The MRolfeDesigns Pro Late Model series made the trip out west to the Irwindale Speedway on Wednesday night for a 100 lap feature event.
In time trials, 37 cars hit the track but it was Cody Kelley who set the fast time to take the pole. He and the other drivers that were inside the top 8 advanced into the Qualifying Dash, where Kelley got a jump out into the lead and led the first 7 laps. But it was Bill Martin who made a last lap pass, and beat Kelley back to the stripe to take the Dash win. The top 8 cars from the Qualifying Dash would be inverted, which sent Kelley and Martin back to 7th and 8th respectively, while Tim Bills was inverted to start up front for the feature event.
When the green flag flew, it was Bills who led the field to the green flag but it was short lived for him out front, as David Krikorian used his 2nd starting position in the outside lane to grab the lead on lap 1. From there on out, it was a lead that Krikorian wouldn’t give up as he dominated the event, leading all 100 laps on his way to victory. At one point during a lengthy green flag run, Krikorian’s lead extended out to nearly 1.5 seconds before Bills started chasing him back down. But that was until some late cautions allowed Krikorian to maintain control of the restarts to seal his win.
Casey Kelley ran inside the top four all race long, and moved up into a 2nd place finish during the late stages of the race after a restart. This moved Bills back to a 3rd place finish after he trailed Krikorian in 2nd for the first 77 circuits around. Rounding out the top five was Parker Traves and Joe Schaffer Jr. after both drivers spent their entire race just outside of the top five, but were both able to move up to gain solid finishes.
Just outside of the top five, Darrell Hamlin had a fairly quiet night while running in the top ten but moved up late as well to grab the 6th spot. Just behind him, Marc Gammack picked up his first career SARA top ten with a 7th place finish. Jacob Linkiewicz ran in the top five for a majority of the race until some contact got him loose on lap 81 but he was able to save his car after dropping back a couple spots to end up with an 8th place finish. David Riendeau picked up his first career SARA top ten as well in his first career start with a 9th place finish, while Zach Knowles rounded out the top ten to pick up his 2nd straight top ten finish in the division.
But the night belonged to David Krikorian, as he dominated the race, leading every lap on his way to his 11th career SARA victory.
After two races, Casey Kelley leaves Irwindale with a 28 point lead in the standings.