Seekonk Speedway Race Magazine August 25 & 26 | Page 43

After cranking out a host of top five and top ten finishes in the Legends division, It became Shileigh Martinez’ turn to take the trip under the checkers and all the way to Victory Lane. It wasn’t as easy as that sounds as she had to fight it out with a fistfull of Legends veterans.

First came on lap seven as she got by Brandon Hammann and then Joe Marfeo onto the tailgate of TJ Thompson. TJ had just pried Hammann out of the lead and held off Shieligh’s brother, Brandon. Lap eight saw her do Brandon one better, after he had tried to get under Thompson. She took the low road and powered past into second and went after Thompson’s lead. Marfeo also came by Brandon into third on Shileigh’s backside so that wherever Thompson looked through his mirror, pretty much all of what he could see were teammates conspiring against him. It was everyone for themselves as each member of the trio wanted to take the checkers. In the meantime, Derek Gluchacki came up from a fifteenth place start and passed Ryan Kuhn into fifth, behind Brandon. There was a great midfield debat between Kuhn, Martinez, Reagan Parent, Hammann, Gluchacki and Marfeo as Thompson and Shileigh duked it out at the front.

Lap eleven saw the leaders – Thompson, Shileigh and Marfeo running nose-to-tale with Brandon, Kuhn and Gluchacki keeping up a deadly pace behind them. Shileigh was quick to look underneath, as she did all night and they went into lap fourteen wheel-to-wheel. After three-fourths of lap, Thompson decided to drop under the intruder but he got loose and she sailed on. He pushed harder and came back on the following lap and they were door-to-door again. But Joey Parker spun in turn two bringing the first caution of the race on lap 16.

Thompson and Shileigh lined up with Marfeo and Brandon behind them followed by the pairing of Gluchacki and Kuhn. Hammann and Parent followed, ahead of Chris Robbins and Jesse Jakubajtys. Thompson made the best of it, securing his lead once again with a fast jump out of the starting box. Shileigh grabbed his bumper as he went by and they flew nose-to-tail. She took a look underneath but Thompson closed the door. Brandon was on her bumper, now with Kuhn on his.

But lap 19 saw three cars tangle together coming out of turn one. Parker, Luke LeBrun and Mason Levesque spun together and managed to avoid much damage in the process. It did bring out a caution and they lined up again. As before, Thompson and Martinez were the front; Brandon and Kuhn followed ahead of Marfeo and Gluchacki once again. As the green fell, the lead pair were side-by-side around into turn two. Thompson again took advantage in led in turn four. But the caution flew for debris on the back stretch. They lined up to try it again the came away on the green in the same mode.

As Shileigh rode Thompson’s bumper, Brandon pulled up outside of her then dropped under. Kuhn was looking under Marfeo at the same time. But Joe DeRensis spun in turn one, bringing a pause at lap 22. Thompson nosed out, but Shileigh stayed outside to battle as Marfeo swung in behind but a 5-car spin followed immediately in tunr one.

Thompson and Marfeo had Shileigh and Gluchacki behind them for the restart. She glued herself to Thompson as he pulled ahead and went under Marfeo. But now it was Hammann’s turn to spin in turn one. He was stuck up near the wall and again they lined up for the lap 24 restart.

Another restart and more debris on the backstretch broght them to a caution once again. Following 7 cautions in 6 laps, Race Control ruled a single-file restart with five laps remaining. Marfeo was outside Thompson, Shileigh and Brandon Followed, then Gluchacki, Robbins, Parent, Kuhn and Joshua Parsons.

Thompson pulled away with Marfeo on his bumper. The latter chose to drop under and he succeeded at getting into the lead in turn four. As Marfeo pulled away on lap 26, Shileight and then Brandon ducked under Thompson to give chase. Thompson was stuck on the outside as the freight train rumbled by underneath him, including Gluchacki.

Marfeo slid uptrack on lap 27 and Shileigh sprung through into the lead. Robbins spun and recovered as everybody piled toward the checkers on lap 30. Thompson’s slide continued and he took finished two laps down after rertiring.

Shileigh outran Marfeo to the finish, while Kuhn nabbed third and Josh Parsons fourth by getting past Brandon at race’s end. That rounded out the top five. Sixth went to Matthew Carpenter, followed by Kevin Nowak, Connor Holderback, Jakubajtys, Luke LeBrun, Parent and Adam Avedisian.