The SARA Clash4Cash All-Star Invitational – Presented by Callaway Investments and The Posse, wrapped up the 2015 Summer Season on Thursday night. Invites were sent out to over 40 drivers from SARA, with 32 of those drivers accepting those invites to participate in our end-of-season all-star event. The event placed all 32 cars, 8 from each division, all on track at the same time to compete in a wild and crazy 45 minute timed race.
As drivers entered the race session, they would finally learn which team they would be placed on, numbered 1-8. Each team consisted of a Super Late Model driver, a Pro Late Model driver, a SK Modified driver, and a Street Stock driver. The teams were predetermined by league admins prior to the event, in effort to level the playing field for each team. A team may have had one of the better SLM drivers on their team, but may have also had the 8th best driver from a different division to even it out. The object of the race was to have your team score the lowest combined overall finish.
The night got start off with single car qualifying runs, and the Super Late Models proved they might be able to hang with the SK Modifieds a bit more this time, as two SLM made up the front row of the grid. David Krikorian picked up the pole, with Justin Brooks to his outside, just ahead of the first SK Modified of Ron Hagolin in 3rd. Krikorian jumped into the lead for the first lap, before Brooks took to the low side to take the spot away on lap 2. Brooks was caught up in an early spin as he got caught up in lapped traffic early on, something that everyone would have to deal with all race long. This allowed Krikorian to take over the top spot, but it took just 21 laps before the tires started falling off, and SK Mods made their way to the front with Matt Rolfe leading the charge.
Although Rolfe had taken over the lead out front, it wouldn’t matter much at the time as the rest of the field still had plenty of things to sort out. One of the twists of the race was that the field was required to take a four tire pit stop at any point during the event, and some cars were forced to make that stop early on in the event, but as the field reached halfway, it was time for many cars to hit pit road. A 25 lap window opened up the pit window, which saw most of the field take their tires during this time, and it shook up the entire running order.
One thing we know of from previous versions of the Clash, is that it’s truly not over until it’s over, as last Fall we saw an incident in the final minutes of the race that took out the overall leader and ultimately changed which team won the event. And as the timer began to run down inside of 10 minutes left in this season’s event, the action picked up and the running order continued to shuffle.
Rolfe regained the lead after the round of pit stops, and eventually put the entire field a lap down, but that all changed with about 5 minutes left in the event as he would slide up in front of the Super Late Model of Russel Berry, and they made contact which resulted in both cars on their roof. A number of other cars were also involved, and it allowed Travis Warling to take over the top spot in the overall standings.
But the battle wasn’t over for the overall win, as Borges, who was also caught up in that late incident, was hunting Warling down from a few seconds back. Borges caught Warling with just minutes left in the event, and tried to look for a way by as they navigated traffic. As the timer reach zero, Borges shot down to the apron underneath Warling, and when they came across the stripe for the white flag, Borges nosed ahead for the lead with one to go. The two ran side by side as the entered the final turn, approaching lapped cars, and Borges went to the bottom again, and as they exited turn four, Borges was clear in the lead and came around to pick up the overall Clash4Cash victory, leading just the final two laps of the entire event.
Although Borges picked up the overall and SK Modified win, it would only matter if his team did enough in the other divisions to give his team the victory. Also picking up wins on the night, Krikorian was able to stay ahead of the rest of the other Super Late Models all race long, only giving up the SLM lead one other time on the night but made it back up after the round of pit stops and he would take the SLM victory. In Pro Late Models, it was all Bill Martin as he completely dominated his division, leading every single lap in the PLM class even throughout the pit cycle, as he picked up the PLM victory. In Street Stocks, it was all about survival as many cars within the division leading laps, but something ultimately happened to each of them. Tim Bills, Darrell Hamlin, Mike Whited, and Stephen Shore each led laps in their division throughout the race, but some mistakes and some incidents dropped them back, while Ian Layne made his way to the front of the class, and stayed out of trouble the rest of the way to pick up the SS victory.
After the race was complete, the numbers were calculated and when the results were final, it was Team 2 that picked up the Clash4Cash victory on the night, with their drivers finishing with a combined finish/score of 13. Team 2 beat out Team 1 by just 2 points, while Teams 3 & 4 tied for the 3rd spot.
Team 2 was led by Ian Layne who picked up the victory in the Street Stock division. Davey Riendeau scored a 3rd place finish for the team in the Pro Late Models. Wade Tschida earned a 4th in the Super Late Models, and Matt Rolfe scored 5 points in the SK Modified division.
A big thank you goes out to all of the drivers who competed in the Clash4Cash to close out the Summer Season, as well as all of the drivers that competed all season long. The Clash4Cash was a wild, crazy, exciting, chaotic race, but an awesome way to end a great season. We’re already planning ahead for the Fall, and we’ll have more info and news on many things coming in the near future.
Here’s the final Clash4Cash results:
Team 2 – Clash4Cash winners – 13 total points
SLM – Wade Tschida – 4 points
PLM – Davey Riendeau – 3 points
SK – Matt Rolfe – 5 points
SS- Ian Layne – 1 point
Team 1 – 2nd place – 15 points
SLM – James LInkiewicz – 3 points
PLM – Marc Gammack – 7 points
SK – Ryan Borges – 1 points
SS – Mike Whited – 4 points
Team 4 – Tied-3rd place – 16 points
SLM – Paul Fugate – 7 points
PLM – Bill Martin – 1 point
SK – Travis Warling – 2 points
SS – Clay Snider – 6 points
Team 3 – Tied-3rd place – 16 points
SLM – Joe Schaffer – 2 points
PLM – Matt Eddy – 4 points
SK – Michael German – 3 points
SS – Stephen Shore – 7 points
Team 6 – 5th place – 17 points
SLM – David Krikorian – 1 point
PLM – Brandon Wilkinson – 5 points
SK – Ron Hagolin – 8 points
SS – Todd Sipe – 3 points
Team 7 – 6th place – 19 points
SLM – Justin Brooks – 5 points
PLM – Cody Leland – 8 points
SK – Mark Welch – 4 points
SS – Darrell Hamlin – 2 points
Team 8 – 7th place – 20 points
SLM – Derek Robinson – 6 points
PLM – Windell Stratton – 2 points
SK – Michael Baxter – 7 points
SS – Tim Bills – 5 points
Team 5 – 8th place – 28 points
SLM – Russell Berry – 8 points
PLM – Ty Spearman – 6 points
SK – Patrick Hahe – 6 points
SS – Dale Owen – 8 points