The NEO Racing News SK Shootout Series made their first trip to the Southern National Motorsports Park this past Monday night. The division’s 5th race of the season also marked the second race of their Triple Crown Series with a 150-lap event.
In Time Trials, it was Ty Majeski that picked up his 4th consecutive pole, and the 59th of his SARA career. The top ten cars from Time Trials advanced into the Qualifying Dash, and a 7-car invert sent Majeski back into the pack while Michael German was inverted to the front of the field, and he went on to lead every lap in the Dash to get the win and some extra bonus points.
German led the field to the green flag for the feature event, but it was after an early restart where Bill Martin quickly charged to the front and got by German on the inside to take over the lead by lap 11. While Martin was out front leading, Majeski was picking his way back up through the field, and after a couple more quick restarts, the battle was on for the lead on the lap 39 restart.
Martin took the outside lane for the restart and got the quick jump ahead, but it also allowed Majeski to move up from 4th behind him up into the 2nd spot. The two cars began to pull away slightly over the next few laps out front with Martin still hanging onto the lead, up until he got loose coming out of turn four on lap 44, which allowed Majeski to get the run. Majeski ducked under the leader heading into turn one, and came out of turn two with the lead.
Much like the rest of the season so far, once Majeski got out front in the lead, no one was going to catch him. He would go on to lead the final 106 laps of the race, and pulled out to a 3.8 second lead during the final 48-lap run to pick up the checkered flag. The win was his 5th in a row, winning every SK race so far this season, and his 57th career SARA victory.
After leading early in the race, Martin remained in the top three for the remainder and out-dueled Tommy Burns in the closing laps to hang on for a 2nd place finish. Burns battled within the top five for most of the race before battling Martin late and settled for a 3rd place finish. Dale Owen had a strong run, running has high as 2nd at one point during the race and made his way back up to a 4th place finish during the final run after taking tires. Andy Shuck rounded out the top five after having to come from the 20th starting spot as he picked his way through the field to finish 5th.
Just outside the top five, Darek Gress also had to come from deep in the field, starting 21st, and made his way up into a 6th place finish. Wade Tschida started near the front of the field and battled inside the top ten all race long before settling into a 7th place finish. After leading the field to the green, German fell back and went a lap down at one point before recovering and ended up finishing in 8th. Scott Bell got caught up in a couple incidents but was able to keep his car on track and picked up a 9th place finish. Matt Eddy ran in-and-out of the top ten all race long and settled into the 10th late in the race where he finished.
Ty Majeski’s 5th consecutive win extended his points lead in the standings out to 76 points and he will lead the field into next week’s race at New Hampshire next Monday night.