By Roger Holtsclaw
onpitroad.com
Thompson, CT-Jan 11, 2014
The Bootleg Racing League (BRL) Whiskey Run Street Stock Series traveled to Thompson International Speedway for race No. 2 of the 2014A season. Eighteen cars would attempt the challenging 5/8’s mile oval. Starting lineup is determined by inverting the finishing order from the previous week’s event.
The inversion process placed Ryan Nuss on the pole in his No. 13 Iowa Hawkeyes Camaro. Joining him on the front row was Roger Holtsclaw in the No. 2 Sunoco Camaro. James Haney, Jason Willet, and Brad Spidle rounded out the top five starting spots.
The caution flew quickly as the No. 05 of Kenney Morris made contact of the No. 56 David Schaeffer in turn one of lap one. The incident also collected the No. 75 of Ronald Henrie. At the time the yellow fell outside pole-sitter, Holtsclaw, had taken the lead from Nuss.
The restart came on lap seven with Holtsclaw quickly jumping out to a five car length lead. The No. 76 of Jason Willet was able to follow Holtsclaw through and get around Nuss for second taking the No. 10 of Brad Spidle with him.
The next incident came when the No. 55 of James Haney appeared to lose brakes on the entry of turn three driving into the rear of Nuss, sending them both into the outside retaining wall. Nuss had to hit pit road under green to make repairs.
The field appeared to have settled down to begin some good racing. Willet was beginning to put pressure on Holtsclaw for the lead when the caution fell again for Haney who entered turn one too hot and collected the No. 19 of Jay Hollingsworth. The No. 3 of Brian Lewis spun to miss the wreck. Lowell Jewell and Brian Young also received slight damage, but continued without repairs.
On lap sixteen the No. 87 of Keith Haney made his way to the front taking Willet and Spidle with him. Tight battles could be found throughout the field. While running seventh, Morris was leading a pack of ten cars that were battling and swapping positions in every corner.
The No. 21 of Matt Hoose methodically worked his way through the field finding himself in side-by-side battles with every car he encountered.
The Thompson Speedway was a perfect fit for the heavy, ill-handling street stocks. Two and three-wide battles for position were commonplace throughout the field.
In the closing stages of the race, Haney and Willet managed to gain a slight advantage over third place, Jewell, who found himself locked in a fierce battle with Hoose for third spot. As the race came to an end, Hoose found himself one-half car length ahead of Jewell capping an impressive run from the rear of the field.
Haney, who led 35 laps, secured the victory over second place, Willet, with Hoose third, Jewell fourth, and Henrie rounding out the top five.
The Whiskey Run Street Stock series now travels to Stafford Speedway on January 18th for race No. 3 of the season. Due to the inversion rule, James Haney and Susan Rarick will take the green from the front row at next week’s event.
