The NEO Racing News Legends Legend made the trip up to the northeast for their Week 2 double header on Monday night. First up the Legends would visit the Oxford Plains Speedway for a 50 lap feature event before traveling to the New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the first of four road courses on the season.
For the first event at Oxford, Ty Majeski would pick up his 23rd career SARA pole in qualifying to put himself at the front of the 26 car field, and would lead them to the green flag. He would get the quick jump into the lead, while Kevin Myers who started to his outside would have trouble getting down into the bottom groove as the race got underway. Matt Rolfe, Bill Martin, Ryan Borges, and TJ Graves would all keep Myers stuck on the outside before Myers would eventually get shuffled back into the 6th spot. Out front, Majeski was slowly starting to pull away as the field began to spread out, until an incident on lap 8 would bring out the first caution.
On the restart as Majeski jumped in front, while once again the outside was not the lane to be in as both Rolfe and Borges would get shuffled back on the outside. Martin was able to slide up into 2nd, followed by Graves who would also move up the inside into 3rd. Majeski and Martin started to separate themselves from the pack, but another caution would once again slow down the pace of the race.
Over the middle portion of the event, two more cautions would bring the field to a lap 36 restart where the field would settle in and finish out the race under green flag conditions. Majeski would use the outside lane on the restart to get the jump and would quickly get down in front of Martin on the inside groove. Just like they had done earlier, the two leaders began to pull away out front while the battle was on for the 3rd spot.
Josh Kotten would move up into 3rd on the restart, but he was facing some heavy pressure from the other cars behind him. Kotten was able to hold onto the spot, until Borges was able to make his move to the bottom off of turn two and would take the spot away with 8 laps remaining. Right there behind them, Myers was also filling the hole on the bottom, and by the time Kotten was able to get back in line, he had been shuffled back to 7th as Parker Traves and Rolfe were both able to get by as well.
Out front, Majeski continued to lead with Martin just a couple of car lengths behind him. But as the laps wound down, the lead for Majeski continued to grow as Martin couldn’t keep pace over the last few laps. Majeski would bring the field around for the final time to pick up the win, and would lead all 50 laps en route to his 25th career SARA victory. Martin would come up just short in the 2nd position, followed by Borges who was able to hang onto the 3rd spot. Myers would face some late pressure but was able to hang onto 4th, while Traves would finish behind him in the 5th spot.
Penalties:
John Swanson – Retaliation – EOL in Results + 50 Points
In the second half of the double header, the Legends would head to the New Hampshire Road Course, and just like he had done the previous three seasons, Travis Warling would pick up the fast lap in qualifying to take the pole. At the drop of the green flag, Warling would jump out into the lead and looked to be on his way to another dominating win on a road course.
But behind Warling, one driver was on the move, and that was David Krikorian, who is also a previous Legends road course winner in the division. On the first lap around, Krikorian was held back in the 5th spot, but by lap 4 he had already moved up into the 2nd spot and was looking to track down Warling in the lead.
Josh Kotten ran near the front in the early laps, but a small excursion off track would move him back outside of the top five. This would move Bruce Perry up into the top three early on in the run, but a battle would begin to heat up throughout the race as Ryan Borges and Bill Martin were right there behind him to battle for spots in the top five.
Martin was another driver who was on the move after falling back to 8th on the green flag, but was making his way to the front and would take the 3rd spot from Perry by lap 11. Martin began to pull away from the other drivers within the top five, but after the field reached the half way mark of the race, Martin would make a couple of mistakes which allowed them to reel him right back in. Borges was able to sneak by before Martin fell back in line in front of Perry.
Outside of the top ten, Kotten and Matt Rolfe would battle for much of the race for the 6th spot, but Kotten would eventually pull away after a couple of mistakes from Rolfe dropped him back some. Patrick Hahe moved up into the 8th position early on in the race and was able to maintain the spot throughout the event. Behind him, a battle was on for the last two spots inside the top ten, as Kevin Myers and Ryan Beagle would exchange the spot a few times during the race, before a slip up by Myers would allow Beagle to gain control of the 9th as the race wound down.
Out front though, Krikorian’s pursuit of the leader brought him within just a couple of car lengths of Warling for the top spot. With less than 10 minutes remaining in the race, the fight was on for the lead. Krikorian was able to keep pace with Warling for a few laps, looking for the right moment to get by but he would slip up with just a few minutes left which allowed Warling to get some breathing room out front. Krikorian would give it one last shot as he reeled him back in, but with a lap to go, he couldn’t pull off a move and would slip back at the finish.
This allowed Warling to bring the field around for the final time, and he would lead all 24 laps in the 30 minute race, and went on to pick up his 4th consecutive win on the NHMS Road Course. The victory was also Warling’s 13th career SARA win. Krikorian would finish out his run in the 2nd position while Borges was able to win the battle for 3rd. Martin would recover to get back up into the 4th spot, while Bruce Perry would round out the top five.
After the double header event, and a victory in the second race of the night, Travis Warling leaves with the points lead by just 8 points over 2nd place. Next week, the Legends will visit Irwindale for a 60 lap race on the Irwindale Inner course.
For full results and standings, click HERE.