On Thursday night, the RB Performance Super Late Model Series visited the Langley Speedway for their week 6 event. 34 drivers would bring their cars to attempt to qualify for the 150-lap race, and things would get started with time trials. Nicolas Moreau set the fast time, but that would get tossed out the window as the field got split into two heat races.
In heat 1, Moreau used a front row starting spot to put his car in the lead and he would stay there for all 10 laps and took the heat race win, also putting him on the pole for the feature. In heat 2 action, Kevin Myers would do the same thing and pulled out front and stayed there to win the heat, and also put himself on the front row for the feature. Officials would be forced to cancel the LCQ unfortunately, but handed out the remaining spots in the 25-car feature grid as provisionals to drivers higher up in the points.
At the drop of the green, Moreau quickly jumped out front to lead the first lap, while Myers was stuck on the high side in the early laps. James Linkiewicz used the bottom lane to move up into the 2nd spot and set his sights on the leader early on. Ty Spearman, Steven Burnett and Cameron Hobbs moved up into the top 5 early, while it took 5 laps before Myers could find a hole on the bottom back in 7th. Much of the top 10 had sorted out and ran single file, up until the leader of Moreau would swing wide to go around a lap car, and as he came back down, Linkiewicz had filled the hole and both of the leaders would go around to bring out the first yellow on lap 8.
The incident would hand the lead over to Spearman, until he decided to bring his car down pit road early. Burnett now inherited the lead and would bring the field to the green on lap 13 ahead of Fred Moreau, Myers, Matt Rolfe, and Hobbs in the top 5. Burnett jumped out to a quick lead which allowed Fred Moreau to quickly get to the bottom ahead of Myers, as the top 3 put a small gap between themselves and the rest of the field. The next caution would come out on lap 24 as a couple cars further back in the field would get together, which would bunch the leaders back up.
After another quick yellow, Burnett, Kevin Berg, Rolfe, Derek Robinson and Dustin Riccioni became the new top 5 as a couple of leaders ducked down pit road. Burnett jumped ahead in the lead again while Rolfe was able to work up into the 2nd spot with Robinson following him through. Berg fell back to 4th but would keep pressure on Robinson for the spot as the run continued. Behind the top 4, James Linkiewicz and N Moreau had made their way back to the 5th in 6th spots by lap 47, but a couple laps later there would be contact from behind for Moreau which would send him around once again to bring out the caution. This time around, Burnett would bring his car down pit road for new tires, handing over the lead to Rolfe on lap 55.
On the following lap-57 restart, Rolfe would use the outside groove to get the jump and got back down into the lead ahead of Robinson, Berg, and both Linkiewicz’s who ran inside the top 5. The field again looked to sort things out as cars were trying to get to the bottom lane further back in the pack. Berg made his move into the 2nd spot which shuffled Robinson back to 5th, but by this time Rolfe was out front by over a full second. From 2nd back to about 11th, the field became nose-to-tail which would end up with some contact just inside the top 10, sending JayJay Day around to bring out the lap 65 caution.
Rolfe and the Linkiewicz’s would stay out in the top 3, but it didn’t take James Linkiewicz too long to make his move as he would get under Rolfe on lap 74 to take the lead by lap 75, dropping Rolfe back to 3rd. Behind them, Burnett had moved back up into the 4th spot, with Berg moving back up into 5th. The top 5 would remain the same as the field once again settled in, until some contact back in the 10th spot between both Moreau’s sent them around and into the infield grass to bring out the lap 84 yellow. The Linkiewicz’s decided it was time to head down pit road once more, while once again Rolfe stayed out to regain the lead.
When the field took the lap 90 restart, Rolfe had still not pitted, and this allowed Spearman to make quick work of him after taking the green. Spearman would dive it to the bottom in turn 3 and would have the lead at the line on lap 91. Day had recovered up to the 3rd spot, followed by Robinson and Clay Snider who made his first appearance in the top 5. But a caution at the back of the field would slow the pace once more. Rolfe finally headed down pit road from 2nd.
Throughout the first 100 laps, there had been some cautions to slow the pace but there was plenty of green flag racing in between, but in the final 50 laps, the cautions became more frequent. Spearman led the field to the next restart ahead of Day who was able to get back down into the 2nd spot. On the next caution however, Spearman decided to bring it back down pit road one more time to give up the lead, but most of the field would stay out, and the lead would be handed over to Day.
With Day now in the lead, he would take full advantage of the opportunity, and looked to hold off the field for the rest of the race, and had plenty of help from some restarts to do so. He would have to hold off Berg on multiple attempts as Berg would fight hard on the outside for a lap or two before dropping in behind. But with the cautions Day was able to use the restarts to jump out to the lead each time and stay there until the next yellow. The final caution of the night would come out on lap 146, which would end the race under the yellow flag.
Day seized the opportunity when he made it to the front, and would bring the field around for the final time under the yellow and checkered flags to take home the victory. The win for Day, was his first career SARA win while normally running a limited schedule. Kevin Berg finished his day near the front in the 2nd spot, followed by Fred and Nicolas Moreau who both recovered for top 5 finishes in 3rd and 4th. Finishing out the top 5 was Dale Owen in 5th.
1. JayJay Day
2. Kevin Berg
3. Fred Moreau
4. Nicolas Moreau
5. Dale Owen
6. Dustin Riccioni
7. Stan Bragg
8. Clay Snider
9. Ray Farlow
10. Ian Layne
11. Russell Berry
12. Ken Belanger
13. Steven Burnett
14. Jacob Linkiewicz
15. Ty Spearman
16. Derek Robinson
17. Cameron Hobbs
18. Matt Rolfe
19. James Linkieiwcz
20. Jeff Hoggard
21. Kevin Myers
22. Todd Cousins
DNS: Mike Belanger, Parker Traves, Colin Allman
DNQ: Mark Welch, Ethan Moore, Jeffrey Nichols, Dave Coursol, Paul Massey, Yves Pelland, Robert Matthews, Matt Eddy, Jesse Potter
Penalties:
Dale Owen – Aggressive Driving – Warning
Dustin Riccioni – Aggressive Driving – Warning
Jacob Linkiewicz – Aggressive Driving – Warning
Kevin Berg – Aggressive Driving – Warning
Next week the series will head to New Smyrna for a 125 lap feature event.
With his 3rd place finish, Fred Moreau takes over the points lead for the first time in his SARA career, by 35 points over 2nd place. For full results and standings, click HERE.