Sartini Cashes in at Laird

The bounty placed on beating Michael Gold has been a hot commodity of late at Laird International Raceway.

The rules of the bounty placed on Gold are quite simple, if a driver competing in the four car dash won the Late Model feature, or if a racer who started the feature behind Gold won the feature, that driver would collect an additional $500 on top of the usual $500 which goes to the feature winner. If Gold wins the feature himself, he collects an extra $250 for his efforts.

With Gold earning a spot in the four-car dash after qualifying in the late model division with a track record time of 14.730 seconds, he was set to compete in the dash against Jeremy Van Hoek, George Wilson and Rick Leonard. Wilson was forced to pull out of the dash with car problems, which paved the way for Rob Sartini to jump in and take his spot. Leonard finished in top spot in the dash with Van Hoek taking second and Sartini third while Gold finished the dash in fourth spot.

When it came time for the Late Model heats, Rod Bolduc managed to hold off a charging Sartini to take the first heat, with Gold finishing fourth. In the second heat, Sartini continued his solid night by winning the heat finishing just ahead of second place Rick Ellis and third place Gold.

The final feature race of the night saw the Late Model Division provided the fans with an exciting end to an exciting race.

The 25-lap feature saw Paul Seabrook have the pole. The problem was the race itself had problems even getting through the opening lap. With the first lap in progress, Rod Bolduc was forced from the race after crashing with damage to his car leading to a drive shaft problem that would ultimately end his night. With the group preparing to restart, Gold began to have problems with his car, which led to him needing a push to get into the pits.

In a surprise move, Gold managed to get a boost and get back into the race before the restart. The car trouble was ultimately a problem with the clutch, which meant anytime his car was stopped, he needed a push to get fired up again. When the group set to restart, Gold was set up to begin in the ninth position.

At the restart, Dan Byrnes in the No. 46 car took the lead on the first lap and produced himself a solid lead. With 10 laps complete, Byrnes was caught and passed by Sartini, who worked his way into a sizeable lead. Little by little, Sartini increased his lead over Byrnes. What he didn’t know was that Gold was creeping up as well, slowly passing one car after another until he found himself nearing the front of the pack.

With just four laps to go, Gold found himself in third spot and making his move on Byrnes, a move that would pay off as he moved into second spot and closed in on Sartini who found himself being slowed by the rear of the pack, whom he was in the process of passing. Heading into turn three on lap 23, Gold made his move and passed Sartini. The problem was, as he was coming out of the corner, he made contact with the front bumper of Sartini, causing the No. 14 of Sartini to spin out. With the yellow flag out, Gold was relegated to the back of the pack heading into the final lap while Sartini regained top spot in the race, which he went on to win and claim the $500 bounty. Gold finished the feature in tenth. Rick Leonard finished second while George Wilson finished third.

The 20 lap Pure Stock feature saw the No. 73 of Norm Miller own the pole and the lead from start to finish taking the checker flag. Len Bibeau finished second while Bill Butler finished third.

Miller also took the opening heat race in the division beating out Joe Addison and Corey Diotte. The second heat race also went to Miller who beat out Butler and Addison this time around.

The Stock Four division feature race saw Scott Hennig take the lead on lap three and look to be in good shape to win the race until he made contact with Mike Baraluk with just two laps remaining. The damage to both cars caused both racers to leave and not return. Nick Jobst took the lead when the race resumed and led the final two laps to earn the victory.

In the Stock Four heat races Jobst managed to fend off Steve Baraluk and Jake Marcinkowski to take heat one while Scott Hennig took heat two, beating out Jobst and Mike Savino for the heat.

The Factory Stock feature also saw some entertaining action as a number of lead changes saw three different race leaders. Kevin Pace took the lead off the green flag but only managed to hold the lead for two laps as Mike Murphy, who eventually finished second took over the lead and looked to be in good shape, holding on to the lead until the midway point of the race. That’s when David Slingsby took over. The point leader of the Factory Stock division showed why he is in that position, holding the lead for the final 10 laps to take the win.

In the two heats John Fragale took heat one holding off efforts from Steve Kent and Murphy to pass him, while in heat two Kent made up for the earlier defeat by holding off Slingsby and Murphy for the win.

The Modified division feature saw a crash on the opening lap, which included the pole sitter, Duane Jones, who crashed on the first lap but managed to get out of the pits in time for the re-start, only to start at the back of the field. Kevin Oicle took the pole in Jones’ absence and managed to battle his way to a feature win holding off the efforts of Randy Hache and Mike Huffman, who battled to pass the leader but couldn’t. The Modified feature also saw the only black flag of the night as Larry Ebare was given an early ending to his night.

Oicle had a solid night overall as the Modified division points leader also took top spot in both heats. Hache managed a second place and third place finish in the two heats.

Racing action will continued later this week as Thursday night will be the next action at Laird International Raceway with a regular schedule planned.