The MRD Pro Late Model Series made their first and only trip to a road course last night as they took on Lime Rock Park for a 40-lap event. For the second straight season, the series would make both left and mostly right hand turns on a road course, but it would be their first visit to Lime Rock. Things would get started with open qualifying, and Christian Pederson would take the pole with a lap of 54.884 seconds.
Pederson led the field down the long straightaway to the green flag and into the first right hander. David Krikorian, winner of the last time the series visited a road course, would settle into the 2nd spot in the opening laps, before his race would end early. This would hand the 2nd spot over to Travis Warling, who is no stranger to doing well on road courses in the Legends division, but by this time Pederson’s lead had already grown to over 3 seconds in just 3 laps. Bill Martin ran in the 3rd spot early on ahead of Jacob Linkiewicz and Michael German, before Martin would take a trip off-track, giving the spot up and moving Anthony Celentano up into the top 5 on lap 10 of the race.
Outside the top 5, Derek Robinson had been making a charge towards the front. He started in the 13th spot but had already moved up into the 6th spot by lap 10 and was looking to put pressure in the top 5. Daniel Dunham was also on the move and made his way up into the 7th spot behind Robinson. Cody Kelley started within the top 10 and continued to run in the 8th spot, followed by another mover in Clay Snider who had moved up into 9th from the 18th spot, while Dan Shorter ran in the 10th place.
Out at the front of the field, Pederson continued his strong pace and had pulled out to an 8-second lead at the halfway point of the race over Warling. Linkiewicz ran in the 3rd spot until he would slip up which allowed Celentano and Robinson to each move up a spot. From that point, the battle to watch was for the 3rd spot as Robinson was pressuring for the position. Celentano would hold him off for a number of laps until lap 30 where Robinson was able to get the run to get by him. Celentano tried to keep up with Robinson and stayed on his bumper for a few laps until falling about a second back. Linkiewicz was holding onto the 5th spot until a couple of off-tracks would end his night early, just 8 laps from the finish. This moved German into the top 5 as the laps began to wind down.
Back out front, no one would have anything for Pederson and he pulled further and further out into the lead, lapping most of the field in this wake. He would pull out to a 23-second lead by the end of the race, and would come around to pick up the checkered flag and a flawless victory. The win would be Pederson’s 2nd career victory as he had previously won a race over a year earlier in the 3rd season of 2013. Warling would finish off his strong run in his first career SARA Pro Late Model start and wound up with a 2nd place finish on the night. Robinson finished his charge with a 3rd place finish, followed by Celentano in the 4th spot, and Dunham in 5th with his first top 5 finish.
1. Christian Pederson
2. Travis Warling
3. Derek Robinson
4. Anthony Celentano
5. Daniel Dunham
6. Michael German
7. Cody Kelley
8. Bill Martin
9. Dan Shorter
10. Clay Snider
11. Trent Brown
12. Scott Dunlap
13. Mike Belanger
14. Stan Bragg
15. Jarrett Lawrence
16. Todd Cousins
17. Ian Layne
18. James Linkiewicz
19. Jacob Linkiewicz
20. Ken Belanger
21. Cameron Hobbs
22. Jeff Hoggard
23. Jeffery Nichols
24. David Krikorian
Next time out the series will visit Langley Speedway for a 125-lap feature event.
With an 8th place finish, Bill Martin extends his points lead to over 100 points on 2nd place heading into next week’s race. For the full results and points, click HERE.