Christ Stops Kuzma's Streak!!!!!

It was a beautiful night for racing at the Southern National Motorsports Complex on Friday night as the SFRL took to the track for week #2 of the Fall Brawl season. Last weeks winner Charlie Kuzma and the rest of the SFRL drivers took full advantage of the1 hour practice session to get their rides dialed in for the 125 lap event. Series regular Darryl Tiezzi would post the fastest lap in Happy Hour with a time of 13.586 in his familiar #16 and Kuzma would be close behind posting a lap of 13.649 late in the session. Qualifying would see defending series champion Clifton Cockrell put his #29 at the top of the sheet with a lap of 13.661 while Nicolas Priddy would turn in a great lap of 13.704 to post the 2nd fastest lap of the session. This season qualifying is inverted and last weeks winner (Kuzma) would start shotgun on the field.

When the green flag dropped S. Michael Allen quickly assumed the top spot with Tiezzi settling into 2nd place. The race took a drastic turn early as on lap #20 Kuzma clipped the apron in turn #2 and shot his #113 hard into the outside retaining wall suffering heavy damage and bringing him to pit road for repairs. The green flag stayed out however until lap #32 when contact between Priddy and Eric Nordhoff sent the #22 for a lazy spin. This early caution proved to be a huge break for the #55 of TJ Christ. Christ crashed his car during qualifying and while the crew scrambled to make repairs the team neglected to refuel the car. Under this caution Christ was able to pit and take on the necessary fuel to allow him to continue on.

Lap 39 would see Kuzma and the #44 of Jay Harned make contact in turn #4 sending the former series champion around and collecting Priddy in the process. The caution would fly over the field with Allen and Tiezzi still showing the way. Quickly after the restart Cockrell would move his #29 into 2nd place around Tiezzi who appeared to be losing the handle of his car. This proved to be right as on lap #54 the #16 spun off of turn #2 and brought out the yellow and a chance to get fresh ties.

Christ now with plenty of fuel on board was picking his way through the field and was up to 2nd place behind Allen. Kuzma, after repairs was working on getting laps back and on lap #93 he was able to get another by passing Allen under green and in so doing he opened the door for Christ to get around the #59 and take over the lead of the race. From there Allen would keep it close but could not get close enough to the #55 to make a serious attempt to retake the lead. Christ would claim victory after a hard fought battle and a job well done.

1. #55 TJ Christ

2. #59 S. Michael Allen

3. #29 Clifton Cockrell

4. #16 Darryl Tiezzi

5. #22 Eric Nordhoff