A night after the Legends would have their race postponed, the Sportsman Street Stock Series took their turn at Lucas Oil Raceway (IRP) for their week 11 race. A number of the top drivers in the points would miss the race, which opened up the door a brand new pole sitter, and a new winner to the league. As open qualifying got underway to start the night off, Joseph Yakes would put his car on top of the leaderboard with a time of 24.818, taking his first career SARA pole ahead of Bill Martin who started 2nd.
As Yakes brought the field around for the green flag, it would actually be Martin who would get the jump on the outside groove and powered into the lead as the field headed into turn 1. He would lead lap 1, but the field would be bunched right back together after a quick yellow. Martin would jump right back out into the lead on the restart and Yakes would settle in behind him as Ryan Lutz, Adam Jordan and Stan Bragg followed them within the top 5. They would all fall in line before Lutz would self spin out of 3rd on lap 19, with a couple other cars getting collected, setting up another restart. A couple of quick cautions however would set the field up for a lap 34 restart where the field would go green for the remaining 41 laps of the race.
Martin again would get the jump on the restart, but for the first time all night he would have a little pressure on him for the lead as Bragg followed closely behind in 2nd. He would stay close for a few laps, but Martin would slowly start to pull away out front. Behind them, Yakes and Jordan were having their own battle as Jordan was able to move up into the 3rd spot on lap 42, but Yakes wouldn’t give it up easily as he battle right back for the spot. He would look to the inside a couple of times before making his move 10 laps later on lap 52 and took that spot back over.
Jeff Hoggard had moved himself into the top 5 at the beginning of the long run and ran 5th for a number of laps, but Michael Yakes would move himself into that spot on lap 59 after working his way up through the field over the course of the race. Back out front though, Martin was setting a fast pace as he began putting cars a lap down at the back of the field. He would slowly pick off cars in the top 10 putting them a lap down, and extending his lead throughout it all as Bragg wouldn’t be able to hold pace.
As the laps counted down, a couple drivers would be forced to pit as they had miscalculated their fuel for the race. Jordan was the first car to duck down pit road with just 9 laps to go, giving up his 4th spot. Then a few short laps later, Bragg would also have to give up the 2nd spot to head down pit road to take on gas, shaking up the running order in the top 5.
Out front though, Martin had built himself a large lead, and his gas mileage was never in question as he would lead the field around to take the checkered flag, picking up his first career SARA victory. Joseph Yakes moved back into the 2nd position as drivers had to pit, after he had run in the top 4 all race long. Michael Yakes would move up into the 3rd spot, followed by Hoggard and Brandon Wilkinson who would each benefit and take home top 5 finishes.
With the top three drivers in the points missing the race, Matt Rolfe still hangs onto his 40 point lead on top of the standings when the series heads into the final race of the season next week. But with drop weeks in effect, the championship is still up for grabs when the series heads to NHMS next week for the finale.
- Bill Martin
- Joseph Yakes
- Michael Yakes
- Jeff Hoggard
- Brandon Wilkinson
- Stan Bragg
- Ryan Lutz
- Todd Sipe
- Jason Miller
- Scott Dunlap
- Adam Jordan
- Ken Belanger
- Matt Mitchell
For full results and standings, click HERE.