Ron Larkin Jr Victorious in Texas
With a tight point battle looming large, the drivers of Southern Racing Online pulled into Texas for their two-step on the 1.5-mile oval on Sunday. With the SRO Cup Division being contested with three times the regular pit wear under a fixed setup, the 84-lap affair was set to be a historic tilt on the Fort Worth track. Josh Moyers and Dave Snyder started on the front row and each would take turns leading during the event as the two led for twenty-eight of the completed laps. Snyder would lead the most laps in the event, collecting five bonus points for his #82 team.
Ten yellow flags slowed the event but with one of those falling within the final ten laps, it set up a shootout to the finish on lap seventy-nine. Luke Luttrell, who had experienced his share of bad luck during the event had played the track position game and stayed out on track late in the running. David Young and the driver known as Kevin 43 also rolled the dice by taking two tires on the final pit stop with Ron Larkin Jr. and Andy Colleran behind them on four fresh slicks. The restart would see Larkin and Colleran follow Young through on the inside when he passed Luttrell for the lead in turn three on the restart. One lap later, Larkin put his #3 GM Goodwrech Chevrolet on the inside of Young in the third turn and took the lead on the front straight. Colleran got loose in the dogleg which presented Kevin 43 with an outside line to a podium position but the #18 car, like he did all race had driven the car hard into the next succession of corners to maintain the spot.
Meanwhile, second place point man Jon Moore found himself in a three wide predicament on the outside of Snyder and Chris Pence. Snyder and Moore made contact, sending Moore into the wall and back into oncoming traffic. Coming into the event, the #01 car was just eight points back of Andy Watkins in the #9 car but with Watkins coming home in 4th place, the gap for the championship with two races to go will be a big one.
Larkin would hold off all comers to take the win in the event at Texas over Young, Colleran, Watkins and Kevin 43 in the top five. The event, which took seventy-two minutes to complete featured twenty-four lead changes with fifteen different drivers leading a lap. Twenty-two drivers started the event with fifteen being on track when the checkers flew.
The SRO Cup Series will next race at Phoenix followed by their finale at Homestead Miami Speedway. The finale can be seen on RLMtv.com on November 21st at 8:45pm EST.
Until then, keep the hammer down and we’ll see you at the track!
