The Sportsman Street Stock Series made the trip down to a hot and sunny USA International Speedway for 75 laps of action, for the second race of the season. Temperatures around 90 degrees would make a slick track for the field and they would have a rough start getting used to the conditions.
22 drivers would start the event, but it was Justin Brooks who would pick up his second straight pole in the series. As the green flag dropped, the pace of the field was slowed twice in the early laps, and even the pace car would have trouble as he would have some mechanical issues forcing the field to come to a halt under the red flag. (AKA the pace car glitched and never came out for the caution flag, forcing the officials to put up a new session). After getting the pace car fixed up and the red flag was lifted, 17 cars would come back out onto the track to finish out the remaining 70 laps of the race. Brooks would jump back out to the lead but again the field would have trouble settling in with a couple quick cautions. During one of those early yellows, the leader would have some mechanical troubles as well and would have to bring it to the garage ending his night early.
This would hand the lead over to Brian Tedeschi, and from this point on the field would get some green flag racing in. Behind Tedeschi, Adam Jordan would keep pressure on the leader and Gary Hensley wasn’t too far behind in third. TJ Graves would work his way up from deep in the field up to the 3rd spot, before working his way up into 2nd place on the lap 46 restart. He would ride right on the back bumper of the leader as the laps wound down, waiting to make his move. Behind the lead group, Clay Snider and Dale Owen would have an aggressive battle as Owen looked for a way to get around the #38 car, while Scott Dunlap, Matt Rolfe, Hensley, and Mike Belanger all battled within the top 10.
A final restart would happen with just four laps to go, and Tedeschi would get the jump and held onto the top spot. Graves would look to set him up one last time, but a caution with just 2 laps remaining would end the race. Brian Tedeschi was able to hold off the field and would pick up his first career SARA victory in his 11th career start. TJ Graves would end up finishing in 2nd place after his charge to the front, with Adam Jordan finishing on the podium in 3rd after a strong run all night long. Clay Snider would work his way up from 15th to a 4th place finish, holding off Dale Owen in 5th.
- Brian Tedeschi
- TJ Graves
- Adam Jordan
- Clay Snider
- Dale Owen
- Scott Dunlap
- Matt Rolfe
- Gary Hensley
- Mike Belanger
- Arrick Jazynka
- Ronald Kirk
- Brian Gavin
- Travis Warling
- Scott Hutchison
- Ken Belanger
- Christopher Holling
- Justin Brooks
- Ronald Williams
- Jeff Bye Jr
- Justin Andrews
- Sam Clark
- Charles Larr
The series will look to rebound after a tough race, as they head to the Iowa Speedway next week for the first time with a 50 lap feature event.
For full results and standings, click HERE.