On Tuesday night, the Callaway Investments Sportsman Street Stock Series returned to action for the 5th event of their season after officially taking the week off for the Fall Brawl. The division would visit the Martinsville Speedway in Week 5 for a 75 lap feature event at the half-mile paperclip.
The night got started with Ty Spearman picking up the pole in Time Trials with a lap of 21.765 seconds, just .06 seconds ahead of 2nd place. After Time Trials, the top 8 cars would be inverted for both the Qualifying Dash and the feature event. In the Qualifying Dash, Dale Owen was inverted to the front of the pack as the top 10 cars battled it out for bonus points, but it was Cody Thompson who was able to get by and took the Dash win.
Owen once again led the field to the green flag for the feature race, and jumped out to the early lead. It didn’t take long for Thompson to reel him back in though from second as Thompson closed in on the rear bumper of Owen, and made his move to the lead on lap 12. From there, just three cautions slowed the pace of the race, but Thompson was facing the pressure at the front of the field with Ty Spearman and others right on his bumper, waiting for Thompson to slip up. That mistake never happened however as Thompson would hold the pack off, and would cross under the checkered and yellow flags after a late caution, and would pick up the victory. The win for Thompson was his first of the season, and his 2nd career SARA victory.
Just behind Thompson, Spearman, Hunter Combs, and Tim Bills all rode nose-to-tail throughout the majority of the race, each waiting in line to make up some spots, but they would each have to settle to finish 2nd thru 4th respectively. Ian Layne rounded out the top five after running near the back half of the top ten for most of the race before gaining some spots in the late caution.
Just outside the top five, Conner Blaise had a quiet but solid night, after starting back in 14th before moving up into the 8th spot where he rode for most of the race, before finishing in the 6th position. Clay Snider was able to finish 7th after running no better than 9th throughout the race until the late caution bumped him up some spots. Russell Berry and Cody Erdmann would each run just outside the top ten all race long, and would move up to finish 8th and 9th respectively. Matt Rolfe rounded out the top ten, recovering from an early race spin and another incident that dropped him back.
After finishing in the 5th position, Ian Layne has taken over the points lead, just two points ahead of a tie for second place, and will lead the field into next week’s race at Irwindale Inner.