Karlin Levesque took a new car into the Sport Four ranks and didn’t stop until he’d driven it all the way through the race and into Victory Lane. The SYRA transplant has been dicing it up around the front all season and the new ride seemed to propel him a tad better than his VW.
Levesque spoiled Tough Tim Bolger’s bid for a win on the season on the thirteenth of the 20 scheduled laps in the feature. Bolger had led since lap three.
Mike Lefort had hauled in behind Levesque and pursued him to the checkers but was forced to settle for second, just .036 seconds hadead of AJ Manuel in third. Bolger came away in fourth, while Jordan Lopes rounded out the top five.
Henry Lavalle and Jason Poitras led off from the front row and dueled side-by-side for two laps before Lavalle could nail down the lead. Matthew Smith came up to get under Poitras and then past Lavalle into the lead. Bolger led Levesque and came past Poitras and then Lavalle to challenge Smith for the front spot. Levesque pursued him through into third, slipping Lavalle back to fourthg. Poitras followed, but trouble was brewing behind him in the shape of Manuel and Lefort.
Bolger went after Smith and got to the outside where they brawled it out for three laps before Bolger finally edged ahead on lap seven. It took two more laps before he was completely past and at the midpoint of the race was running one length ahead of Smith.
Lap ten also saw a confabulation with Samantha Mattera and Lavalle which saw Mattera glance off the wall. Lavalle, Mattera and Chris Pacheco ended their evenings on that note. It set up Bolger and Smith for the restart, which took tree tries as Poitras spun on the first attempt and Crystal Murray lost power on the second try.
Once away, Bolger galloped into the lead right out of the starting box then had to duel Levesque. Levesque held second in lap nine, followed by Smith who had Manuel coming round his outside. Behind them, Poitras was battling Lefort. As Lefort gained supremacy, Jordan Lopes began to push past. Behind Lopes came David Westgate, who was edging past Cliff Avila.
Bolger had a three-car lead over Levesque. Manuel was outside but dropped back and underneath for more side-by-side running just before Justin Rioux spun in turn two.
Bolger now had Levesque on his high side and Manuel at his back for the restart. Lefort was on AJ’s high side. Again it took two tries to get running again. Once away, Bolger nosed out Levesque ran back alongside making it a wheel-to-wheel affair into turn six. Levesque then managed to get ahead by inches at the stripe. Going down the backstretch, he squirted into the lead. Manuel looked underneath Bolger but was denied. As he fell back, Lefort ran to his outside just before Christine Cavallaro spun in turn four.
Levesque had Bolger on his high side, followed by Lefort and Manuel. Lopes and Westgate were row three. Again, Levesque went to the front and Bolger ran second with four laps remaining. It was a big clot of cars flowing down the artery with Lefort and Manuel still locked side-by-side.
Levesque jealously guarded his lead from Bolger and Manuel tried to drop under Lefort, but it was no deal. Lefort, however, slid Bolger out of second with two to go and AJ got uinderneath to run parallel to Bolger.
The white flag was out and on the final circuit, Manuel made a final attempt to drop under and steal second from Lefort, but could not complete the move.
At the checkers, it was career win number one for Levesque in the Sport Four division. Lefort and Manuel followed with Bolger and Lopes in fourth and fifth. Sixth went to Westgate, followed by Smith, Tyler Almeida, Avila, Poitras and Murray.