Last week, all four divisions headed to vastly different tracks during their week 9 schedules. Both the Legends, and for the first time the Pro Late Models, ran on road courses. The Street Stocks ran on the short Oxford Plains track, while the Super Late Models ran the large one-mile Milwaukee Mile. All four tracks provided plenty of action, and as the season winds down, the points in all four divisions are shaping up for quite a battle throughout the field.
(Since these rankings are a couple days late, last night’s Week 10 Legends race is NOT included in these, only the week 9 events are)
Here’s the Week 9 Power Rankings:
10. Joshua Kotten (Prev Rank: NR (+))
Josh has had some strong runs this season in the Legends, and has been hanging near the front of the standings all season long, with 7 top 10’s and 5 top 5’s in 8 races. Despite missing one race in the season, after last week’s race Josh still sat 3rd in the points, coming off a top 5 last week at Okayama. This still puts Josh very much in contention near the top of the points, but will have to have some strong runs over the last couple of weeks to keep pace in the standings.
9. Jeff Ramsdell (Prev Rank: NR (+))
Jeff was in these rankings earlier in the season for a brief amount of time, and he works his way back up into them with a couple of strong runs the past couple of weeks. Two weeks ago at Langley he finished 4th, and improved it with a 3rd last week at The Glen in the Pro Late Models. Despite missing a week earlier in the season, Jeff had been strong enough this season that he is still in contention in the points standings. We’ll see if he can finish off the season just as strong as he’s been running the last couple of weeks.
8. Clay Snider (Prev Rank: 8th (+0))
Clay remains at number 8 this week, as he only ran one race and ended up with a 6th place finish in the Legends. That finish kept him at the top of the Legends points standings by a full race heading into the final few weeks of the season. Clay has been steady all season with a top 10 finish in every race, and he hasn’t finished worse than 8th all season. Clay will need to keep that pace up as he looks to hold on to the points lead as the season winds down.
7. Brian Tedeschi (Prev Rank: 7th (+0))
Brian also remains in the same spot this week, as he too only ran one race. But he made it count after recovering for a 4th place finish in the Super Late Models at The Milwaukee Mile. Brian seems to be fast every week but hasn’t always had the finishes to prove it. He sits 4th in the SLM points standings, and will need to get those good finishes to stay up that high in the points at the end of the season.
6. James Linkiewicz (Prev Rank: 5th (-1))
James drops down a spot this week but he did have some decent runs last week. In the Pro Late Model race at The Glen, he ended up with a 13th place finish, but he did recover with a strong 5th place finish at Milwaukee. He now sits 3rd in the PLM standings and 2nd in the SLM standings, so he’s in a good spot to finish up front in both division’s standings, but will need to finish off the season strong to stay in contention.
5. Matt Rolfe (Prev Rank: 6th (+1))
Matt ran all four races last week, and with his worst finish of 11th, he averaged a finish of 7.5 in all divisions. He started off with a 7th in the Legends, and improved on that with a 4th in the Street Stocks. In the PLM race on the road course he would settle into 8th, and in the SLM race he would lead a bunch of laps early in the race before finding trouble and ending up in 11th. With just a couple weeks left in the season, Matt hangs onto the SS points lead, and sits in 2nd in the legends but is still very much in contention for the lead in those standings.
4. Kenny Lindsley (Prev Rank: 2nd (-2))
Kenny drops down two spots this week, despite finishing with a strong 2nd place finish in the Super Late Model race at Milwaukee. As tight as it is at the top of these rankings, Kenny’s 21st place finish in the Pro Late Models was enough to drop him down in the rankings, as well as forced him to give up the points lead in the PLM. As we head into the final stretch of the season, he will need to rebound and have some strong runs to still be in the championship hunt.
3. Jacob Linkiewicz (Prev Rank: 4th (+1))
Jacob put in not one, but two strong top 5 finishes this week. He started off by running near the front of the Pro Late Model race all night and ended up with a 5th place finish. Then he backed it up by leading some laps and finishing with a strong 3rd place run in the Super Late Model race. With his strong finish, Jacob still leads the SLM point standings, but as drop weeks come into effect these last couple of weeks, he’ll need to keep running near the front to hang onto the lead.
2. Justin Brooks (Prev Rank: 3rd (+1))
Justin put in a very strong week, running in two races, and winning them both. He won the Street Stock race at Oxford, and then backed it up with a win in the Super Late Model race at Milwaukee. With the two wins, Justin now sits in a tie for the most career SARA victories at 19 with Chris Roberts and Derek Robinson. Justin also moves up into striking distance of the Street Stock points lead, so we’ll see if he can finish out the season strong enough to steal the championship in that division.
1. Ty Majeski (Prev Rank: 1st (+0))
After picking up a couple of wins two weeks ago, Ty ran just one race this week in the Pro Late Model race at The Glen. Ty ran in the top 5 all race long in a hard fought battle and brought it home with a 4th place finish. With the top 5 finish, and Lindsley having a tough race, Ty took over the points lead in the PLM despite having two less races than everyone, which proves how strong Ty has been running in the PLM division. As long as he keeps racing up good finishes, he should hang onto the top spot in the points as well as these rankings at the end of the season.
New This Week: Name – Finishes
-Joshua Kotten – 5th Legends
-Jeff Ramsdell – 3rd PLM
Dropped Out: Name – Finishes
-Bill Martin – 17th Legends, 14th PLM
-Stan Bragg – 10th Legends, 13th SS, 9th PLM, 18th SLM