COLBY LAMBERT SOLID IN FOURTH WIN IN A ROW
Colby Lambert has begun to call Pure Stocks his own division, or so it seems. Colby put in another set of laps that brought him unwaveringly to the front, despite the fact that he started eight rows back (courtesy of his winning each of the previous three races.) But Colby cruised inexorably forward throughout the feature, getting past all the heavy-hitters in the division in the process.
At the finish, he battled through a green-white-checkered restart with tough Doug Benoit on his outside shoulder while Amy Arsenault and brother Jeremy Lambert crowded in behind them and just ahead of Lenny Sousa and DJ Pires. It was a contentious group he faced, and Benoit shot ahead on the outside at the green. Colby kicked it up a notch and they were door-to-door down the backstretch. Under the white flag, Colby pushed his nose past Benoit. Benoit had one trick left: he backed off, dropped under and tried to power past on Lambert’s low side, but Colby held fast . . . all the way to the checkers for his fourth straight win.
Lenny Sousa took the pole, and the front as the green fell. Side-by-side action ran behind him as Jason Tisi got turned sideways into the pack. Katie Neville had nowhere to go and ended up crushing her radiator, finishing her night and leaving a great deal of fluid with a long cleanup.
Sousa was away again on the full-race restart. Lambert was now in row seven. Donald Perry was trying to get under Lenny, but he pulled away and Mike Henriques came up on Perry’s case. Eric Schwegel went around on the front stretch, held on and kept it going, saving a caution. Sousa led them through lap two and the large field was able to stretch out single file. Shayne Lambert grabbed fourth place behind Henriques with Jeremy Lambert on his tail, working under Tommy Blackwell.
The line tightened up and by lap four, the top eleven were running nose-to-tail. Colby began working the outside groove to get around the pack as Jeremy spun to the infield out of turn four. On the lap five restart, Sousa again faced Perry, while Amy Arsenault now joined Henriques in the second row. Colby was now under The Outlaw, Dan Massa, and Jeremy was behind them.
Sousa nosed out and took the lead in turn two. Henriques got under Perry into second and Doug Benoit pushed past Arsenault, then under Perry for fourth. Further back, Massa was stuck between Pires and The Dozer, Dylan Cabral, in a three-wide on lap eight. But action came to a halt as Shayne and Emily Brightman got together as Shayne spun and she had nowhere to go. Shayne was able to drive away, but Brightman’s left front was pushed back hard enough to go off on the hook. Emily took the obligatory ride in the ambulance for a checkup, but got out of her car on ner own and walked steadily to the ambulance.
Sousa was away quickly and Benoit got in under Henriques while behind them, Arsenault was coming ahead and she also got under Henriques as Benoit pulled away. Schwegel spun again, but maintained the handle and pulled back into the fight.
Now Benoit went under Sousa and took the front, pulling Arsenault by with him. Murphy came up to challenge Sousa but Lenny held him off.
Rick Rossman spun on the backstretch, bringing a lap eleven restart. Benoit outran Arsenault from the front and Sousa popped into third with Murphy on his tail. Henriques and Blackwell were wheel-to-wheel behind them. Colby came slogging forward on the outside just as The Outlaw spun in Turn Four.
The restart for lap 14 saw Benoit again pull away from Arsenault and Sousa jumped in underneath her. Henriques was side-by-side with Mark Murphy, who held him off. Lambert pulled into fifth.
Lap 17 saw Benoit eight cars up on Arsenault and Sousa. But Schwegel was sideways and this time his luck didn’t hold. Massa gave him a tap in the side, which pointed him uptrack and as he shot toward the wall, Melissa Charette was left nowhere to go and piled into Schwegel’s passenger side. Both cars were now out of action.
Benoit escaped Arsenault for the third restart and Colby drove up into third.
But Blackwell went around on lap 19 and Perry avoided him by ducking through the infield, throwing up a lot of dust. Then Blackwell straightened and nearly collided with Perry coming through the thick cloud of dust.
The lap 19 restart had Benoit and Arsenault on the front again with Lambert and Murphy behind them. Jeremy and Pires were row three. Benoit grabbed the lead again while Colby and Murphy fought over third. Colby took the position and Jeremy now got under Murphy. Colby then went under Arsenault into second and drove up to Benoit’s bumper. Jeremy and Murphy were still dueling for fourth with Sousa behind them. Jeremy moved forward and Sousa leapt in underneath Murphy.
Colby began working high and low behind Benoit, looking for somewhere to go and after two laps of this tactic, he was able to duck underneath on lap 25. They went wheel-to-wheel for two laps, then Lambert was able to grab the lead in turn four of lap 27. Benoit dropped into second ahead of Arsenault, who was followed by Jeremy, Sousa and Pires.
\ But Pires went around in turn four and took a hit from Blackwell, who turned back after the caution and gave him a tap. They were both black-flagged for the incident.
The field lined up for the green-white-checker restart with Colby on the pole and Benoit on his outside. Benoit shot ahead outside, but Lambert held him and they went down the backstetch door-to-door. Under the white flag, Colby had a fender on Benoit, who decided to try to drop under. The try was a good one, but Lambert caught the move and held him off to the stripe for the win. Behind them, Jeremy came out of turn four loose and piled into the wall as the field blasted through underneath, ending the race. Jeremy dropped the net and got out with a slight limp, but walked around to congratulate Colby on the win.
Benoit scored second, followed by Arsenault, Sousa and Massa. Murphy grabbed sixth, followed by Pires, Cabral, Henriques and Tisi, wrapping up the top ten.
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