The RB Performance Super Late Models made their seasonal trip to the Milwaukee Mile last Thursday night for a pair of 50-lap double features.
For the first feature event, Ty Majeski started things off by narrowly beating out David Krikorian for the pole, as Majeski set a new track record with a lap of 28.053 seconds for his 64th career pole.
Majeski led the field to the green flag where he jumped out to a 5 car length lead early but a caution just four laps in slowed the pace early. But after the restart the race would go green the rest of the distance for the 50 lap feature, which allowed the field to see who had the long run pace.
After the restart, Majeski jumped ahead once again with Jim Caudill moving up to the 2nd spot just a car length behind. After a few laps, Krikorian found his groove and made his way back by Caudill for 2nd, and then looked to chase down Majeski out front on lap 12. Majeski’s lead shrunk down from over a half-second down to just a car length over the next 10 laps, and by the halfway point of the race, Krikorian was looking for a way by.
Krikorian made his move to the inside on lap 25 but Majeski hung tough on the outside and shut the door heading into turn three. A lap later though, Krikorian regrouped and made another charge, working to the inside of Majeski to take the lead on lap 27, and then began to pull away out front.
Krikorian showed his strength over the second half of the race, as the rest of the field began to fall off some, and he went on to pull out to a 5-second gap as he came around to take the checkered flag. The win for Krikorian was his first of the season, and the 19th win of his SARA career.
Tyler Breeding finished in the 2nd spot after he steadily climbed from his 7th starting position towards the front of the field. Joe Schaffer and Caudill swapped the 3rd position a handful of times over the final 10 laps of the race after they both ran inside the top five all race, and eventually Schaffer gained the advantage to finish 3rd with Caudill settling for 4th. Ty Spearman rounded out the top five after he too had to climb from an 11th starting spot before making his way up to a 5th place finish in the final stages. Matt Rolfe, Camaron Hamilton, Tim Bills, Majeski, and Bill Martin rounded out the top ten.
With one race complete, the field prepared for the second event of the night as the top 19 cars would get inverted after finishing on the lead lap of race one. With one car not making the grid for race two, and another car electing to start at the rear, this moved Chuck Sweeting up to the front row of the grid and he led the field to the green to get things underway.
Sweeting got the quick jump as the green flag flew and looked to run and hide out front as the front runners in race one were making quick progress in the early laps. With a couple of other cars electing to start at the rear, this helped Majeski slide up the inside row to start the race and he was the first car to break through the pack and set his sights on Sweeting out front. Sweeting had pulled away at the front but it took just 8 laps for Majeski to track him down and Majeski gained the advantage on lap 9.
While Majeski took the lead, race one winner Krikorian was stuck back in the 9th spot, while many others were already picking their way through the top ten. Camaron Hamilton moved up into 2nd early on, with Sweeting hanging onto 3rd, as Krikorian charged up to 4th ahead of Spearman prior to the first caution of the race on lap 16. A couple of cars inside the top ten got collected into turn one, ending their nights and collecting a few other cars from the back half of the field.
After the restart, Majeski jumped out ahead and controlled the lead once again, but Krikorian quickly moved up into the 2nd spot and the two drivers would battle it out once more for the race lead. Krikorian closed in on the rear bumper of the leader, and made a move on lap 26, but Majeski slammed the door shut like he had done in the first race. This time though, Krikorian wasn’t able to close the gap back up, and Majeski began to pull away out in front of the field.
The race remained under green flag conditions until lap 46, and when the caution flew it sealed the deal for Majeski as he had built a 1.2 second lead over Krikorian. Majeski led the field to the checkered and yellow flags and picked up his 5th SLM win of the season, and the 62nd win of his SARA career.
Krikorian came up one spot short of sweeping the double features as he used up his tires coming from the back half of the field to finish in 2nd. Tim Bills never quite got to show if he had anything for the front runners as he had to come from the back in both races but worked his way up onto the podium in race two with a 3rd place finish. Tyler Breeding was just one of two cars that finished in the top five in both races as he made his way up into the 4th spot in the late stages. After running 2nd early in the race, Hamilton dropped back but was able to hang onto to a 5th place finish. Jim Caudill, Windell Stratton, Ty Spearman, Darrell Hamlin, and Russell Berry rounded out the top ten.
With a pair of top ten runs, Camaron Hamilton continues to lead the points standings over David Krikorian, but the lead shrinks down from 40 points to just 18 heading into the off weeks. Weekly competition for the Super Late Model division take a two week break, but many of the stars of the division will lead the series into the Spring Shootout on Wednesday night, taking center stage on LSRTV for 250 laps of competition at the USA International Speedway.