FAST FRIDAY RECAP
Fast Friday July 13 Recap with Kyle Souza
As the summer stretch gets underway, the championship standings are starting to take shape and show exactly who will be in the fight for the title this season on Fast Friday.
In the Seekonk Grand Prix Bandolero Bandit division, Devin Deshaies has been the dominant car. Deshaies has been the fastest car on the speed charts every week, and in the feature, he finds his way to the front rather quickly. He captured his fourth victory of the season on Friday night, pulling away from the pack on a late restart and carrying the checkered flag once again in the second round of the Phil’s Propane Triple Crown Series. Deshaies is the clear favorite for the points championship, and right now, it doesn’t look like anyone is going to be in contention to take it away from him.
In the Seekonk Grand Prix Bandolero Outlaw division, the second Phil’s Propane race of the night, Tyler Tomassi used some patience in the final laps and found himself in Victory Lane for the second time this season. Tomassi has been picking up the pace each week. Although he started off a little bit off on the setup, the team has steered the car back in the right direction, and Tomassi looks to be ready to make a run at the title. We also saw plenty of speed out of Evan Marchand once again, as it looks like he is also primed for a title run.
The Sport 4 class saw more three-wide racing, and in the end, it was AJ Manuel capturing the victory in the second Phil’s Propane Triple Crown Series event. Manuel has been among the fastest cars every week, and he found his way to the front just after the halfway point, never looking back. It looked like Manuel would be fighting his teammate, Richie Murray — but a flat tire caused Murray to head into the pit area and put him out of the fight. Manuel seems to be the early title favorite in this class.
The Pure Stock division seems to have three cars in control — Doug Benoit, Len Sousa and DJ Pires. Friday, they all finished on the podium, but not in that order. Pires was able to roll into the winner’s circle for the second time in 2018, but it didn’t come easy. Pires had to fight-off Benoit over the final laps, including winding up the outside lane to make the move to the front on a restart. Sousa watched it all from third, but couldn’t mount a charge. It looks like these three drivers will be the group that fights for the championship this season.
Jake Matheson put together a furious charge over the final laps, passed Luke Lebrun, and picked up his second win of the season in the Nick’s Pit Stop Legends Cars. Matheson has been running weekly, and has put himself at the front of the pack in the process — putting another victory in the win column. The story of the race was on lap one, when Derek Gluchacki lost an axle on the No. 03 entry, which will seriously hurt his chances in the title fight. He missed the first race, and even though he has a few wins since, the DNF will drop him a little bit further back.
Next Friday, we are off once again, as the Monster Trucks come to town on Saturday. See everyone in two weeks!
WITH KYLE SOUZA
WITH KYLE SOUZA