Fresh off of a great Pro Late Model race on Wednesday night, the RB Performance Super Late Model Series took their turn under the lights at Richmond tonight for their season opener. 35 drivers brought their cars out for the new season and as practice got underway, we could tell we would have a great race on our hands with the whole field running competitive lap times.
All 35 cars would take the track in the open qualifying session, which proved to be quite exciting as drivers looked to find holes to run some good lap times. Last night’s winner, Trey Jarrell picked up the pole on the night with a time of 20.524 seconds, just ahead of second place qualifier Derek Holzhausen. Jarell would lead the 35-car field to the line and quickly jumped out to the lead in the early laps.
Patience would be key in the early laps, and while Jarrell pulled away out front, the rest of the field sliced and diced for positions while they tried to find room to settle in. A number of drivers that ran up front in the early laps, found trouble as the run went on as 6 of the top 7 qualifiers all found themselves with damage or other issues before the halfway point of the race. This would allow some guys that started a little further back, the chance to run up front and see if they could do anything with the leader.
Todd Garren worked his way up from the 14th place to the top 3, as well as Brian Lambert from the 23rd starting position. The front runners seemed to pull away up front on restarts, while every position throughout the rest of the field would continue to shuffle all night long.
A restart on lap 80 would set up the final run of the night. Jarrell would jump out front once again and looked to stretch the lead as the run went on. Garren and Lambert continued to run in the top 3, as Jacob Linkiewicz, Jeff Bye, and James Linkiewicz all settled in behind the leader. Jarrell would extend the lead to a full second before the 8th and final yellow would come out with less than 5 to go, ending the race behind the pace car.
Nobody would have anything for Jarrell on the night, as he would dominate leading all 115 laps of the event, en route to his first SLM win, and second career SARA victory in the last two nights. Garren finished up 2nd, with Lambert in 3rd. Jacob Linkiewicz had a strong run from his 9th place starting spot to finish 4th, and Jeff Bye would round out the top 5 after dropping to the back of the field during the middle of the race.
- Trey Jarrell
- Todd Garren
- Brian Lambert
- Jacob Linkiewicz
- Jeff Bye Jr
- James Linkiewicz
- Anthony Celentano
- Ray Farlow
- Brian Tedeschi
- Matt Rolfe
- Clay Snider
- Jade Williams
- Charles Denny
- Scott Blaney
- Mike Testa
- Joshua Hart
- Scott Dunlap
- Heath Smith
- Matthew Eddy
- Ronald Williams
- Derek Holzhausen
- Michael Rennebu
- Jason Garrett
- Brandon Osborne
- Robert Matthews
- Trent Brown
- Ronald Kirk
- Ken Belanger
- Cody Leland
- Derek Robinson
- Eddie McCray
- Chase Lovelady
- Jarrid Boiros
- Colin Allman
- Mark Welch
Next week the series heads to Irwindale for a 125 lap feature event, as well as running heat races for the first time.
For full results and standings, click HERE.