The RB Performance Super Late Model Series made their first ever trip to the USA International Speedway last night for the 2nd race of their season. 40 drivers would hit the track in practice and qualifying, with only 30 spots up for grabs for the feature event. Time trials would send the top 26 cars into heat races, while 27th on back was forced to battle it out in the LCQ for the last couple spots in the race. Bill Martin would set the fast time in time trials with a lap of 21.097 seconds.
The top 26 were locked into the show and rolled off for their heat races to set the lineup for the field. A random draw would put Cody Kelley on the pole of heat #1, but it was Martin that drove up to take the lead on lap 4 and went on to grab the win, and put himself on the pole for the feature. In heat #2, Justin Brooks started on the outside of the front row, and made his way into the lead by lap 1 and led every lap en route to his heat win, putting him 2nd on the grid. 12 cars would be forced into the LCQ, and it would be Joshua Borje-Bonkowski that would start on the point and led every lap to send himself into the race, with Paul Boswell taking the 2nd spot to advance as well. The final two spots on the grid were given as provisionals, to Dustin Riccioni and Ian Layne based on points from week 1, to fill up the 30-car field.
At the drop of the green, Martin jumped out to the lead, while Trey Jarrell moved up to 2nd from the inside groove to follow him. Brooks dropped to 3rd with Kelley moving into 4th, and Fred Moreau was on the move early to get into 5th. A 10-lap green flag run saw many cars spread out before the caution flew for the first time. On the restart, the front of the field would remain just about the same, as once again Martin jumped out to the lead before another caution on lap 20 would see some driver head down pit road.
Martin, Fred and Nicolas Moreau, Ty Spearman, Ray Farlow, and 6 others would all stay on track however, as the rest of the field would grab new tires. The lap 25 restart would set the field up for a 30 lap run, which would be the first test to see how much better new tires would be. Martin took off on the restart, with Fred Moreau following him, and he would never let the leader get more than a half-second out into the lead. Spearman moved up into 3rd during the run, while Jarrell was on the move after restarting in the 12th spot and worked his way up into 4th, moving Nicolas Moreau back to the 5th spot. At the half way mark, Brooks, Kelley, Brandon Simmons, Kevin Myers, and Farlow rounded out the top 10.
When the lap 55 caution flew to end the long green flag run, the field would head down pit road once more. Martin won the race off pit road, while Jarrell would come out 2nd and would look to pounce on the restart. And he would do just that. The field would go green on lap 61, but by lap 62, Jarrell made his move to the inside and Martin fell in behind to secure the 2nd spot. Spearman once again moved up into the 3rd spot on the next run, with Brooks and Fred Moreau in the top 5. Over the next couple restarts, things remained unchanged at the front, until a lap 81 restart would see Jarrell jump out to the lead with Martin stuck on the outside, where slight contact would send Martin around. A couple other cars would get collected as well, ultimately ending Martin’s strong run.
As the race began to wind down, the drivers looked to get everything they could on restarts, which resulted in a couple cautions near the end of the race and sending the field to the yellow and checkered flags. Things would get dicey on a lap 92 restart, which saw two separate incidents happen, but neither would bring out the caution flag at that time. One of the incidents occurred as Brooks would get loose out of the corner after he had moved up to 2nd but as he tried to save it, there would be contact between himself and Fred Moreau. Moreau would head into the inside wall ending his run, while Brooks somehow got it together and continued on before the final caution flew on lap 94.
Jarrell was untouchable in the late stages of the race, and he would go on to lead the field to the checkers, picking up his 7th career SLM win and his 10th career SARA win as he returned to victory lane. Spearman would finish off his strong run with a 2nd place finish, with Kelley doing the same to finish in the 3rd spot. Brooks would fall to a 4th place finish after his late save, and Farlow would also finish off his strong run with a top 5 finish.
1. Trey Jarrell
2. Ty Spearman
3. Cody Kelley
4. Justin Brooks
5. Ray Farlow
6. Nicolas Moreau
7. James Linkiewicz
8. Brandon Simmons
9. Derek Robinson
10. Dustin Riccioni
11. Clay Snider
12. Todd Cousins
13. Ian Layne
14. Trent Brown
15. Jesse Potter
16. Fred Moreau
17. Anthony Celentano
18. Mike Belanger
19. Kevin Myers
20. Ken Belanger
21. Tim Bills
22. Dale Owen
23. Joshua Borje-Bonkowski
24. Bill Martin
25. Matt Rolfe
26. TJ Graves
27. Cameron Hobbs
28. Paul Boswell
29. Kyle Holzhausen
30. Todd Sipe
DNS: Mike Rhyno, Pier-Luc Moreau
DNQ: Colin Allman, Russell Berry, Sam Clark, Jerry Goff, Huston Hamer, Cody Leland, Jeffery Nichols, Daniel Vining
Next week the series will head to Martinsville for a 200-lap feature event.
With a win and a top 5 finish, Just Brooks holds the points lead by just 3 points over Cody Kelley. For full results and standings, click HERE.