RJ Marcotte came back to the front to lead the Bandolero Bandits from green to checkers while points leader Devin Deshaies made sure it wouldn’t be a gift, rushing up in the closing laps to make it a paint-trading duel to the finish line. Marcotte held his course and was able to hold off the determined Deshaies. Isaiah Newcomb got past Riley Caron to steal third, relegating Caron to fourth. Giovanni Reggiero rounded out the top five.
Isaiah Newcomb and Caron led off with Newcomb taking too early a start and being penalized to a restart at the rear. On the race reset, Caron took the lead while Marcotte ducked under Ryan Arieta, looking for second. He succeeded and then went under Caron and had control of the front by the end of the lap. Deshaies latched on his bumper and followed him through.
As Deshaies drafted Marcotte, Caron drove in under Arieta and took over third. Meanwhile, Nathan Smith got below Arieta and Reggiero was working outside Isaiah Newcomb..
By lap 6, Marcotte had put a half-car between himself and Deshaies as Smith spun to the infield off turn two. Marcotte zoomed away from Deshaies on the restart. Behind them, Caron was debating third with Newcomb, followed by Reggiero, Arieta, Smith and Joel Newcomb. Caron escaped Isaiah, who was also victimized by Reggiero for position. The field was running single file, now.
By lap eight, Deshaies was closing on Marcotte again and by lap nine was back on his bumper. They led the rest of the field by a striaghtaway.
Deshaies began looking underneath on lap eleven but was denied. Caron followed in third, ahead of Isaiah. But Joel spun, bringing a lap 12 caution.
Marcotte nosed out again with Deshaies now battling on the high side. Another circuit produced an attempt to drop under and they were door-to-door. They came off the back stetch of the final lap, trading paint in the turns with Marcotte able to come away from it and lead Deshaies across the finish line for the win.
Arieta came home sixth, followed by Smith and Joel Newcomb.
Nickolas Hovey had been slated to start, but lost power just before the race started and had to be pushed to the pits.