The RB Performance Super Late Model Series made the trip up to the Thompson Speedway for a 100 lap event at the tricky 5/8 mile track. A total of 40 Super Late Models would make laps during practice, and when the field moved onto time trials, 37 drivers would take times during the qualifying session. The top 24 times would advance into heat races to set the feature lineup, while cars that were 25th on back were forced into a 15-lap LCQ race where only the top 2 drivers would advance, setting up a 28 car field for the event with 2 provisionals at the back.
As heats got under way for the Fast 24, Jacob Linkiewicz would sit on the pole for the first heat race, and he went on to lead every lap and picked up the win just ahead of James Poleske. Jacob’s win in the heat, would earn him the pole starting position in the feature. Heat 2 rolled off with Jarrid Boiros at the front and he too would go on to lead every lap to win his heat as he pulled out to a decent lead. Jordan Hyland also lead every lap in heat 3 as he went on to the win just ahead of Kenny Lindsley. The LCQ session would see Kyle Wood move to the front from the 2nd starting spot while Mike Belanger was able to work past Dante Curtis early in the run to take over the 2nd spot. Wood and Belanger would finish 1st and 2nd and would advance to the feature, with Clay Snider and Ken Belanger receiving the provisional starting spots at the tail end of the field.
As the feature rolled out, 26 of the 28 cars that had qualified made their way onto the track. Linkiewicz and Boiros led the field to the green after winning their heat races. But it would be James Poleske that quickly made his way to the front from his 4th starting spot and he took over the lead by lap 1 and looked to set sail up front. Unfortunately the tough track would set up a number of early cautions which slowed the pace in the early laps. Poleske would be able to get the quick jump on each restart and hung onto the lead while everyone else was trying to settle in behind him.
A number of drivers would look to battle for the lead on restarts throughout the race. Linkiewicz was able to hang onto 2nd for a little while before Hyland was able to take over the spot. He would then hang onto it until Tyler Hudson worked his way up into 2nd from his 9th place starting spot, before he would find trouble just past half way. Once the race got to that half way point, the field was able to string together some longer green flag runs.
Trey Jarrell took over that 2nd spot on lap 57, and he would begin his pursuit of Poleske. He was able to get up to the back bumper of him a number of times but couldn’t quite find the room to get by. Behind them, Kenny Lindsley had recovered to get himself back up to 3rd with Ty Spearman right there as well. The top 4 cars looked to have an edge on the field at the end of the race and the 4 of them would look to battle it out to the checkers.
But with just 5 laps to go, Poleske would drive his car into turn 3, but Jarrell drove his car just a touch deeper and the two would make contact. Poleske’s car got sideways and Jarrell backed off to give him room to save it, but Poleske’s car would end up facing the wrong way after making contact with Lindsley who looked to take advantage of the leader’s contact. But when the caution flew for the incident, it was Jarrell that would be scored in the lead.
Jarrell would come around to take the checkered and yellow flags, to pick up his 4th SLM win in 5 races this season. Lindsley and Spearman inherited the 2nd and 3rd spots to finish on the podium. Mike Belanger snuck his way up to finish 4th after being the final transfer spot in the LCQ. And Poleske was able to bring his car around to finish in 5th, but after dominating, leading 95 laps, it wasn’t the finish he was looking for. With Jarrell’s win and early dominance in the season, his points lead rises to 123 points.
- Trey Jarrell
- Kenny Lindsley
- Ty Spearman
- Mike Belanger
- James Poleske
- Matt Rolfe
- Jordan Hyland
- Jarrid Boiros
- Al Smith Jr
- Fred Moreau
- Matthew Eddy
- Eddie McCray
- James Linkiewicz
- Cody Leland
- Ray Farlow
- Clay Snider
- Jacob Linkiewicz
- Jonathan Mawhinney
- Ken Belanger
- Brandon Wilkinson
- Stan Bragg Jr
- Tyler Hudson
- Brian Tedeschi
- Anthony Celentano
- Kyle Wood
- Todd Garren
- Evan Sorensen (DNS)
- Nicolas Sadowski (DNS)
DNQ: Russell Berry, Ryan Borges, Paul Boswell, Justin Brooks, Eugene Connell, Dante Curtis, Nick Morton, Derek Robinson, Chris Mclain, Heath Smith, Tyler Burgess, Robert Matthews
Next week the series stays up in Connecticut as the visit the Stafford Motor Speedway for a 125 lap event.
For the full results and standings, click HERE.