Winchester,
NH —Mother Nature finally eased off after washing out the races the last couple of weeks and graced us with a gorgeous day of racing this past Saturday at Monadnock Speedway.
NH —Mother Nature finally eased off after washing out the races the last couple of weeks and graced us with a gorgeous day of racing this past Saturday at Monadnock Speedway.
It was a packed house for Christmas in July. The on-track party where fans donated unwrapped toys and could get up close to meet just about all drivers from the Monadnock weekly divisions and their teams as well as some of the New England Street Stock Tour drivers who were in town as the special guest series was held and it was a great event.
Track Announcer Dave Sutherland was down trackside doing interviews with some drivers and entertaining the fans, as he always does, before the track was cleared for April Cushman’s rousing rendition of the National Anthem and then the action got underway.
One thing some drivers discussed was the possibility of drivers being a little too anxious to get back out there after not racing for two weeks. It could have been the case of some drivers having their helmets on a little too tight after having a couple weeks off, because we saw some of the hardest and worst wrecks all year this weekend.
It started early in the Young Guns heat as Shelby Avery and Justin Littlewood made some contact on coming out of turn 4 and Avery tagged front stretch the wall before collecting Dylan Morse. Morse would go on to walk away with the heat, but when it came time for the feature he ended up having some problems.
In the Young Guns feature, Daniel Starkweather made his way back to the top of the podium as he held off the late challenge of Alex Pearl for the win. Littlewood brought home third place honors as new comer Chase Curtis and Haley Guy rounded out the top 5 Young Guns finishers.
Starkweather notched his third win of the year, but said he gives all the credit to his Grandmother for all the wins. He knew Pearl was coming up quickly behind him, “I knew his car was fast,” he said.
Pearl, in just his second race at the track claimed his second podium finish in the runner up spot.
“I didn’t have enough time, but oh well,” Pearl said.
Littlewood’s family run race team had a long day as the 37 car was involved in a crash the night before at Claremont, and on the way to the track Saturday the one of the trucks the Littlewoods used to haul their cars broke down on the way to the track so they had to make two trips.
“I’d like to thank Phil and my dad for staying up all night and fixing it,” Littlewood said, “The whole front end was in the motor.”
Mini Stocks came out for their feature following the conclusion of the victory lane ceremony for the Young Guns.
It was a scary scene when Nick Anderson made contact with Matt Kimball, as Cameron Sontag tried to get around the two sending him directly into the front stretch wall. Luckily, there were no reports of injury to the young driver, but the #13 was badly damaged.
Matt Gauffin was the man on a mission as he wound the #68 up and passed Mike Stebbins on the outside to take the lead and bring home the checkered flag.
Gauffin was candid in his post race interview saying, “I need to give all the credit to my girl friend. She’s the one who told me if I want to get anywhere in this division I need to go around on the outside, ” told me if I want to get anywhere in this division I need to go around on the outside.”
“I had to go around Mike tonight,” he said, “He was on the bottom good and I just had speed on the outside.”
Last year’s champion gave credit to the winner saying, “I was protecting the bottom, I made him earn it, he went around me, he was really fast.”
“It was Matt’s night tonight,” Stebbins said, “Hats off to him, congratulations.”
Kevin McKnight, Eric Pomasko, and Solomon Brow rounded out the top five in the Mini Stocks.
The next division out on the track was the Lightning Stocks. Tim Leblanc was untouchable as he came across the line ahead of second place finisher Cole Littlewood.
Mid way through the race, the #52 had a big lead, but Littlewood caught up, surprising the winner with a late race challenge.
“I’m not going to lie, I’m actually really surprised that kid is able to keep up with me,” Leblanc said in victory lane.
“That car is pretty fast, I don’t know what happened to it from last week to this week,” he said.
Then Leblanc exclaimed, “Bill Johnson where you at buddy, this one’s for you!”
He explained further saying, “He bought me two right side tires,”
Cole Littlewood said, “This race was a lot of fun, and thanks to everyone who helped me,”
Littlewood got around Kris Kristolaitis for 2nd
and Richard Whipple held off Pat Houle to round out the top 5 Mini Stock finishers.
After the NESST finished the Super Stocks came out and went green-checkered, but there was no lack of excitement.
Chris Curtis finished ahead of Tyler Leary for the win as Dave Striebel came through the field in the #71 and got around Dennis Stange for third place.
Leary had fun despite coming in second saying, “Chris ran me real hard, real clean, we were beating and banging, he just had a little bit of an edge.”
The Sportsman Modifieds came on next and they did not follow the lead of the Super Stocks. Things got a little messy early as Trevor Bleau tried sneaking around the outside of Kim Rivet with contact made causing a multiple car caution with JT Cloutier receiving the worst of the damage.
As the night came to a conclusion there were some new faces up on the podium for the Sportsman Mods. Nathan Johnson in the 5J came across the line ahead of Brett Gonyaw in the 87 for the win. Keith Carzello had a strong run finishing third and Scott MacMichael and Bill Kimball rounded out the top 5.
“We struggled for a couple races,” Johnson said after the win, “We finally got it where we needed it.”
Following the racing action, there was a brilliant fireworks display. Racing goes on vacation for next week, but in two weeks’ time the big event of the summer comes to town with the 200 lap O’Reilly Auto Parts 200 Whelan Modified Tour race.
Sportsman Modified Results: Nathan Johnson, Brett Gonyaw, Keith xarzello, Scott MacMichael, Bill Kimball, Trevor Bleau, Jeff Gallup, Eric Leclair, Jason Barden, Casey Ouellette, Chris Ignazio, Brian Robie, Kim Rivet, JT Cloutier, Tyler Jarvenpaa, Scott Nordman.
Super Stocks: Chris Curtis, Tyler Leary, Dave Striebel, Dennis Stange, Tyler Lescord, Joel Monahan, Nancy Muni, James Thompson, Scott Beck, Ian MacDonald
Mini Stocks: Matt Gauffin, Mike Stebbins, Kevin McKnight, Eric Pomasko, Solomon Brow, Matt Kimball, DJ Lazelle, Joel Monahan, William McCarthy, Justin Faford, Alecia Parker, Ethan Marsh, Nick Anderson, Cameron Sontag, Julia Raymdon, Mike mcGoldrick, Rick Lambert
Lightning Stocks: Tim Leblanc, Cole Littlewood, Kris Kristoilaitis, Richard whipple, Pat Houle, Jim drew, Hillary Renaud, Steve Fucile, Kyle Boniface, Eric Silvernale, CJ Johnson, Bill Elliot, Tim Paquette
Young Guns: Dan Starkweather, Alex Pearl, Justin Littlewood, Chase Curtis, Hailey Guy, Mariah Stebbins, Colton Smith, Bow Smith, Chris Sontag, Dylan Morse
Source: Nathan Byrne, Monadnock Speedway Staff and Facebook Share Photos.
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