Matt Taylor Survives, wins at twin ring motegi

​By Justin Prince
 
In what turned into a war of attrition, Matt Taylor has won the Global Electronic Technology 175 Presented by Minus 273.
 
Taylor took the checkered flag on a one-lap shootout, having to hold off a hard-charging Mike Rasimas and David Sirois to do so. This was after several big crashes decimated a majority of the field throughout the 113-lap race.
 
Rasimas, Sirois, Chris Lanini and Ariel Alaniz rounded out the top five.
 
Seven cars finished on the lead lap out of 27 starters.
 
“This is awesome. What a scary opening portion of this race though,” said Taylor from HyperX Victory Lane. “Guys were flying all over the place and once (Michael) O’Brien had contact (on Lap 4) … that was kind of a red flag for me to go to the back there and that absolutely paid off.”
 
The race was marred by several incidents and hard hits to the wall.
 
O’Brien, who started on the pole, was bumped into the wall during a four-wide pass for the lead into Turn 3. Isaac Snider banged tired with Chris Fowler, sending him into the side tires of O’Brien. His suspension on his car was immediately destroyed. No caution was thrown for the incident.
 
On Lap 15, the trouble continued for drivers during a five-wide move for first. Ricky Hardin tapped the right-rear tire of Fowler, sending him sliding on the bottom line of the track. As that happened, Nick DeGroot was shot to the right, sending him into Snider. Both cars went flying into the outside SAFER barrier. Snider was launched across the track into the path of Alaniz. Mike Rigney, Chris Ragan and Alex Guyon were also involved.
 
The incidents escalated on Lap 24.
 
While fighting four-wide again for the lead, Craig Forsythe and Jean-Francois Matte made contact after Forsythe got loose. Matte was sent over Forsythe’s sidepod, shooting Forsythe into the path of Chris Staples. Alaniz and Aaron Morgan were also involved in the incident.
 
By Lap 27, just 14 cars were left running.
 
“That was a wild race. I can’t believe I made it to the end, so I will definitely take a P2 after all the carnage,” said Rasimas.
 
The incidents kept coming.
 
After D.J. Clark crashed due to his wheel disconnecting from his desk on Lap 54, much of the field went single-file until Lap 88. As the cars made their way through Turn 3, Robert Mikes came down the track into the front wing of Caleb Benci. Mikes spun around across his wing, destroying Benci’s front end. Jason Galvin drifted up the track to dodge the trouble only to overcorrect into the wall.
 
The race lead heated up on the ensuing restart.
 
Taylor quickly charged past Alaniz to take the point. He elected to hug the bottom line of the track in the corners to defend for several laps. Then on Lap 100, Jorge Anzaldo got a big run on Taylor, charging from fifth to second place in one straightaway. The two fought hard for three laps before reaching lapped traffic. While the traffic stayed high, it forced several drivers to check up, allowing Anzaldo to take the point on Lap 106.
 
Then, on Lap 108, Anzaldo spun.
 
The Raven Motorsports Silver driver tried to defend a move from Taylor on the bottom before spinning into Richie Hearn and Trevor Malone. All three cars slammed the outside wall, destroying their cars.
 
That set up the one-lap shootout.
 
Next race, the Lionheart Retro Series Presented by SimXperience heads to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the SimXperience 150 Presented by Dewar's Candy. That will take place on August 5 and can be seen live on RaceSpot TV at 10:35 p.m. ET.