Cold weather for Saturday’s qualifying made for some fast times as Grant West claimed pole position with a below-track-record time of 1:50.331, followed by Aiden Crouse, Keith Williamson, Pat Smith and Yan Dia. At the start, the front of the field got through Turn 1 cleanly, with Crouse picking off West with an inside pass at Turn 2 and then beat him to Turn 3 to seal the deal. Tyler Harrell also picked off Dia in Turn 2 leaving the order, Crouse, West, Williamson, Smith, Harrell.
Crouse and West started gapping the field on the back straight as they showed who would be on the top two spots of the podium. While Harrell got to the inside of Smith at Turn 13 to take P4. On lap three, Harrell had a run on Williamson going through Turn 13 to make the inside pass at Turn 14 to finalize the podium with Aiden Crouse winning, Grant West P2, Tyler Harrell P3, Williamson P4 and Smith P5.
Sunday’s qualifying was another fast one, with Pat Smith taking pole position, with a sub-track record time of 1:50.713, followed by Crouse P2, West P3, Harrell P4 and Dia P5. Rain rolled in about 30 minutes before the race. Pat Smith led from pole to checkers as Aiden Crouse dogged him most of the race, but never managed to make a pass. On the start, Dia managed to pass Harrell on the outside of Turn 2 to move up to P4 and held the position until the last lap when he failed to protect the outside fast line out of Turn 11, allowing Harrell to make the pass for P4. Lots of off-track excursions at Turn 14 made it interesting for the fans and spectators, but a little stressful for the racers. Congratulations to Pat Smith for the win on Sunday and Aiden Crouse for the win on Saturday.
