WATERFORD – Jason Palmer had a fairly uneventful ride to his first Late Model victory of the season on May 31 at the Waterford Speedbowl.
Saturday there was no lack of dramatics when Palmer made it two consecutive wins.
Palmer, of Berlin, came out on top of a five-lap, side-by-side duel to the checkered flag with Bruce Thomas Jr. to win the 30-lap Late Model feature Saturday at Waterford.
Thomas, of Groton, was second and Keith Rocco of Wallingford third.
Rookie Nicholas Sowa looked to be running away with the event, holding a half straightaway lead, but with five laps remaining, Sowa slowed in turn two and nearly got in the wall. He kept going and kept the lead, but coming off of turn four, he was involved in a hard crash with Anthony Ryan Jr. and Thomas.
It put Thomas in the lead, with Palmer second for the ensuing restart. From there, the pair put on a side-by-side battle for the closing laps, with Palmer edging to the win.
“The laps were counting down, Sowa had a great lead, I don’t know if his motor failed or what happened there,” Palmer said. “We had a restart. I said, ‘This thing is tight, I’m not going the heat tires up and try to free this thing up a little bit.’ We went back to green and Bruce is a gentleman in racing. The kid will give you the width of the car, plus an inch. If you can hang there he’ll give it to you. The fans come here to see a good race and that’s what we’re here for, to put on good shows. That was awesome.”
Said Thomas: “We had a little bit of contact but he wasn’t pinching me and I wasn’t trying to run him out. It just didn’t have enough bite. He did a heck of a job.”
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