Seekonk, MA — The most exciting racing division in the northeast lived up to its name, thanks to the decisive driving of Johnston, Rhode Island’s Crystal Serydynski – she hauled down the long-awaited first career win in decisive fashion. It was a hard-earned victory, as she had to fight it out, door to door, with Paul Lallier in the middle circuits, then had defending division champ Steve Axon all over her rear bumper in the closing laps. But calm thinking kept the Hollywood 8 focused on driving and she crossed under the checkers just .216 ahead of Axon. It was a wild blur at the stripe as Mike Mitchell and Axon were angling to get by on both sides and Sparky Arsenault and Ryan Lineham were right behind, all within the same second. Lallier, Justin Travis, Scott Bruneau, George Rego and Scott Cestodio rounded out the top ten.
Accolades from fellow drivers fell all around, post-race, in what track announcer Kevin Boucher called “One of the most popular wins we’ve seen here in a long time.”
Serydynski started third on the grid, but had gotten by Chris Rioux and polesitter Tim Eaton before the first lap had ended. Eaton was tenacious, hanging on, door-to-door through lap 5 before falling back, when Delaney eased into second for a lap. Lallier came by into second a lap later, and engaged Serydynski wheel-to-wheel for several laps. The telemetry placed him inches ahead on lap ten, then again on laps 16 and 17 and once more on lap 19. But Serydynski had a steel grip on the low groove and would not yield. Just when she had taken the front for herself, on lap 22, Axon succeeded Lallier in second and intensified the pressure all the way to the checkers.
[Photo Gallery] by Nicholas Teto
#8 – Crystal Serydynski
