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RTound 5 - Sept 5
his past weekend, the heat was ON, not just as the penultimate round of the 2020 Sprint Series season, but also temperatures. With triple digit numbers,
drivers had a lot to contend with and for this event, the results now bring the points battle to an exciting precursor for the upcoming finale...
Classico CCW set the stage for Round 7– during qualifying, a different name would score pole position. After running the Sprint Series a good 2 years, it would be Jacob Reis grabbing his first career pole with a quick 58.639, outpacing the rest of the field by 3/10ths.
The start of the first heat had Reis on pole, followed by Donnie Clarke and Evan Lawrence. Clarke quickly took control of the race from the green flag, already running seconds ahead of Reis. Meanwhile, Lawrence bounced back from an injury to keep the pressure on Reis, showing that he hasn’t slowed down a bit. Drivers behind the top three would also stay in arm’s length and eventually Reis would fall to Lawrence’s attack while Clarke enjoyed a comfortable 2-second lead. The checkered flag would fly with Clarke at the front and Lawrence 2nd and Reis 3rd.
Come time for the A-Main, Clarke made it clear that he was on a mission. For several laps, he had what appeared to be a tremendous gap over the field, but the duo of Alvarado and Haake headed straight on for an attack. At lap 6, Haake had stolen the lead, but Clarke was not letting him have it easy. The pair broke away from Alvarado, who was meanwhile having to contend with the likes of Matt Steele and a hornet’s nest of drivers. Haake would have the lead only for 1 lap– Clarke would come down for the final pass at the white flag, scoring the Sprint Series Round 7 win ahead of Haake with Alvarado settling for 3rd.
Clarke’s perfect points day put him in 3rd for the overall championship going into the finale, a huge jump up from his previous position. Although Alvarado settled for 3rd this race, he remains 48 points ahead of Steele in 2nd. That isn’t to say anyone is locked into the hardware– it was Haake’s best points day in his season, putting him now only 2 points outside of the podium for the 2020 Sprint Series Championship. Action and drama await at the next and final installment of the 2020 Sprint Series on October 10!
A Main Podium
B-Main Winner Jacob Abrams
C-Main Winner Jeff Latimer