A welcome appearance to the foothills of New England, where brown bears roam and racecars groan. On the pole, Ryan Heuser looks to capture another victory at one of his home racetracks, while the road-ringers scurry behind in attempt to defeat the rocket-man. Alex Crapser, John Tharp and Jimmie Stevens are all on the outside looking in for the Championship crown, and all have the ability to win at this wonderful facility.
Race Results
Points Standings
Race Recap
The green flag arose to a roaring crowd in sheer jubilation. Zakk Miller made his bid for the lead on the initial lap, passing the #138 on the right-hander and keeping the pace for six more laps. John Battista would take the top-spot on lap 7, leading for one before handing it back to Miller.
A horrible crash on the no-name straightaway sent the leaders into a frenzy for the ages! Battling for fourth on lap 17, Jimmie Stevens and Tim McDonnell slid into the infield guardrail. Stevens ricocheted into Craig Lee, sending the #2 into a miraculous pirouette. After several summersaults, his car landed with the driver in a daze. Speedy would finish last and out of Championship contention. Lee dropped from 2nd to 4th in the standings.
Zakk Miller passed through John Battista to re-take the top-spot on lap 21. William Perry joined in the battle to lead his third event in his last four races. One lap later, Battista retained his ground on top.
David Baldinger, Tony Pizzaro, Miller and Battista spent the remaining green flag run atop the leaderboard, swapping positions and making their name known in the popular Connecticut fan-base. Pit stops occurred around the lap 50 mark, with Adam Crapser and Tony Pizzaro trading the top-spot numerous times as they raced past the halfway mark. Johnny Reed Foley had crawled his way into the mix, seemingly having the fastest car in the field.
A lap 83 crash between Foley and Battista brought the battle for 5th to a halt as Zakk Miller took the lead to the caution flag. The following restart saw Mark Guthrie's life possibly saved, becoming the first test-driver for the "Forrest Grove" barrier. John Tharp hit the same barrier a few laps afterward, collecting Adam Crapser and Zach Michael in the process. Foley, William Perry, Guthrie, Michael and Crapser would all fall victim to the DNF bug. Zach would drop to 8th in the standings, in danger of missing the cutoff with two races left.
David Baldinger came out atop after the multiple melee's, still searching for his first Extravaganza Series victory. Scott Jackson would up near the front as well, leading multiple laps and attempting to re-capture his 2021 summer stride late into 2022. By the end of the run, the Race-2-Win duo of Tony Pizzaro and Rick Jackson found themselves at the top.
The miracle road course run for Rick came to a tire-squealing halt after he and his teammate collided while battling for the lead. The two nearly tangled in the previous corner as well, racing hard for the the points lead that would ironically go to both drivers anyway. Jackson limped home to 26th, while Pizzaro miraculously crawled to 8th with a beat-up racecar. He would be the new points leader by 7 over his teammate by the end.
As the road-ringers continued to collect themselves in accidents, Scott Jackson and Logan Sheets battled for the win along with their first victory of 2022. Jackson led for the first 12 laps of the run before Sheets made his move through the chicane at the 10-to-go mark. He would be going for his first Extravaganza Series career victory. Can he pull off the feat?
With five laps to go the leaders would tangle once more as the New England crowd roared like it was Fenway Park! The Fenway machine would get involved, as Jackson and Sheets tagged together and slid across the turn-4 grooved into oncoming traffic. Randy Dobbins and Donald Stewart were the first to barely squeeze through and take the lead. Both are looking for the first road course victories of their career.
All eyes were on Alex Crapser in fourth position as the race restarted wit two laps to go. He would struggle to pass Dakota Wilkins in third, searching for his first career top-5 finish. Dobbins and Stewart would battle side-by-side off of turn-4 heading into the chicane, battling for the victory with Stewart edging him out heading into the final right handers.
Stewart crossed the white flag a couple of car-lengths ahead of Dobbins. He was able to maintain his stretch throughout the entire final lap en route to a miraculous upset! Stewart survived the melee's and headed towards victory lane for his second victory of the season! This Clorox team had battled adversity after last years struggles and are in serious chase contention after a fourth-straight top-10 finish. He'll come into the final two events 109 points ahead of 11th place Alex Crapser. Congrats to Stewart, crew chief Mel Johnson, and the entire Geer-5 Racing crew for an excellent victory!
2022 Country Time at The Lime Video
|