Jesse Kent scored his first career Race of Champions (RoC) Sportsman Modified victory Saturday night, winning during the "Night Before the Glen" at Chemung Speedrome.
Kent grew up in a family of racers, including grandfather George Kent who won the Race of Champions 250 four times in his career. For Jesse Kent, adding his own name to the list of winners in the Race of Champions Family of Series was a larger-than-life moment.
"It's surreal," said Kent. "I've been dreaming of this since I was a kid."
A regular in Modified competition at Chemung, Kent took the lead on lap 38 from Shawn Nye and pulled away for his first victory with the touring series.
"[Nye]'s been fast here every time they've come here. I didn't know what I was going to have, but it looked like he was fading a bit. We were coming along. Well, we pulled it off somehow."
Indeed, Nye noticed his car fading at the end of the race due to a clutch issue. However, he harbored no ill feelings with seeing Kent in victory lane after his second-place finish.
"We had something happen in the clutch, I think," said Nye It just wouldn't take off on starts and during green-flag runs it would also do it. I'm just glad it was him to win. He doesn't win a lot, and it was fun."
Jacob Christman finished third to round out the podium. A three-time winner with the RoC Sportsman series this year, Christman noted how close the competition is throughout the field.
"It's very competitive," said Christman. "Especially when you look at practice times, we're all on top of each other. We had a good car. Long race, we tried to keep the wheels on it. We just lost the balance a little bit at the end of it, but we'll keep learning. A lot of notes to build up, and we'll keep trying."
Andy Jankowiak finished fourth to continue his busy racing calendar, one day after taking part in the ARCA Menards Series event at Watkins Glen International. Kevin Youngs completed the top five finishers.
The next stop for the Race of Champions Family of Series is its marquee event, the Race of Champions 250 at Lake Erie Speedway on September 20-22. Click here to watch live on RacingAmerica.TV all weekend long.
-Photo credit: MoJo Photos/Race of Champions
RoC Sportsman Modifieds at Chemung Speedrome
Unofficial Results
| Fin | No | Driver | Laps | Diff |
| 1 | 26 | Jesse Kent | 50 | --- |
| 2 | 4 | Shawn Nye | 50 | 1.541 |
| 3 | 48 | Jacob Christman | 50 | 1.778 |
| 4 | 57x | Andy Jankowiak | 50 | 2.134 |
| 5 | 2Y | Kevin Youngs | 50 | 2.558 |
| 6 | 20 | Jimmy Zacharias | 50 | 3.156 |
| 7 | 72 | T.J. Potrzebowski | 50 | 3.678 |
| 8 | 17T | Kevin Timmerman | 50 | 3.936 |
| 9 | 27 | Evan Rygielski | 50 | 4.430 |
| 10 | 88v | Sean Verwys | 50 | 5.768 |
| 11 | 40 | Alan Bookmiller | 50 | 6.734 |
| 12 | 98 | Charlie Sharpsteen | 50 | 7.541 |
| 13 | 9 | Doug Gavette | 50 | 7.838 |
| 14 | 03 | Jaden Brown | 50 | 8.145 |
| 15 | 47 | Teddy Bowen | 50 | 8.525 |
| 16 | 15F | Damon Frutchey | 50 | 9.203 |
| 17 | 36 | David Kozlowski | 50 | 11.856 |
| 18 | 18 | Dakota Anderson | 50 | 13.138 |
| 19 | 44 | Aaron Dorman | 49 | 1 Lap |
| 20 | 65L | Andrew Lewis, Jr. | 42 | 8 Laps |
| 21 | 15R | Nick Robinson | 42 | 8 Laps |
| 22 | 2H | Tyler Harbst | 21 | 29 Laps |
