On Tuesday night, the Sportsman Street Stock Series visited the Lanier Raceplex for their Week #3 event, where 29 drivers would bring their street stocks out to battle for 100 laps.
Cody Kelley used a good lap in qualifying to pick up his 4th career SARA pole, and would lead the field to the green flag. He would quickly clear himself into the lead, while three cars behind him would fall in line and the top four would begin to break away in the opening laps of the race.
Ty Majeski made the first move up front when he pulled under Justin Brooks to move up into the 2nd position. Brooks would shuffle back to 4th after Bill Martin got by him, but Brooks would put the pressure right back on for the 3rd spot and was running side by side before nosing ahead when the first caution of the race came out on lap 10.
On the restart, Kelley jumped back into the lead, while Majeski looked to hang on the outside. But as Majeski slid back and Brooks got under him for the 2nd spot, both drivers would get loose and made contact. And as they both moved up the track, Martin was there to capitalize and would get by them both for 2nd. Brooks fell back into the 4th spot before falling in line, while Majeski fell back to 7th before he was able to get in line as well. A couple of laps later on lap 22, the next caution would come out.
When the field took off for the lap 28 restart, they would set off on a 26 lap green flag run. Kelley pulled into the lead off of the green flag, but Martin and Ryan Borges were right there behind him as the run started. On lap 35, Martin decided it was time to make a move and would get the run off of turn four, and pulled to the inside of Kelley going into turn one to take the lead. Kelley was able to get back down behind Martin and looked to find a way to take the spot back.
Behind the top three, Majeski moved back into the top five and got by Brooks to take over the 4th spot. Just outside the top five, Jacob Linkiewicz, Tim Bills, Parker Traves, and Matt Rolfe were all battling for positions, and Evan Sorensen was able to move up into the 10th position as the run went on.
Back out front, the top three continued to run ahead of the field, running just car lengths apart from each other. With the long green flag run, lapped traffic began to become part of the equation, and Kelley was able to use this to his advantage. With Martin approaching a lapped car, Kelley was able to get the run coming to the line on lap 42, and made his move back to the inside of Martin for the lead. Martin was able to hang on to the lead for a couple more laps in the outside groove as the two battled door-to-door, before Kelley was able to grab the advantage and took the lead back out front. The run continued on until lap 54 when the next caution would come out.
Over the next couple of runs between cautions, Kelley would pull out into the lead each time, but the battle was on for positions inside the top five. Majeski, Martin and Brooks would fight each other for position, swapping the spots a number of times after the restarts, each taking a turn moving up into 2nd only to be stuck on the outside on the following restart. But each time they raced hard for those spots, it allowed Kelley to coast out into the lead uncontested.
Kelley controlled the second half of the race, and would lead the field to the green on the final restart with just five laps to go. Kelley pulled into the lead once more, while Majeski and Brooks battled for the 2nd spot. The action picked up for the 4th spot though as Martin began to fall back on the outside, and Traves was able to slide up underneath him looking to take the spot away. But behind both of them, Linkiewicz was right there as well and he would put a bumper on Traves, moving him up the track into Martin forcing him to fall back even further. Then as they went into the next corner, Traves would come back down trying to squeeze into the bottom lane, but he would make contact with Borges who had moved back up under him. As a result of the contact, both Traves and Borges, plus Martin, Brooks and a number of other cars near the front of the pack would all get collected and turned around, ending some of the front runners’ chances at a good finish as the final caution came out.
The big wreck at the end of the race would allow Kelley to hang onto his top spot, and he would lead the field around for the final time under the checkered and yellow flags to pick up the win. The win would be his 6th career SARA victory after leading 92 laps of the event. Majeski would finish in the runner up spot while Linkiewicz would sneak away from the incident behind him to finish 3rd. Borges was able to save his car from the initial contact and was scored in the 4th spot, while Rolfe was able to avoid the wreck to take 5th.
Penalties:
Parker Traves – Retaliation – EOL in Results + 50 points
Jacob Linkiewicz – Aggressive Driving – Warning
Ty Majeski – Negative Voice Chatter – Warning
Ryan Borges – Negative Voice Chatter – Warning
With Kelley picking up the win, and Rolfe picking up a top five, both drivers would leave Lanier tied at the top of the points standings. Next time out, the Sportsman Street Stocks will be at the USA International Speedway.