Anthony Celentano, a SARA veteran, came into tonights MRD Pro Late Model Series race at Lanier, with over 100 career SARA starts. His best finish before this current season was a 3rd place finish. Not once had he seen victory lane in his SARA career, but after 100+ starts, and about just as many black flags (sorry Anthony! ha) he would come out on top for the first time tonight at Lanier.
Fresh off a 2nd place finish in the Super Late Model race at Thompson earlier in the evening, Celentano would grab the second starting spot, behind Clay Snider on the pole. Snider would jump out into the lead early as the field looked to see if they had anything for him early on.
In the early laps, Celentano would hang onto second place through the first couple of cautions. He would drop back to 4th on a restart, but on lap 20 he would start to make his run to the front. He would track down Matt Rolfe who was running 2nd at the time, and once he got by, he set sail for Snider. By lap 45 he was on the rear bumper of the leader, and give him a classic bump and run to take over the lead.
As Celentano ran out front, the field still had things to settle in the remaining laps. Snider, Rolfe, Jacob Linkiewicz, and Ray Farlow all battled it out over the top 5 spots in the second half of the race. A caution would fly with just 6 laps to go, which would mean the field would restart the race with a 1 lap shootout to see if any of them had anything for the leader.
But on the restart, Celentano got the jump, and would hang on, leading 55 out of the 100 laps en route to his first career SARA win. Jacob Linkiewicz would finish 2nd, Snider 3rd, with Rolfe and Jarrett Lawrence finishing out the top 5. Snider would increase his points lead over Rolfe with his strong run.
Next week the series heads to Langley Speedway. Full results and Standings can be found HERE.