By Ken de la Bastide
ANDERSON, IN – Dyer, Indiana driver Tony Brutti secured his first ever victory with the Vore’s Welding CRA Late Model Sportsman series by leading the final 38 laps at Anderson Speedway on Saturday.
Brutti started third in the Concentrix 75 never falling any further back in the field and took the lead on lap 38 from early pacesetter KC Spillers with an outside pass on the back straight following a restart earning the AR Bodies Cool Move of the Race Award.
Brutti had to hold off Jason Neal on two restarts, the final one coming on lap 69 to record the victory with Neal holding on to second and Jeff Marcum coming home in third.
Spillers took the lead at the start chased by Brutti, Marcum, Allstar Performance Fast Qualifier Danny Trent and Cory Setser. After five laps Trent moved around Marcum with an inside move entering turn one and closed on the two front runners.
Trent brought out the first of the three caution flags when his car suffered what appeared to be a broken right suspension part and he slammed into the outside retaining wall in turn four.
That gave Brutti the opportunity to take the lead by passing Spillers on the outside on the back straight. Spillers brought out the second caution flag when spun coming off turn four on lap 43.
Brutti held off Marcum on the restart with Neal using the low groove to move into the second spot entering turn one. The final caution flag waved on lap 69 when Setser spun in turn four.
Once again Brutti was able to maintain the lead on the restart with Neal, Marcum, RJ Norton and Shawn Bonar rounding out the top five.
“I didn’t want to see those caution flags,” Brutti said from the winner’s circle. “I was on cruise control at the time. The crew has worked hard and this win seemed like a long time in coming.”
Trent posted the fast time during qualifying at 13.061-seconds followed by Neal at 13.095-seconds and Brutti with a time of 13.165-seconds. The top eight cars during qualifying were separated by less than three-tenths of a second.
The next Vore’s Welding CRA Late Model Sportsman event will be on Sunday, July 23rd at Mt. Lawn Speedway, that event was originally scheduled for May 28th, but was postponed because of heavy rain. For more information on all the CRA series go to www.cra-racing.com.
