The RB Performance Super Late Models visited Lanier National Speedway for it’s Week 10, 125-lap event on Thursday night. 40 drivers would bring their cars out for the race and things would get started with the division’s new group qualifying format. The drivers would be split into four groups for qualifying, and in the first group, Trey Jarrell would set the fastest time and took the pole with a lap of 13.153 seconds. The top 20 cars would be locked into the race on times, while the rest of the drivers would have to battle it out in the Last Chance Qualifier. 17 drivers would end up running the LCQ, and Cory Dunn would win the event with Trent Brown also transferring from the 2nd spot. The starting grid for the feature would then be filled out by provisionals.
Jarrell used his pole starting position to jump into the lead while Justin Brooks and Ty Majeski settled in behind in on the first lap. The top 3 cars began to pull away as the rest of the field sorted things out in the early laps, before the first caution flew just a couple laps in.
After a 2nd quick caution, Jarrell led the field to the lap 20 restart but Brooks would battle on his outside for the first lap around before ducking in behind him. But Jarrell was still under pressure as Brooks would give him a slight bump making him get loose. Jarrell would slide up the track the next corner, allowing Brooks to dive to the bottom before they drag raced to the line to complete lap 22. But as they came off of turn two, side-by-side, Majeski would get a run off of the corner from behind them to drive under both cars, putting them three wide for the race lead. Jarrell would fall back, while Brooks would stay on the outside to win the race back to the line to lead lap 23, but Majeski would pull ahead on the bottom and into the lead on lap 24 just before the next caution of the race came out on the same lap.
On the following restart, Majeski pulled ahead into the lead with Brooks and Jarrell falling in behind him. TJ Graves had worked his way into the top 5 as well as Cody Kelley who ran in the 5th spot during the next run. Points leader Fred Moreau moved up into 6th ahead of Steven Burnett, Parker Traves, and Ty Spearman who had fallen back in the outside groove, while the battle was on for the 10th spot. Todd Sipe emerged from the group into that position, but Kevin Myers quickly took it away from him and began to drive away with the spot as a pack continued to battle it out behind him. The top 10 all ran single file, separating themselves from the rest of the field up until a lap 42 caution came out further back in the pack.
After a stackup on the restart, Majeski then led the field to the lap 55 restart while Graves had moved up into the 2nd spot, with Kelley, Jarrell and Moreau running behind him in the top 5. As Majeski began to pull away, Jarrell had moved into 3rd and was pressuring Graves for the 2nd spot, just as another caution would come out. This time though, Majeski would head down pit road for tires, while most of the field stayed out on track. This shuffled him all the way back to 19th on the restart, while it handed the lead over to Graves.
But on the following restart, while Graves jumped out to the lead, Jarrell and Brooks were trying to get back down to the bottom groove and they would make contact. Jarrell would slide through the corner, but as he tried to save it, he spun back up in front of the field. Only a couple of cars would get collected, but the caution would come out late. As Jarrell sat backwards on the track, the leaders were coming back through the corner just as the caution flew, and Graves would come around and get collected, taking him out of the lead.
Brooks would take over the top spot, and lead Traves to the green flag. Burnett ran 3rd, ahead of Moreau who fell back in line into 4th after restarting on the outside, and Dunn who had worked all the way up to 5th. But just behind them, Majeski had already worked his way up to 6th after missing the previous wreck and restarting in the 8th spot. As he began to work his way through the top 5, Brooks was out front, trying to pull away. By lap 80, Majeski worked his way underneath Burnett for the 3rd spot, while at the same time Traves would get loose and slid to the bottom, allowing Majeski to split the middle and move right into the 2nd spot. A few laps later, another caution would come out to bunch the field back up, erasing the 1 second lead that Brooks had built up.
On the lap 88 restart, Brooks and Majeski would battle to the green flag, but Majeski would quickly get in line behind Brooks, and followed right on his rear bumper. Majeski would poke his nose to the inside of the leader a couple of times, but the door would get closed on each attempt, until lap 93 where Brooks would get loose coming to the line, allowing Majeski to make his move to the inside to grab the lead. With the lead in his hands, Majeski began to pull away some, until the caution flew once more on lap 94. With the laps beginning to wind down, the cautions began to pick up, with the yellow coming out a couple more times setting up the final restart of the race on lap 114.
Majeski continued to lead on the final restart, with Brooks on his outside looking to get one more chance at the lead. Majeski got the jump on the start, but would only pull ahead by just a car length as Brooks looked to keep the pressure on for the lead. With just three laps to go however, the final caution of the race would come out, ending the battle for the lead.
As the yellow and checkered flags flew, Majeski would lead the field around for the final time, leading 69 total laps as he picked up his 23rd career SARA victory. Brooks would finish in the 2nd position, with Moreau moving up into 3rd after a late race pass. Spearman worked his way back into the top 5 late with a 4th place finish, with Burnett rounding out the top 5.
Penalties:
Dale Miramonti – Retaliation – Banned (This driver has previously run in SARA races with another name, and was also banned from retaliating as well)
In two weeks, the Super Late Models will return to the track when they head to Irwindale for their Week 11 race.
With his 3rd place finish, Fred Moreau hangs onto the points lead by 70 points, but with drop weeks coming into play after the next race, the points battle could end up being closer than it is. For full results and standings, click HERE.