The Sportsman Stret Stock Series took their turn in the desert on Tuesday night when they visited the Phoenix International Raceway. Both the Super Late Models and the Pro late models had already raced the track where Justin Brooks and Ty Majeski would pick up the respective victories. And when qualifying got underway on Tuesday, the two drivers would qualify up front. Majeski would pick up the pole but would have to start at the back of the field, which moved Brooks up to the front to control the start of the race.
Brooks would lead the field to the green flag to get things started as the set off on a 24-lap run to star the race. Brooks got the jump out front, and slowly began to pull away from the pack as cars battled behind him. Ty Spearman settled into the 2nd spot in the opening laps, but Bill Martin wasn’t too far behind and was gaining on him. Both James and Jacob Linkiewicz also ran in the top 5 early on but had fallen back away from the cars up front.
By lap 10, Brooks had pulled out to nearly a 1-second lead, just as Martin would work his way up into 2nd, and Martin would begin to cut into that lead. The margin up front would shrink for a few laps, but Brooks would begin to stretch it back out once again as Martin’s times started to drop off. At the back of the top 5, Majeski was starting to make his way towards the front and took over that 5th spot on lap 18, and just a few laps later he would take 4th as well, right before the first caution of the race would come out on lap 24.
The field would use the caution to head down pit road, and Brooks would remain in the lead after winning the race off pit road. He would bring the field back around for the green, and by the time the field began to head into turn one, the action began to heat up as well. Majeski would make a 3-wide move from the 5th spot on the restart to move up a couple of spots, but as the pack came out of turn two, drivers continued to battle 3-wide for spots. Todd Sipe would make a move to the bottom from the 6th spot, but he would be forced into the grass through the dogleg, which resulted in contact between himself and Jacob Linkiewicz. Both drivers would end up in the grass, but Sipe would get turned around to bring out the quick caution.
Another quick caution off the ensuing restart would set the field up for the lap 36 restart. Brooks got the jump back into the lead ahead of Martin, but Jacob Linkiewicz would get a good run to get by Martin to take the 2nd spot. This would shuffle Martin back to the 4th spot as Majeski was able to slide by him as well. As the laps began to wind down, Linkiewicz was able to stay within a few car lengths of Brooks out front, but he would soon face pressure from Majeski who was looking to move up. Majeski would make his move to the bottom of turn one on lap 46, but coming off of turn two, both drivers would get together which sent Linkiewicz around, bringing out the final caution of the race.
Brooks brought the field around for the final time under the checkered and yellow flags, leading all 50 laps of the race to pick up his 28th career SARA victory. Majeski would finish in the 2nd spot ahead of Martin in 3rd. Spearman finished in the 4th spot, with Tim Bills working his way up late to finish with a top 5.
The Sportsman Street Stocks will return to the track in two weeks for their week #11 event at the Stafford Motor Speedway.
Ken Belanger picked up another top 10 with an 8th place finish, and hangs onto the points lead by just 8 points heading into the final two weeks of the season. For the full results and standings, click HERE.