Week #5 of the season saw probably one of the toughest weeks on the schedule, with a couple divisions visiting the smallest tracks on iRacing, the Pro Late Models visiting their only road course of the season, and the Super Late Models visiting the always tricky Concord Speedway. But despite the tough tracks, the racing was tight and exciting all week long. Before heading into Week #6 of the season, let’s take a look at last week’s Power Rankings:
10. Patrick Hahe – Last Week’s Rank: NR
Patrick is a Monday night regular in both the Legends and SK Modifieds, and he’s been having some good runs as of late. In his late five races, he’s picked up five straight top tens including the Legends race at Lanier last week in 9th. Then he ran up front in the SK race all night, led 17 laps and ended up with a 3rd place finish. Patrick has always been consistent, so we’ll look to see if he can keep it up.
9. David Krikorian – Last Week’s Rank: NR
David has always been a part timer in SARA, but each time he shows up he’s a threat to run up front, especially on road courses. And in his last three races, he’s picked up a pair of road course wins in both the Legends and Pro Late Model divisions. The main reason for David being in these rankings are those wins, but he may be in danger of falling right back out unless he runs again this coming week, and keeps it up front like he seems to do.
8. Parker Traves – Last Week’s Rank: 9th (+1)
Parker had a few good finishes last week, picking up a runner up finish in the Legends, a 3rd place finish in the Street Stocks, and a 7th in the Super Late Model race. In his one bad finish, he ended up 16th in the SK Modified race, but that was after picking up the pole but dropping out of the race at the drop of the green flag due to connection issues. Just like we said last week, Parker should be able to stay in these rankings with these kinds of consistent finishes up front.
7. Casey Kelley – Last Week’s Rank: 7th (+0)
Casey has been on a roll in his few starts this season, but again last week he picked up another podium finish in the Super Late Models when he got 3rd at Concord. And he still remains in the 3rd spot in the standings as well after missing the first race of the season. Last week we predicted he would be picking up a win very soon, and while that was our only prediction that didn’t come true, we still think he could be on his way to victory in the near future.
6. Justin Brooks – Last Week’s Rank: 8th (+2)
Last week, we noted that Justin was on one of his longest “cold streaks” since he hadn’t won a race in five straight attempts for him. So then he went out last week and got that win in the Street Stock race, and backed it up again with a 2nd victory last week when he won the Super Late Model race at Concord. Now that Justin is back to his winning ways, he could be on his way to a few more wins and an improved position in these rankings.
5. Matt Rolfe – Last Week’s Rank: 4th (-1)
Matt had a decent week last week, but drops down a spot in the rankings. He started off the week with a poor finish in the Legends race in 14th. But in the rest of the races, he picked up an 8th, a 10th, and a pair of 5th place finishes throughout the week. He also sits in the top five in the points standings in all five divisions as well. Matt continues to pick up top ten and top five finishes each time out, and we’ll look for much of the same throughout the season.
4. Ty Spearman – Last Week’s Rank: 5th (+1)
Ty continues to be a top contender each time out, and has been proving it in the Super Late Model division with another top five finish when he got 4th in the Super Late Model race at Concord. He continues to sit 2nd in the standings as well and is one of just two drivers to complete every lap so far this season in the SLM division. With that kind of consistency, Ty will be one of the guys to beat each time out.
3. Ryan Borges – Last Week’s Rank: 3rd (+0)
Last week in the Power Rankings, we predicted that a win for Ryan in something other than the Legends division would happen very soon, and it came in the SK Modified race when he picked up the win at Lanier. He also put up a 4th place finish in the Legends, a 7th in the Street Stock race, but had just an 11th place finish in the Super Late Model race. Now that Ryan has a win in multiple divisions, he’s shown that he has what it takes to be a front runner each time out.
2. Bill Martin – Last Week’s Rank: 2nd (+0)
We had another prediction go right last week when we said Bill would begin to pick up some more wins, and he did that right away by picking up the Legends win. But it wasn’t an easy win as he charged from the back and came to the finish line leading only one single lap by just .015 seconds. And in his other races he picked up a 3rd, and a 5th, but had bad luck in the SK race with a 13th place finish. With another win in the books, look for him to continue to picking up wins on a weekly basis.
1. Cody Kelley – Last Week’s Rank: 1st (+0)
Well, no wins for Cody last week which was a little bit of a surprise, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying. He finished runner up in the Street Stock race at Oxford, as well as in the Super Late Model race at Concord, after spending most of those laps just a car length away from the lead. His other finish last week was a 7th place finish after having to start at the rear and climbing his way through the field. With the way Cody has been running this season, we expect some more wins coming as he continues his torrid pace each time out.
New This Week: Patrick Hahe, David Krikorian
Dropped Out: Ty Majeski, James Linkiewicz