Williams Holds On For Last Lap Dash

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Williams_SSWin1

The Sportsman Street Stock Series presented by Three Palms Speedway, visited the large 1.5 mile Charlotte oval on Tuesday night, which was the series’ first time ever visiting the track. 22 drivers brought their cars as the series tried out the new open qualifying session for the first time.

The new qualifying format was interesting as some cars would team up to draft for better lap times. Justin Brooks and Tim Bills would get together and they would set the fast times to sit on the front row.

On the drop of the green, Brooks would jump out to the lead with Mark Arthur following in tow behind him. Behind them, positions would jostle throughout the field as drivers would look to settle in. After a couple laps of calming the nerves, the action up front heated up as Brooks and Arthur would battle it out for the lead as they leaned on each other for a full lap. Just a lap later Brooks would make a move to the inside coming off of four and the two would fight for the same spot on the track and got together at the front of the field sending them both into a spin. A few other drivers would get collected in it as well.

This would leave Ronald Williams as the front runner on the restart. Drivers like Bills, Brian Tedeschi, Ken Belanger, Arthur, and Matt Rolfe would all hang towards the front as the laps wound down. Ken Belanger, or “KB” would have a career night at Charlotte, as he qualified 5th and ran within the top 5 all night and got as far up as 2nd place.

A late caution would set the field up for a 1 lap dash to the finish. Williams would take off on the green as KB was able to keep his nose on the bottom to move up to second, moving Arthur back to third, and Rolfe right behind them in tow. As the field came around the last corner for the final time, Williams was able to keep it tucked on the bottom and hold off the field on the last lap dash to pick up the season opening victory. This was Williams’ 7th career SARA victory.

KB ended up finishing 2nd on the night, capping off his career best finish. Arthur and Rolfe remained in 3rd and 4th, while Tim Bills rounded out the top 5.

  1. Ronald Williams
  2. Ken Belanger
  3. Mark Arthur
  4. Matt Rolfe
  5. Tim Bills
  6. Justin Brooks
  7. Charles Denny
  8. Kyle Vincent Gilbert
  9. Adam Jordan
  10. Sam Clark
  11. Arrick Jazynka
  12. Scott Dunlap
  13. Christopher Holling
  14. Scott Hutchinson
  15. Brian Gavin
  16. Derek Robinson
  17. Brian Tedeschi
  18. Mike Belanger
  19. Brian Green
  20. Clay Snider
  21. Ronald Kirk
  22. Mackenzie Brewer

Next week the series makes the trip to Lakeland to take on USA for 75 laps.

For full results and standings from the night, click HERE.