven races he’s run in.
Brooks would lead the field to the green flag to get things under way and he would quickly settle into the top spot, while Martin fell in behind him. The field would get a short 5 lap run in before the first yellow flag flew, setting up a restart on lap 11. Brooks would once again get the jump, but with the field bunched up together near the front of the pack, Martin and Kenny Smith would make contact, resulting with Smith exiting the race early. Martin would hold on to stay up in the 4th spot, but Tyler Ducharme and Cody Kelley became the new front runners behind Brooks.
A lap 28 restart would set the field up for their longest green flag run of the night. Brooks once again got a good start and would begin to pull away out front. Kelley moved up to the 2nd spot, but would slowly begin to lose time over the course of the run, but kept the leader within a second out in front of him. Behind them, the action picked up from 3rd to 6th, as those four drivers would get bunched up and ran nose-to-tail for many laps, each trying to wait for the others to make mistakes. Ducharme was the first car in that line, but JayJay Day and TJ Graves were hot on his heels as they swapped the 4th spot a couple of times, while Dale Owen was patiently waiting right on their bumpers. But on lap 47, it was Graves who was the odd man out and he would get turned around, ending his run for the night.
During the yellow, many of the leaders took the opportunity to head down pit road and take tires, despite there only being about 25 laps to go. A few drivers stayed out though, with Day inheriting the lead, with Ken Belanger, who had moved up to 7th with a strong run during the green flag stretch, moving him up on the front row as well. On the next couple of restarts Day would hang onto the lead, but Brooks, who had restarted 11th on lap 51, was making quick work through the field to get back to the front on new tires. He would get up to 3rd by the lap 60 restart, and set his sights on the leader. Brooks would take the lead for a lap with a bold move way down onto the apron, but Day would do the same thing right back the next lap. But it was Brooks who muscled his way by and took over the lead for good on lap 63.
There would be one last restart with 5 to go, but the yellow would fly on lap 72, allowing Brooks to coast around and bring the field to the checkers under the caution flag. He would pick up the victory after leading 63 laps and working his way back up through the field, and it would be his 22nd SARA win. Cody Kelley moved back up to take the 2nd spot, with Owen having a strong run in 3rd. Ducharme worked his way back up to 4th, while Day would round out the top 5.
1. Justin Brooks
2. Cody Kelley
3. Dale Owen
4. Tyler Ducharme
5. JayJay Day
6. Stan Bragg
7. Ken Belanger
8. Russell Berry
9. Jeff Hoggard
10. Evan Sorenson
11. Mike Testa
12. Jacob Beauchesne
13. Mike Whited
14. Justin Mullkin
15. Paul Boswell
16. Ian Layne
17. Todd Sipe
18. Bobby Timmons
19. Dan Shorter
20. Bill Martin
21. TJ Graves
22. Jeffrey Nichols
23. James Linkiewicz
24. Kenny Smith
25. James Stone
Next week the series will make their first trip to The Rock, Rockingham Speedway, for a 50 lap event.
With two top 10’s in the two races so far, Russell Berry leaves Irwindale with the points lead, but with the top 4 all less than 10 points behind. For full results and standings, click HERE.