This past Tuesday night, the Callaway Investments Sportsman Street Stock Series took their turn at double features as they visited the Lanier Speedway for Twin 50 lap races.
In Time Trials, Ty Spearman laid down the fast lap of 14.863 seconds to pick up his 15th career SARA pole, and led the field to the green flag for the first feature event. With just 50 laps to get the job done, much of the field jockeyed for positions but it was the top five cars that broke away and separated themselves from the rest of the field.
Spearman jumped out in front for the opening few laps before the first yellow, with Hunter Combs, Tim Bills, Darrell Hamlin and Matt Rolfe rounding out the front five. After the first restart, the top five settled back in for another short run up until the next yellow on lap 19.
After the lap 24 restart, once again things remained the same up front as Combs was able to settle in behind Spearman and would ride in his tire tracks throughout the remainder of the race. With the top five breaking away again, the battle was outside the top five for spots within the top ten. Mickey Kudlicki, Brandon Wilkinson and Dylan Schriner battled for the 6th spot, while Travis Warling, Jason Stewart and Tyler Howell swapped positions behind them.
As the laps wound down, Spearman continued to lead but had extended the gap by a few car lengths over Combs as they worked their way through lapped traffic. As they approached one lapped car with three to go, Spearman would be forced to go to the outside to get by which led to some contact between the leaders and the lapped car, bringing out the caution but Spearman would continue on to pick up the victory. The win for Spearman was his 16th career SARA victory.
Behind Spearman in race one, Combs would also continue on and finished in the 2nd spot after running in Spearman’s tire tracks all race long. The rest of the top five stayed the same the entire race, with Bills, Hamlin, and Rolfe finishing 3rd through 5th. Kudlicki, Schriner, Wilkinson, Howell, and Warling rounded out the top ten.
For the second 50-lap feature of the night, all of the cars that finished on the lead lap of race one would be inverted, sending Spearman and company deep into the field, as Mark Royer would be inverted to the front after finishing in 18th in the first event. With the inverted field, things would get a bit more exciting at the front of the field as they looked to sort things out.
Royer led through the first caution flag in the opening laps before Ian Layne took over at the point just before the second caution of the race on lap 12. On the restart, Layne controlled things up front, but some of the front runners from race one had already worked their way up into the top five with Tim Bills leading the way in 5th. Layne jumped out in front with Russell Berry following him into second as the outside groove got off to a slow start, also allowing Bills, Matt Rolfe, and Ty Spearman to jump up into the top five.
After another caution flag, Layne led the field to another restart but this time Bills followed him up into second and started putting the pressure on just past halfway. Bills closed in on his read bumper and made his move to take over the lead on lap 27, allowing Spearman and Rolfe to join him up into the top three as well. Spearman closed in on the bumper of Bills as they reached lap 30 but the race’s fourth caution haulted his progress and led to another restart.
On this restart, Bills got the jump out front, but this time a battle behind him would shape up for the second spot as Rolfe and Spearman swapped the runner-up spot a couple of times. The battle allowed Bills to pull away before Spearman could finally pull ahead into second, and then started chasing down the leader as the laps wound down.
The gap from Bills back to Spearman closed down to just a couple of car lengths on lap 47, before the race’s final caution of the race would slow the pace down to bring the field to the checkered and yellow flags. Bills would lead the field around and would pick up the win, his 5th career SARA victory.
Spearman would come up a spot short in sweeping the night as he crossed the line in the 2nd spot. Rolfe finished a couple spots ahead in race two and rounded out the podium in 3rd. Darrell Hamlin and Hunter Combs made their way back up into the top five as well to finish in 4th and 5th respectively, as all cars in the the top five would finish up front in both feature events. Russell Berry, Tyler Howell, Clay Snider, Brandon Wilkinson, and Chuck Smith rounded out the top ten.
After two strong finishes, Ty Spearman would leave Lanier with a 33 point gap atop the standings, and will lead the division int next week’s race at Martinsville.
Street Stock Division Page
Penalty Box
Race 1 Results
Race 2 Results
Standings
Race 2 Results