SALEM, Ind. – Greg Johnson became the ninth different winner this year with the Schaeffer’s Oil MARS Super Late Model Racing Series in the tour’s first visit to Thunder Valley Speedway on Friday evening.
The race served as the tour’s season finale, with David Seibers securing the series championship with a third-place effort.
The initial start of the race would see the yellow flag wave for a three-car tangle in turn four before the entire field had went past the start/finish line for the start. The second attempted start would go green and Johnson would take the race lead, with Devin Gilpin, Shelby Miles, Seibers and Dean Carpenter giving chase.
Johnson and Gilpin would quickly pull away from the field, while Seibers would take the third position from Miles on lap four and Carpenter would claim the fourth position from Miles one circuit later, as the lead duo of Johnson and Gilpin would have to start negotiating lapped traffic by lap six.
The only other caution of the event would wave on lap nine for debris on the track in turn one and turn four. The restart would see Johnson and Gilpin again pull away from the pack, while Miles would retake the fourth position from Carpenter. Johnson would begin to have to work lapped traffic again by lap 16 and would catch a trio of backmarkers by lap 20, allowing Gilpin to close in on Johnson.
Johnson would get bottled up in the lapped traffic on lap 22, allowing Gilpin to take a look to the outside of Johnson exiting turn four for the lead, but Gilpin could not capitalize and Johnson would clear those cars only to have work a pair of slower cars again on lap 24.
Johnson would quickly clear the duo of lapped cars this time, affording Gilpin only one more look to the outside again in turn four. Johnson would keep Gilpin at bay the remainder of the way and score the victory and the $3,000 payday, with Gilpin finishing second and Seibers finishing third. Miles and Carpenter would complete the top five at the finish.
The finish:
Greg Johnson, Devin Gilpin, David Seibers, Shelby Miles, Dean Carpenter, Skyller Lewis, Bill Sheets, Steve Godsey, Karlie Holt, Brian Wilhite, Britan Godsey, Dakota Kibel, Lucas Pace, Josh Walker, Remington Gill, Michael Seibers, Mike Bechelli, Dustin Golden.