On Wednesday night, Langley Speedway hosted the MRD Pro Late Model Series for their 125-lap, week #8 event. 28 drivers would attempt to qualify for just 25 spots in the starting field, and Jarrid Boiros returned for his first start of the season and would set the fast time in qualifying to take the pole with a lap of 15.65 seconds. The pole for Boiros would be his 27th career SARA pole which is currently 2nd most all-time in the league.
Boiros led the field to the green flag and quickly jumped ahead into the lead. Bill Martin made his way to the bottom groove to stay in the 2nd spot while James Linkieiwcz settled into 3rd. By the second lap, the top 12 cars fell in line to run single file, but Cameron Hobbs was the first one to make a move as he moved under Andy Jones for the 4th spot. Anthony Celentano followed Hobbs up into 5th, before making a move himself just a couple laps later to take the 4th spot away. Just as this happened, a caution would come out on lap 7 from some contact further back in the pack.
This would set the field up for a couple of quick cautions as drivers would fight for the bottom groove on the restarts. The field finally got back to some green flag racing on the lap 25 restart, and began a 30-lap run. Boiros pulled ahead as the green flag came out, allowing Martin to duck back down in behind him. Linkiewicz remained in the 3rd spot while Celentano moved back up into 4th, while Hobbs was being shuffled towards the back of the pack as he was stuck in the outside groove. Jones moved back up into 5th, but Jacob Linkiewicz was on the move and would get the spot from Jones on lap 30. Another driver on the move was Ty Majeski, who needed a provisional to get into the field, but he would make his was up into 6th by lap 37 and had his sights set on the top 5.
Boiros continued to lead up front, and had pulled out to over a 1-second lead while Martin and James Linkiewicz battled for 2nd behind him. Those two would exchange the 2nd position a couple of times before Martin would get back by to take the spot, and then he began to reel in Boiros as the laps kept ticking off. Martin would begin the chase and had narrowed that gap for the lead down to less than half of a second, before the next caution would fly on lap 55 for a spin in the middle of the pack. With 55 laps on their tires, the leaders would head down pit road under the caution to get some fresh rubber to set themselves up for the next part of the race.
While most of the field was on pit road, it was Stan Bragg that stayed out on track to take over the lead, in attempt to gain some track position. Behind him, James Linkiewicz won the race off pit road with a two-tire pit stop, with Boiros lined up in the 3rd position for the restart. It didn’t take long for the newer tires to get back to the front though as Boiros quickly moved into the 2nd spot after the restart, and then made his move to the bottom of Bragg coming off of turn 4 on lap 63 to get back the lead on the next lap around. Martin and James Linkiewicz had moved back into the top 3, while Bragg was able to fall into the 4th spot as some contact for the 5th spot would give him the gap to get back in line. Majeski would move up into the 5th spot, and Jacob Linkiewicz followed him into 6th ahead of Matt Rolfe who fell back into 7th.
As the run continued, Boiros continued to lead, but Martin wasn’t giving him any room to get away as he stayed right on the leaders rear bumper for a number of laps, waiting for him to slip up. Martin would stay within a car length of Boiros, but behind them, Majeski had moved up into 3rd and was looking to reel in the leaders as well. As the field reached the lap 75 mark of the race, the top 3 had separated themselves a little bit from Jacob and James Linkiewicz in the top 5, while Kelley, Celentano, Rolfe, Clay Snider, and Bragg would round out the top 10 with just 50 laps remaining in the race. Unfortunately for the field, as the laps began to wind down, the cautions began to come out more frequently. The next caution would come out on lap 77, which slowed the field back down for another restart.
Over the course of the next couple restarts, Boiros had things control as he would jump out into the lead each time, as the others were all trying to get back to the inside groove. Martin ran 2nd on a couple of the restarts, before Majeski moved up into the 2nd spot as the field got closer to the lap 100 mark of the race. But the lap 101 restart would shake things up at the front of the field. Boiros stayed in the lead as he had done all night, while Majeski would try and get to the inside behind him, but Jacob Linkiewicz was right there to close the door to keep Majeski on the outside groove. Contact between the two would allow Linkiewicz to take that spot as Martin then filled the hole behind him to move Majeski back another spot. Majeski would finally get back to the bottom in the 5th spot as Kelley also moved up a spot on the inside, just as the caution would come out on lap 105.
On the lap 111 restart, the inside groove prevailed once again as Boiros moved into the lead. Martin would follow him into the 2nd spot, after some contact with Jacob Linkiewicz on the outside groove would slide him back a number of spots. Majeski also followed the inside groove back to the front, and made his move on Martin to retake the 2nd position by lap 113. This would shuffle Martin back to the 5th spot as Kelley and Ryan Borges would both fill the hole into the top 5 before the caution would fly on the next lap. The field wouldn’t get any more green flag racing in though, as the caution would fly once again on the next restart, which would lead the field to ending the race under the yellow flag.
In his first league start since July, Boiros would dominate, leading 119 laps of the race as he brought the field around for the checkered and yellow flags to pick up the victory. The win would be Boiros’s 18th career SARA victory, which currently puts him 5th all-time in that category, just one win away from being in a tie for 3rd. Majeski worked his way back up to a 2nd place finish after starting in the back of the field and getting shuffled back on a late race restart. Kelley finished off a quietly strong run by finishing in the 3rd position, followed by Borges who also had a quiet 4th place run, and Martin would finish off his run with a top 5 finish.
1. Jarrid Boiros
2. Ty Majeski
3. Cody Kelley
4. Ryan Borges
5. Bill Martin
6. Clay Snider
7. Jacob Linkiewicz
8. James Linkiewicz
9. Jeff Hoggard
10. Stan Bragg
11. Cameron Hobbs
12. Matt Rolfe
13. Russell Berry
14. Andy Jones
15. Anthony Celentano
16. Ian Layne
17. Ken Belanger
18. Charles Denny
19. Scott Dunlap
20. Mike Belanger
21. Ray Farlow
22. Derek Robinson
23. Todd Sipe
24. Mike Whited
25. Jarrett Lawrence
DNQ: Steve Rosner, Brandon Wilkinson, Joshua Boje-Bonkowski
Next time out, the Pro Late Models will head to the Concord Speedway, for some double header Twin-75 races.
With his 5th place finish, Bill Martin extends his points lead out to 123 points, and looks to have things in control as we head into the final races of the season. For the full results and standings, click HERE.