John St.Germain Gets the Win at Thompson International Speedway on Friday, October 23rd
John St.Germain gets the win on Friday, October 23rd at the Thompson Int’l Speedway XtraMart World Series of Speedway Racing while ARTS being honored to be the lead-off main event for this famous event.
St.Germain also won the 8-lap heat race after starting on the outside pole next to Derrick Chriss. St.Germain jumped into the lead at the drop of the green flag and continued the lead to take the checker flag.
At the start of the main event Andy Lindeman was leading the point’s battle with 94 points ahead of St.Germain and 118 points ahead of Brandon Warren. St.Germain and Warren were battling for the Rookie of the Year. At the drop of the green St.Germain jumped out to take the early lead in the 20 lap main event with Chriss close behind. While Lindeman was making his way to the runner-up position, St.Germain was distancing himself from the rest of the field. Chris Correll ran in the 3rd position being closely pursued by Seth Duval. Gee Perry pulled into the pits on lap 7 with mechanical problems.
Just shy of halfway marker, the battle for 2nd began to heat up between Lindeman, Correll, and Duval. As the three ran nose to tail, St.Germain was able to maintain his near straightaway lead.
In turn two Correll and Duval got together sending Correll around and Duval continuing on. Correll was able to keep his truck moving. This did not bring out the caution. Other trucks running in the pack got together trying to go around Correll coming out of the turn collecting Tony Naglieri, Chriss, and Roger Perry bringing out the caution. Going back to the last completed green flap lap, Correll was able to get his spot back.
On the restart, front row starters St.Germain and Lindeman made substantial contact right under the flag stand sending both trucks spinning into the infield. The fourth running Duval was also collected in the incident. Correll went from spinning on lap 10 to being the new leader on the second attempt at the same lap restart.
Warren grabbed the top spot away from Correll exiting turn two of lap 10. Contact between a host of trucks inside the top five had trouble on the restart allowing St.Germain to streak through the field. By lap 12, St.Germain was already back into the second position and searching for more. Duval had worked his way into the third spot as Correll continued to fall through the pack.
In the closing laps, Duval had caught St.Germain; giving Warren the breathing room he needed to apparently grab the win. Duval jockeyed behind St.Germain but could not muster up a pass. Warren took the checkers but it was St.Germain getting the win. For some unknown reason to the ARTS Official’s, the 55 truck of Brandon Warren went from victory lane straight to his hauler loading his truck and being the 1st ARTS team to leave the track. By failing to report to the ARTS impound area for post race technical inspection, which was previously announced at their drivers meeting, ARTS Officials had no recourse but to disqualify him.
By virtue of his victory, St.Germain earned Rookie of the Year honors. The third place finish was enough to give Andy Lindeman the 2009 ARTS Truck Series Championship. Congratulations to both John St.Germain and Andy Lindeman.
RESULTS: John St.Germain, Seth Duval, Andy Lindeman, Chris Correll, Roger Perry, Brad Caddick, Tony Naglieri, Derek Chriss, and Gee Perry.
This concludes the 2009 season of the AllStar Race Truck Series. Thank you to everyone for a great season.