Bill Bernard spent the first half of opening day racing for the lead before an incident took him out of contention. This week, while it looked that there may be a repeat of week one, fortune was on the side of the 60 year old Holliston native, as he picked up his first win of the season.

Several early cautions allowed Bernard to move quickly from his seventh starting position, and by the end of the second lap, his machine sat atop the leader board. Bill had his share of challengers, but used his drag racing experience to hit his mark each time. By the one third mark, opening day winner Jeramee Lille had moved up to second, and started to put some pressure on The Cardiac Kid. Lille was strong on the outside, but didn’t have enough to muster enough to squeeze past.

A lap 18 restart allowed defending LM champion Gerry DeGasparre Jr to move into second, and the six-time title holder tried to push Bernard, but he could not mount a challenge on the leader. With five circuits remaining, Lillie moved back into second after a restart, and with a green-white-checker run coming, he had one more shot.

As the pair raced across the line under the white flag, Lillie edged ahead of Bernard, but couldn’t complete the mission, as Bernard edged Lillie across the stripe under the checkered flag. Bernard held on for second, with DeGasparre third, Bobby Pelland III and Ryan Lineham rounding out the top five. Both Pelland and Lineham had to work through the field after early race contact found them coming from the back.