The Bolt Action Truck Series had its third race of the season on Tuesday–this time at the famed road course in Upstate New York. This marks the first time that the series has visited a road course since its creation.
Logging a qualifying lap of 1:11:614, John Furnas (28) led the field to the green flag for the 40-lap race, with Matt Kemp (9) to his outside.
Trouble and tangles occurred early, with the 97 of Jeff Hollingsworth getting into the rear of Galen Gidman (94) in turn 1. However, they gathered it up and aside from some cosmetic damage on the rear bumper, Gidman was not any worse for the wear.
Connor Webb took the inner loop too hard on lap 1 and ended up careening into the tire barrier.
The most dramatic incident of the evening, however, took place in the esses on lap 3, when the 99 of Eli Greene and the 18 of Zack Nichols made contact. Greene got loose in front of Nichols, and the two got together, sending Greene into the outside guardrail. Greene then ricocheted off of the guard rail and collected Nichols’ machine. The two were both done for the evening, unfortunately.
By lap 5, Andrew Faryniarz had made it up to third after starting ninth. That same lap, the 5 of Matt Kemp scraped the wall hard and then promptly disconnected.
The next incident would occur on lap 7, when Galen Gidman wheel-hopped going into turn 1 and spun his #94 truck. He looped it around and continued, but at the cost of falling back from third to sixth.
By lap 10, Gidman had made it back up to fifth, taking that position from the 54 of Brycen Fitzgerald.
That same lap, Andrew Faryniarz had made it to second place and within 0.7 seconds of leader John Furnas’ back bumper.
However, by lap 16, Furnas had stretched his lead back to 1.2 seconds, as Faryniarz was struggling with a loose truck. The 88 would soon pit for tires and fuel on lap 18.
Galen Gidman found trouble again on lap 17 when he lost control of his truck in the uphill esses portion and slammed into the wall. Gidman would disconnect from the server in defeat shortly thereafter.
Brycen Fitzgerald had a merge violation when exiting pit road, and came in to serve a penalty the following lap.
By lap 20, the top three were John Furnas, Andrew Faryniarz, and Logan McGlothlin. Furnas would later pit from the lead on lap 21.
Not all miscues were met with catastrophe, however. Logan McGlothin had an impressive save in the esses on lap 21, in which he lost control of his #5 truck, but was able to straighten it out and continue on.
After pit cycles, Faryniarz had the lead. By lap 25, the gap between the Faryniarz in the lead and Furnas in second was a half of a second. The battle between the two continued as they got around the lapped trucks of Jeff Hollingsworth (97) and Ron Hollifield (11), who were battling for a position among themselves.
The battle between the 88 and the 28 ensued, until lap 29 when Furnas go loose in the uphill esses and scraped the outside guardrail. Furnas lost about 1.5 seconds on Faryniarz.
Lap 30 saw Furnas losing his focus again and spinning upon exiting the inner loop. Furnas nicked the grass and spun, lightly colliding with the outside guardrail, losing about six more seconds to the 88.
Faryniarz seemed to be saving fuel while in the lead. He was quite measured with getting back into the throttle, and still maintained his lead on the 28 until the end.
Andrew Faryniarz and John Furnas both led 20 laps, and both will be awarded the extra points for most laps led.
Congratulations to Andrew Faryniarz for taking the checkered flag!
Winner: Andrew Faryniarz (20 laps led)
P2: John Furnas (20 laps led)
P3: Logan McGlothlin
P4: Brycen Fitzgerald
P5: Jeff Hollingsworth