COLBY LAMBERT TAKES SECOND CONSECUTIVE WIN
Colby Lambert might have thought at race’s end that he was adding a second place to his win the previous week, and trailered his car. However, as the evening wore on, the tech inspectors went to work and discovered that the winning vehicle was not built according to specifications and that took the trophy from Greg Perry’s hands and put it in Lambert’s. For Perry, it was a big spoiler as he thought he had captured his first feature win.
Unfortunately, the car which Jason Tisi had loaned him did not meet spec.
Perry battled it out on a lap six restart with Robert Moore to snare the lead . . . it was a lead he would hold for the rest of the 25 laps in the feature. Perry had started fifth and worked his way into second by lap four. When Katie Neville and Emily Brightman spun together on lap six, the stage was set for Perry. Out of the box, he edged his nose out front then gathered up the lead in turn two, while working the outside on Moore. With the lead in his grasp, Perry would not yield and midway through the race he was accosted by Lambert. Lambert pulled out all the stops and tried every trick in the book, including making up a couple new ones down the stretch, but destiny was within Greg Perry’s grasp. He rose to the occasion and with Lambert dodging high and low all the way to the checkers, Perry was still in front across the stripe. On the other hand, the car that Perry had borrowed for the evening fell afoul of the tech inspectors and he was DQ’ed, giving the win to Colby.
Colby’s trip to the front was a different one. Courtesy of his win the week before, he came off the outside of the eighth row. While Perry was jetting out to a 10-car lead on lap two, Lambert was picking his way past Nick Mattera. And as Perry was edging Moore on the lap 6 restart, Lambert was dueling Doug Benoit for eleventh. Lambert barged past onto Sparky Arsenault’s tail; Arsenault went to eighth and Lambert stayed right behind. But Caution flew, and they lined for the restart.
At the front, Perry continued at the front with Jeremy Lambert at his back and Moore holding third. Colby, now, was running seventh behind The Outlaw – Daniel Massa. Lap ten saw Colby into sixth with Massa falling to seventh. But lap 14 saw Max Bergstrom around in turn four. In the chaos, third brother Shayne Lambert took a glancing blow off the front stretch wall, but was able to continue.
It took two attempts to get them rolling again as Moore spun on the restart. Massa pitted for adjustments and returned. Perry and Jeremy loaded the front row, ahead of Moore and Dylan Cabral. Row three, however, was DJ Pires and Colby. Perry took the front as Cabral got under Jeremy for some door-to-door before Jeremy took a nose in turn two. He took second but Katie Neville spun in turn three.
Lap 15 now saw the restart with Colby outside Cabral in row two. He quickly leapt into second as Jeremy fell to third after a three-wide between the two Lamberts holding Cabral into the low groove, Jeremy running as the meat in the sandwich. Colby immediately began to apply pressure to Perry, but Perry pulled ahead chased by Colby and Jeremy.
Lap eighteen saw Blackwell working his way under Benoit, but Blackwell’s rear snapped out from under him in turn two. The able Blackwell gebeed his control back, and after a 360, continued without caution.
With five laps remaining, Perry continued to hold off Colby while Jeremy pursued . Cabral continued in fourth, Pires and Benoit in pursuit with Arsenault on their tails.
The order continued down through the final laps as Lambert continued to rush up to Perry, who would then pull away. The field chased Perry across the line, but the tech infraction awarded the win to Lambert. Colby hauled down the trophy with Jeremy taking second. Cabral, Pires and Benoit rounded out the top five. Sixth went to Arsenault, followed by Moore, Lenny Sousa, Mike Henriques, and Shayne Lambert completed the top ten.
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