On Monday night, the PSN Pro Series East ran their first true short track of the season, as they headed to the .395 mile flat track of Langley to kick off the second half of the season. Coming into the night, Scott Bolster held an 11 point lead in the standings over second place, Mike Belanger.
Justin Brooks, a regular of the Can-Am Racing Series, would make his first career official SARA start. We have previously seen Brooks, as he took the pole in last years CARS vs SARA Invitational event at NHMS. This time, Brooks would again take the pole for Monday’s race, as he lead the field to the green at Langley.
Brooks would jump out to the early lead over Matt Rolfe in the early laps, until the first caution came out on lap 24. This series has seen pit strategy come into play in the longer races when they have gone caution free, but this race would see pit strategy again, but only in effort to get new tires and gain track position during the cautions. Belanger would stay out under the first yellow to lead a lap, but it wouldn’t take Brooks long to make it back to the top spot.
A later caution would see Brooks, Bolster, and Jarrett Lawrence stay out, while Rolfe and Derek Robinson would bring the rest of the field down pit road. On the restart it wouldn’t take Rolfe long to make it back up to the second position. As he slowly began to track down Brooks, on lap 53 Rolfe would catch the back bumper as he rolled through turns 3 and 4, and the two would make contact, sending Rolfe into the infield. As Rolfe sat backwards, the field would fly by and the race would stay green.
From there on out, Brooks had the race in control, and would go on to lead 84 of the 88 laps, and pick up the win in his first start. Robinson would finish 2nd, Belanger 3rd, with Russell Berry and Jason Garrett rounding out the top 5.
With Belanger’s 3rd place finish, he would narrow the points gap to just 3 points behind Bolster for the top spot in the standings.
Next week the series heads to another short track, at New Smyrna. For full results and standings, click HERE.