When the Pro Late Models rolled into New Hampshire Motor Speedway tonight, the championship had already been locked up by Ty Majeski, but that wouldn’t stop him from battling up front for the win. Open qualifying would start things off at “The Magic Mile”, and Majeski would put down the magic lap being the only driver to break into the 32 second barrier with a time of 32.993 seconds, over a tenth of a second ahead of Bill Martin in 2nd. 17 drivers would take the green flag for the season finale and Majeski would lead them to the start.
Majeski would get the jump into the lead while Martin followed him closely in 2nd, along with Matt Rolfe right on his tail for third. The three of them would pull out to a small gap over the Linkiewicz brothers with James in 4th and Jacob in 5th in the early laps. A couple of quick yellows would set the field up on a 20 lap green flag run, and while Majeski got the jump once again on the lap 12 restart, Martin was breathing down his next looking to take over the top spot. On lap 21, Martin was able to get the run he needed on the leader, and Majeski would let him by for the top spot. While this was going on, Jacob Linkiewicz was pulling the leaders in, and was able to reel in Majeski and took over the 2nd spot on lap 30. Rolfe had settled into the 4th spot while Dale Owen had moved up to 5th while holding off James Linkiewicz for that spot.
A lap 32 caution would take away the two second lead that Martin had developed on the run, and the field would take the opportunity to duck down pit road to take tires. Jeff Hoggard would stay out on the track to take the lead, while Rolfe would take just two tires to move up into the 2nd spot. Martin, Majeski and Jacob Linkiewicz would all take four tires and would all start in the top 5. On the restart, Rolfe would grab the lead quickly in turn 1 while behind him, Martin and Majeski would make contact with Majeski nearly spinning in front of the entire field. He would chase it and ended up saving it as cars would go everywhere to avoid him as they all came out of turn two running 3 and 4-wide, but everyone would make it through with Majeski only falling back to the 7th spot.
Back out front, Rolfe had the lead but Martin quickly closed in on him with the four fresh tires and looked to pass the leader on the inside. As both drivers were going down the backstretch on lap 40, they would make contact which sent Martins from bumper over the left rear of Rolfe’s car. Martin would be able to save it and continued on while Rolfe’s car shot down into the infield sliding through the grass, before he was finally able to save it in turn 3 but had fallen back to the 10th spot as a result. Martin was able to maintain speed but Jacob Linkiewicz followed close behind and Majeski was making quick work through the field and had moved up to the 3rd spot.
The final caution would come out on lap 51 and would set up the final run to the finish. Once again, the leaders all ducked down pit road to take on tires, with Majeski being the one to take two tires this time as he would come off pit road with the lead, followed by Owen, Jacob Linkiewicz, Jarret Lawrence and Martin as the top 5. Just as he had done the night before in the Street Stock race, Majeski would take advantage of taking two tires on a late pit stop and quickly pulled out to the lead on the restart. Jacob was able to move up into the 2nd spot with Martin right behind him and they would both look to chase down the leader in the late laps. Jacob was able to pull within half of a second over the run and had pulled up to the back bumper of the leader with just a couple laps to go, but Majeski would be just too strong and too tough to pass.
Majeski led the group around off of turn four, and would come to the checkered flag capping off his championship season with another victory. As dominant as he had been all season, he would have his work cut out for him in this race, but used great pit strategy and would be just too strong at the end of the run to take home his 8th win of the season. Jacob Linkiewicz would finish 2nd after a strong run all night, and Bill Martin would follow him to the line in 3rd after leading 24 laps in the race. Rolfe would start in 10th on the final restart and would work his way up to a 5th place finish, while Owen would finish off the top 5 with a 5th place finish.
Majeski’s dominant championship run consisted of 8 victories, resulting in a points lead of a huge 166 points and his first career SARA Championship. His other title stats for the season included 4 poles, 10 top 5’s, 10 top 10’s, and 523 laps led.
- Ty Majeski
- Jacob Linkiewicz
- Bill Martin
- Matt Rolfe
- Dale Owen
- Jarrett Lawrence
- Stan Bragg
- Scott Dunlap
- Caleb Williams
- Mike Belanger
- Jeff Hoggard
- Matt Eddy
- Michael Rennebu
- Ken Belanger
- James Linkiewicz
- Kenny Smith
- Brandon Wilkinson
Tonight’s race marks the end of the Summer Season for the Pro Late Models, but a new season will be starting up in a few weeks where the action will pick right back up.
For full results and the final championship standings, click HERE.