BENOIT GRABS THIRD
WIN IN A ROW
Doug Benoit’s prosperity went over the top with his third straight win of the season in Pure Stocks, holding off Colby Lambert for 13 laps to claim his victory. The laps-added event was stop two on the Phil’s Propane Triple Crown. Lambert was followed across the line by brother Jeremy Lambert for third place. Amy Arsenault and David Desrosiers rounded out the top five.
At the start, Lenny Sousa left polesitter Robert Moore and took the lead coming across the stripe while Greg Perry got underneath and into second. But by lap 3, Lenny had gone out to a ten-car lead. Max Bergstrom had nosed into third, just before DJ Pires edged him out, on his way to second. Pires moved Perry back to third and began a ten-lap challenge of Sousa.
Lambert was working his way up from starting twelfth and had cut the defecit in half by lap four, when Moore went around and collected four other cars, including Shayne Lambert, Emily Brightman, and Jason Tisi, all of whom made for the pits, along with Moore. Brightman did not return.
On the restart, Sousa jumped off the pole leaving Perry on the outside and Pires ran in under Perry. Behind them, Desrosiers, Colby and Bergstrom were in a three-wide, won by Desrosiers who went to third, followed by Perry. Tommy Blackwell began looking underneath and took the position on lap six, while Doug Benoit followed him past. Perry, stuck on the outside, fell off to eleventh.
Pires went to Sousa’s bumper and Desrosiers moved in, followed by Blackwell, Benoit and Amy Arsenault. Benoit ducked under Blackwell for fourth. Pires was all over Sousa’s rear, looking outside and then underneath, but Sousa would allow nothing.
But on lap 11, Shayne’s coolant system let go, dropping fluid through turn four, sending cars from the rear of the pack spinning. Marissa Morgan came to a halt sideways across the groove with her front on the berm. The leaders, who had been a short distance behind, flew in hard on their brakes and Sousa found Morgan square in his sights. He braked hard and slid sideways and into Morgan with a glancing blow. Shayne was done for the night, but the rest were able to return. Sousa was not judged an accident car and resumed the front.
Now he had Pires on his outside with Benoit and Desrosiers in row two, followed by Blackwell and Arsenault. Sousa took the front while Pires stayed outside to fight it out. They were wheel-to-wheel for a lap before Sousa nosed out, crossing the stripe. Benoit tried to nose under, but Sousa slammed the door. Benoit glued himself to Sousa’s bumper as Colby Lambert ducked under Arsenault with Jeremy moving up behind, followed by Desrosiers.
On lap 17, Benoit was able to get underneath Sousa and into the lead. Colby slid under as well and into second. Jeremy and Desrosiers then edged Sousa back to fifth. Benoit began to add to his lead over Colby, going out to two cars on lap 22 with Jeremy, Arsenault and Desrosiers following. Jeremy was loose, allowing Arsenault to come up to his tail. Colby, meanwhile, drove hard, up to Benoit and they ran nose-to-tail. Benoit threw it in hard and showed some looseness but Colby, looking outside, was unable to take advantage. Benoit recovered and went back to his two-car lead with two laps remaining.
Benoit was able to hold the Lambert duo off for the remainder of the feature to grab his third straight feature win and capture stop two on the triple crown.
Blackwell cornered sixth, followed by Perry, Pires, Dylan Cabral and Mike Henriques.
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