The Sportsman Street Stock Series rolled up to Oxford Plains tonight, for the Jesse Potter Memorial 81 race. Don’t worry, Jesse is fine (questionable in some ways), but in the spirit of Jesse’s championship last season in the Street Stocks, the Oxford race would be named after him even though he has ben absent of the league this season. 20 drivers brought out their Street Stocks for the event, and Justin Brooks would take his 5th pole of the season over Matt Rolfe who qualified in second.
Brooks led the field around for the green flag, and the field would get a quick run in before the 1st caution of the race. The first big shake-up of the race came on the restart, as a glitch with the pace car would force the field to restart earlier than expected, which set up a mess near the front of the field. Rolfe would get loose as he got on the gas and got sideways in front of the pack, while a couple of others such as Stan Bragg and Mike Belanger would also get involved in the wreck. Brooks got loose as well but was able to keep his car at the front of the field.
On the next restart, he would jump out once again, while Tim Bills was able to get up into the 2nd spot, followed by Parker Traves, Ryan Lutz and Dale Owen. A lap 32 restart would set up the longest run of the race. Brooks took off in the lead, and Traves settled into 2nd before he spun off the track ending his night early. Lutz moved up into 2nd while other positions in the top 5 shuffled around again. Owen moved up into 3rd followed by Adam Jordan who moved up and down in the top 10 all race long, while Bills fell back to 5th.
The inside groove proved to be the place to be on the restarts. Owen would follow Brooks up the inside to grab 2nd, while Jacob Beauchesne worked the inside to move up into the 3rd spot. The final restart happened on lap 75, setting up just a 6 lap run to the end. The top 3 would all fall into place, but the battle was on for the 4th spot. Lutz looked to hold off the field for the spot before Belanger was able to get by for 4th, but Rolfe was charging to the front after starting 10th on the last restart, and was able to get up to Belanger with just two laps to go, and got by him on the final lap. Belanger looked to hang on to 5th on the outside as they came around, but contact between himself and Lutz would send the 85 car around and back to a 10th place finish.
But back out front, Brooks had everything under control and came around to take his 4th street stock checkers of the season. Owen would hang onto 2nd, while Beauchesne came around ford 3rd. Rolfe’s late race charge moved him into 4th, and Lutz was able to hang onto 5th after the late race contact. With Rolfe’s 4th place finish, he increases his points lead to 35 points, but Brooks now moves into 2nd with his latest win.
- Justin Brooks
- Dale Owen
- Jacob Beauchesne
- Matt Rolfe
- Ryan Lutz
- Tim Bills
- Brandon Wilkinson
- Ken Belanger
- Kyle Wood
- Mike Belanger
- Joseph Yakes
- Adam Jordan
- Stan Bragg
- Jeffrey Jernigan
- Vince Kuelbs
- Robey Shuck
- Sam Clark
- Parker Traves
- Chase Harris
- Matt Mitchell
Next week the series heads to South Boston for 75 laps, for the division’s week 10 event.
For the full results and standings, click HERE.