GARGARO MAKES IT TWO IN A ROW
Thanks to last week’s win, David Gargaro started twelfth on the 19-car Sport Four grid, but as he faced the midpoint on the race, he was coming off the outside of a three-wide (Jordan Lopes on the bottom and Matthew Smith in the middle) and into the lead, which he kept to himself over the final ten laps. Lopes made a worthy pursuit following a lap 11 restart, but gave way to the charge of Alex Manuel into second. In the process, Gargaro used the free air to generate a five-car lead. He added to that, going to fifteen carlengths and then a half-straightaway. Lopes claimed third and Mike LeFort stole fourth from Tyler Almeida on the final circuit. Almeida completed the top five.
Jason Poitras grabbed the lead from the pole. Lopes got under Karlin Levesque and Smith was under Timmy Ouellette.
On the second circuit, Poitras had three cars to the good on Almeida, who had Lopes doing bumper tag on him. Levesque, Smith and Ouellette followed. Almeida caught up to Poitras and looked underneath, which sent Lopes to the outside, threatening to make it a three-wide, but Almeida backed out. Poitras suddenly spun out of the wild melee at the front to the infield, recovered and was able to continue. Lopes pushed past him, but Almeida nosed under him.
Jordan came back, however, and pulled ahead, then suddenly banged into Poitras in turn four while going for the lead. This sent Poitras into the infield and as he motored back out, he ran into Manuel and collected Joey Morrissette and Tyler Dunancik. They all spun to a stop in turn one except Morrissette, who went nose into the wall between turns one and two. The red flag came out and both ambulances converged on Morrissette’s wreck. He was assisted from the car and took the ride to the pits for further observation. It was the end of the night for him and for Jason Poitras.
Almeida and Smith lined up at the front with Lopes and Karlin Levesque in row two. Ouellette and Crystal Murray made up row three, while Gargaro was now low in row four with Mike LeFort at his bumper. Almeida sprinted ahead out of the box, but suddenly went powerless in front of the flagstand. Smith charged past into the lead and Lopes leapt into second. Levesque got into third before Almeida suddenly got his speed up again to hold onto fourth, ahead of Murray. Almeida then went to third with Levesque on his door.
Gargaro seized the moment to take a wide birth to the outside around Levesque.
The following lap saw Lopes go outside Almeida for the lead while Murray and the charging Gargaro battled behind them. Gargaro won out and suddenly it was three-wide at the front with Lopes in the low groove, Smith playing the meat in the sandwich and Gargaro the top slice. Lopes pulled ahead but Gargaro rushed past Smith then past Lopes into the lead in turn four. Almeida dropped into third. But suddenly another three-wide appeared behind them with Levesque under Smith and Murray up high.
Gargaro went to a five-car lead while behind him, lopes was leading Almeida ahead of Levesque and Murray vying for position. There was contact between them and Murray went high on the track, while Levesque went through the infield, bringing caution. Both were called to the rear as Murray was assessed with an assist on the spin. Levesque went off on the hook while Murray was able to continue.
Gargaro and Lopes lined up again. Second row saw Manuel – suddenly returned from the absolute back of the pack just five laps earlier – outside Almeida. It was another wheel-to-wheel restart until Gargaro pulled away from Lopes in turn two. Manuel took another lap to get Almeida behind him then dropped behind Lopes.
Now Gargaro was back at the five-car advantage, Manuel was at Lopes’ bumper and Almeida, LeFort, Tough Tim Bolger and Mike Glad were in chase mode. Almeida denied an underneath move by LeFort, who then went to the outside.
With five laps remaining, Gargaro seemed all alone on the track, fifteen lengths ahead of his nearest pursuit. Manuel had gotten under Lopes and they were in a dogfight, a dogfight won by Manuel going through turn two. And LeFort had charged up along Almeida’s high side for more debate over fourth place. LeFort continued his duel with Almeida as the twin sticks appeared in Tim Bolduc’s hands. With two laps remaining, Gargaro was a half-straightaway ahead of Manuel and Lopes preceded the Almeida/LeFort skirmish. Bolger was next, followed by Samantha Mattera and the matched opponent, David Westgate ; Sam and David were exchanging broadsides over seventh, at the moment in Mattera’s grasp.
LeFort got some traction and charged past Almeida onto Lopes’ bumper and Westgate pushed past Mattera. The white silk flew from the starter’s stand and the field wound through the penultimate lap in order.
Sixth on the event went to Bolger. He was followed by Smith, Westgate, Mattera, Murray, Glad and Glen Leduc.