Ryan Arieta took fair advantage of a mistake by race leader Nickoloas Hovey and drove home to his second Bandit victory in as many weeks. Arieta was outside Hovey for a lap eight restart and when Nickolas jumped the restart, the yellow flew and Arieta gained the lead. It was one he would not yield and fought off all comers enroute to his second win in as many weeks. Devin Deshaies was second, while RJ Marcotte, Hovey and Teddy Welch rounded out the top five. With the sanctioning of Hovey, Giovanni Reggiero was elevated to fifth.
Unfortunately for points leader Hovey, post-race inspection found him afoul of the divisional rules and he received a disqualification. The DQ and loss of points elevates Deshaies to points leader.
At the start, Deshaies sat pole outside PJ Evans and they went door-to-door after a pitch-and-yaw run out of the starting box. They battled side-by-side this way for a full lap until Deshaies went to the front entering lap two. However, just as they crossed the stripe, Arieta was around on the grass, and three other cars were spun in turn two, including Joel Newcomb.
Evans took the pole, while RJ Marcotte gained the outside. Deshaies and Hovey were in row two. Evans came loose on the lap after the restart and Deshaies was caught up, sending both back.
At last, the restart led to some consecutive laps. Hovey came off the pole with Evans and they battled door-to-door. Arieta was working under Marcotte behind them, followed by Teddy Welch, Newcomb, Deshaies and Isaiah Newcomb. Hovey pulled ahead to grab a one-length lead while Arieta closed on Deshaies.
Deshaies got under Joel to contest for fourth and Welch went to fifth while Evans fell to sixth. By lap seven, Hovey was three cars out with Arieta trying to make up the difference. Marcotte
followed and Deshaies arrived in fourth. But Joel Newcomb spun in turn four, leading to a lap eight caution.
Hovey ran suddenly ahead and the yellow flew as he was found guilty of jumping the start by race control and was relegated to the rear. Joel was unable to restart and was pushed to the pits.
Arieta inherited the pole with Marcotte outside. Deshaies and Welch backed them up. Arieta pushed his nose ahead of Marcotte, then took the lead coming out of turn one. Evans made contact with Marcotte in turn three and ran into the grass but was able to navigate back ontrack and continue without caution. And without losing position. By lap ten, Arieta led Deshaies, Marcotte, Hovey and Welch.
Going into lap eleven, Arieta was cruising with a three-car advantage over Deshaies. Marcotte was third but now Hovey was closing on the lead trio. The field was now running single file and this continued to the white flag, where Deshaies found some extra speed and began to close on the leader. But Arieta had sufficient space to close out the race with his second win in two weeks. Deshaies grabbed second, which (with Hovey’s DQ) places him in the divisional points lead.
He was chased across the line by Marcotte. Sixth went to Isiah Newcomb followed by Evans, who was the last car running.