SARA Seasonal Awards Banquet

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After another long hard fought season of short track racing, it’s time to hand out some awards and acknowledge some drivers for their seasons they had. We also want to take the time to thank all of our drivers for their participation and support of SARA throughout the season. We had 169 drivers race in at least one race with us this season, and many of those ran multiple races. We also gained some new regulars who ran with us in multiple divisions, and we are proud that some of you guys choose to call SARA your home league. We averaged 93 cars per week this season, which included averaging 31 Super Late Models per race, 24 Pro Late Models, 20 Street Stocks and 18 Legends.

Let’s get started with some awards. We’ll do some divisional awards for each division, and then we’ll do a couple individual awards.

First of all, congratulations to our three champions that were crowned this season:
RB Performance Super Late Model Series Champion – Jacob Linkiewicz – 1st SARA Championship
MRolfeDesigns Pro Late Model Series Champion – Ty Majeski – 1st SARA Championship
Sportsman Street Stock Series presented by Three Palms Speedway – Matt Rolfe – 3rd SARA Championship
NEO Racing News Legends League – Matt Rolfe – 4th SARA Championship

NEO RACING NEWS LEGENDS LEAGUE AWARDS:
Legends Rookie of the Season – Mike Rhyno
Mike joined us this season for the Legends at the 4th race of the season in Iowa, but despite missing 3 weeks and not putting up a full scoreboard (10 races), he placed himself up into 5th in the final points standings. He started off his season strongly by putting himself on the outside of the pole twice in his first two races and got his best finish of the season at COTA with a 2nd place finish. Mike battled well up in the top 5 and top 10 many times this season, ending his rookie season with 1 top 5 and 8 top 10’s.
Legends Winner’s Circle Award (Most Wins) – Travis Warling & Ty Majeski – 3 Wins Each
Legends Pole Award (Most Poles) – Ty Majeski – 4 Poles

SPORTSMAN STREET STOCK SERIES AWARDS:
Street Stocks Rookie of the Season 
– Adam Jordan
Adam joined us this season for the Street Stocks and quickly showed that he could run up front and contend for wins near the front of the field. Through the early stages of the season he ran 2nd in the points, and would never fall any further than 4th as the competition got tougher the deeper into the season we got. Adam finished the season 4th in the championship points with 3 top 5’s and 8 top 10’s.
Street Stocks Winner’s Circle Award (Most Wins) – Justin Brooks – 4 Wins
Street Stocks Pole Award (Most Poles) – Justin Brooks – 6 Poles

MROLFEDESIGNS PRO LATE MODEL SERIES AWARDS:
Pro Late Model Rookie of the Season – Stan Bragg
Stan showed that he wasn’t much of a rookie in the Late Models, but in his first season he would put together some great runs in route to a 3rd place finish in the points standings. Early in the season he would often choose to start at the back of the field and would slowly manage his way through the pack to get some solid finishes. And when he started up front he was often challenging for the lead and running in the top 5 or 10. His rookie season consisted of 5 top 5’s and 10 top 10’s.
Pro Late Model Winner’s Circle Award (Most Wins) – Ty Majeski – 8 Wins
Pro Late Model Pole Award (Most Poles) – Ty Majeski – 4 Poles

RB PERFORMANCE SUPER LATE MODEL SERIES AWARDS:
Super Late Model Rookie of the Season
– Trey Jarrell
This season Trey proved that he also wasn’t much of a rookie in the Super Late Models, but in his first season with SARA he went on quite the tear through the first half of the season, and looked as if he would dominate the division. And when it came down to it, despite missing 3 races, he was still in contention for the SLM championship as the division went into the season finale. He picked up 6 SLM wins en route to his 2nd place finish in the points, which also consisted of 8 top 5’s, 8 top 10’s, and 3 poles.
Super Late Model Winner’s Circle Award (Most Wins) – Trey Jarrell – 6 Wins
Super Late Model Pole Award (Most Poles) – Trey Jarrell – 3 Poles

Overall Individual Awards for the season:

IRONMAN AWARD – Awarded to the driver that attended every single race of the season in all four divisions
Ken Belanger – Ken has been a mainstay in SARA since the very first Street Stock season back in 2012, and anytime you join a SARA race, no matter what division it is, you’ll most likely find “KB” in there. This season has been no different as KB has attempted to qualify for every single event in each division, making the feature race in all but one of those races. And that one feature race he missed was at the NHMS Legends oval which saw 20 cars trying to fill just 12 spots, but he did go on to win the B-feature that night. This season KB picked up his best career finish with a 2nd in the Street Stock opener at Charlotte, and his best finish in the SS points with a 6th place finish in the standings.

