TULARE, Calif. — Justin Peck withstood all challenges to post a flag-to-flag victory on the opening night of the Abreu Vineyards Trophy Cup 30 presented by Rudeen Racing at Thunderbowl Raceway.
A 65-car field of winged 360 sprints were split into two groups with each group having a driver earning 150 points for fast time and a one-point drop per position during qualifying.Â
Jonathan Allard topped A group with a 13.931-second lap and B group honors went to Peck at 14.273 seconds.
Each group ran four heats, inverted by six, moving the winner and the high point car after the heat into the A main. Heats awarded 36 points to the winner with a three-point drop per position.Â
That put 16 drivers into the main with four additional drivers from each of two B mains filling the 24-car field. The A main had a 12-car invert by points and the winner earned 100 points with a two point drop each finishing position.
The 30-lap main had Justin Sanders and Kaleb Montgomery sharing row six as the top two in points while Braden Chiaramonte and Peck filled the front row.
Peck led from the green and made it 30 laps of leading the field. But it wasn’t easy. Â
After reaching traffic on lap seven, Chiaramonte closed and put pressure on Peck. Chiaramonte led a lap, but Peck regained the lead and the two put on a show with the race running 29 non-stop laps.
The last few laps Colby Thornhill got past Chiaramonte to finish second while Chiaramonte was third.
Friday will follow the Thursday format with the change in qualifying with group two qualifying first and the drivers within each group are the reverse order from Thursday.Â
Following the Friday program each driver will use the better of their two-point nights to determine their Saturday assignment.Â
The top 48 in points will be in one of the six heats on Saturday, completely inverted by points.
Thornhill and Sanders lead the points after night one with 272 points each. Peck is one behind at 271 markers.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 17-Justin Peck[2]; 2. 19-Colby Thornhill[5]; 3. 94TH-Braden Chiaramonte[1]; 4. 21P-Robbie Price[4]; 5. 7B-Sean Becker[3]; 6. 121-Caeden Steele[7]; 7. 2X-Justin Sanders[12]; 8. 4-Jonathan Allard[6]; 9. 17W-Shane Golobic[10]; 10. 3K-Kaleb Montgomery[11]; 11. 02-Ashton Torgerson[16]; 12. 29-Willie Croft[8]; 13. 94X-Corbin Rueschenberg[14]; 14. X1-Chance Grasty[13]; 15. 26-Trey Starks[20]; 16. 0-Tim Kaeding[19]; 17. 83-Ryan Timms[23]; 18. 88W-Austin McCarl[18]; 19. 46JR-Joel Myers Jr[22]; 20. 29M-Bud Kaeding[24]; 21. 33C-Colton Heath[15]; 22. 26R-Levi Hillier[17]; 23. 21-Cole Macedo[9]; 24. 41-Dominic Scelzi[21]Â