SPORTSMAN AWARD – Awarded to a driver who embodies the spirit of sportsmanship and achievement. A driver who shows respect, races cleanly, was willing to help or share feedback, and represents what this league is all about.
Stan Bragg Jr. – Stan joined us near the beginning of this season, and while we knew he was a good driver from driving in the official series, Stan came in and embodied what our league is about. Stan often elected to start at the rear of the field and take an EOL, mainly to stay out of trouble, but he would work his way up through the fields quietly and cleanly to get the finishes he earned. He was fast, but was patient and willing to pass people cleanly instead of using his bumpers to get to the front. Stan was willing to give feedback about certain drivers or things within the league, and even though maybe not all ideas were implemented, the constructive feedback was much appreciated in ways that we can improve this league. And despite not picking up any wins, or setting the world on fire, Stan began running with us in every division, coming out each week to support us and mainly to just have fun, and he would often stick around after the races to say thanks and how much fun he was having in the league.

LUCKY DOG AWARD – Awarded to the driver who had some luck on their side this season
Dale Owen – Often it’s the fastest driver that goes on to pick up victories in racing, but sometimes you just need to be in the right place at the right time, and Dale was in that position twice this season. Dale began running with us in all four divisions, but his biggest success of the season came in the Legends division where he put him self in a good position at the end of the NHMS Mini-Oval race. Coming to the green on a late restart, the leaders got together and wrecked, with Dale sneaking through and stealing the win. But that’s not the only time he did that as it would happen once again as the leaders wrecked at South Boston, and he was able to get on by to pick up his 2nd win. He had the skill to be running up front in both races, but sometimes a little luck can be the difference between 3rd and a couple of wins.

HARD LUCK AWARD – Awarded to the driver who didn’t have very much luck on their side this season
Fred Moreau – In our first season of the Super Late Models in the spring, Fred often put his car near the front of the field, and his expectations of the Summer Season were pretty high. But through the first half of the season, he was often getting caught up in others’ wrecks and wasn’t getting the finishes we had gotten used to, only picking up 1 top 10. His luck did seem to be changing however when he picked up a 5th and a 7th after the halfway point of the season and looked to be turning his season around and climbing the standings, but just before the South Boston race, his computer would crash, resulting in him tossing it in the garbage,and would miss the next two races with no computer to race with. He still ended up finishing 8th in SLM points, but had he not missed those two races, and had a little more luck, he could have very well contended for the championship at the top of the standings.

DRIVER OF THE SEASON – Awarded to the driver that had the best overall performance of the season
Ty Majeski – We thought about doing an overall winner’s circle award, and an overall pole award, but the same driver would have taken both of those, as well as his Pro Late Model championship. Ty only ran in 22 out of the 50 total races we ran in all four divisions, but he quite simply dominated those races that he was in. 22 starts, 15 wins, 13 poles, 1,012 laps led, 19 top 5’s, 19 top 10’s, and 1 SARA Pro Late Model championship. Those numbers don’t lie, Ty is pretty good. And he probably would have gotten a couple more wins as he led laps in 4 other races, but sometimes you can’t win them all, instead he just won 68% of his starts. He also became the first SARA driver to win a race in all four of our current active divisions including his Spring Season win at Milwaukee, but then he stepped that stat up another notch by winning in each division, all in the Summer Season. He picked up 3 Legends wins, 3 Street Stock wins, 8 Pro Late Model wins, and 1 Super Late Model win. Those are some impressive numbers, and that is why Ty is our 2014 Summer Season Driver of the Season.