Posted by Wayne G. Barber
WINCHESTER—The racing revved up once again and there was a rumble of thunder on the mountain last Saturday night at Monadnock Speedway for a night of double features. The STAR Antiques were also on hand to give everyone a good show.
The features on June 20th were washed out by rain and last Saturday the Thunder Stocks, Super Stocks and Sportsman Mod features were made up as part of a double feature night.
Thunder Stocks led off the night with their first feature, June 20th make up, which saw defending champion and current points leader Marshall Usher take home the win followed by Paul Barnard in second. David Greenslit is looking to take a run at the points championship this season, he finished third in the first feature but we would see a lot more of the bright green #20 machine later in the evening.
Chris Lawrence just missed out on the podium finish as he crossed the line 4th. Rookie Richard Vincent wheeled the #4 car around to a top 5 with a 5th place finish.
Super Stocks rolled out next for their June 20th make up feature. Unfortunately for the Super Stocks, a car from the field lost their rear end and put some slick substance on the track. The man who paid most dearly was the man who sits 2nd in the points standings now, Dave Striebel.
Striebel slid out of control coming out of turn 2 on lap 4 and violently slammed into the outside wall, ending his night prematurely.
Misfortune created opportunity for Tyler Leary in the #11x to close the gap in points on Striebel and Leary pounced on the chance, winning the first feature. Chris Curtis came across 2nd and point leader Dennis Stange took home the final spot on the podium with a 3rd place finish
Cole Littlewood brought the #73 home 4th and Nancy Muni took the #96 to a top 5 coming in 5th.
Fans were then treated to a special early Sportsman Modified feature. It’s not every night you can come to Monadnock and see fast cars to start the program, but that’s what made last Saturday a little extra special.
Point's leader Kimball had to go hard from the drop, and he had some ground to make up as he worked through the field. The points leader had a strong car early on, but in the end had too much traffic to work through and wheeled his #43 machine to a 6th place finish. Yellow came out early as the #15 of Trevor Bleau made contact with the rear tire of Normandin. Bleau would recover after the spin to capture 7th place. At the front, Kim Rivet was out front early in the #99, but Brett Gonyaw in the #87 came and muscled his way into the lead Keith Carzello whipped the #8 car past Gonyaw for the lead to bring home the win for the 2nd time this season. Gonyaw captured 2nd and Tyler Jarvenpaa came across in 3rd.
“I’m whooped!” was the message from Carzello after the race, and he still had one more to go later
Scott MacMichael is currently 2nd in the points behind Bill Kimball. Last week he had a rough time as he blew an engine in practice and had to rush to go get and install his backup engine.
Well, this week MacMichael’s spell of bad luck continued as he lost his backup engine in the opening feature on lap 10 this past Saturday.
After the early victory lane ceremony, the heat races commenced, lead off by two divisions of STAR antique racers, followed by Young Guns, Lightning Stocks and Mini Stocks.
Young Guns had a few teams with tough nights. After having such a promising run to start his young racing career, Alex Pearl blew his engine in practice, Shelby Avery lost the handle and hit the backstretch wall head on leaving only 4 cars remaining to run Young Guns as both Hailey Guy and Chris Sontag also dropped out of the event.
In the feature for Young Guns it was Chase Curtis in the #88 out wheeling the #76 of Bow Smith for the win. Chris Buffone in the #29 passed the other Smith brother, Colton driving the #55.
Things got exciting when the Lightning Stocks took the track and hit the gas in their feature. Pat Houle, a little too anxious, got into the #11 Richard Whipple causing him to get into the #4 of Eric Silvernale propping the left front tire up over the right front of Whipple’s car. With the cars interlocked the two headed towards the infield grass where the impact with the softer surface jarred the two cars loose, sending Silvernale for a roll, landing upright on all 4 tires. Both went into the pit area and with minor repairs made it back out before the green to complete the race.
After the red flag came out to clear up the debris, Kyle Boniface in the #27 went to work when they went back green. Boniface jumped out ahead and never looked back, bringing home the win.
#95 CJ Johnson and #52 Tim Leblanc battled it out for 2nd and 3rd with Leblanc edging Johnson for the position. Kris Kristolaitis in the #28 finished 4th and Tim Paquette finished 5th in the #93.
Mini Stocks came out after and went green to checkers clean with no cautions. It was #13 Cameron Sontag out dueling wheel to wheel with #62 Julia Raymond for the win. Rookie Matt Gauffin in #68 passed #50 Matt Kimball for 3rd place. Point leader Eric Pomasco rounded out the top 5 in the #71.
Next out was the Thunder Stocks for their 2nd feature. The race was decided on lap 4 when David Greenslit took his #20 by then leader Paul Barnard in the #24 and never looked back. Barnard fell to 4th where he would finish.
In the meantime, Greenslit was busy trying to escape Marshall Usher’s #11 and Chris Lawrence in the #62. Usher looked to be running Greenslit down, but just as the points leader caught his closest competitor, Greenslit pulled away and brought home the win.
“I knew the track was going to come to me,” Greenslit said after the race, “We’re use to running at night.”
“I don’t know how I held off Marshall,” Greenslit went on, “He was fast. We came out on top, that’s all the matters.”
Super Stocks came out for their 2nd feature, and put on a show for the ages, the young ages that is, as the podium was dominated by drivers younger than 18 years old.
Youngest of them all, 14 year old Cole Littlewood had one of the most impressive displays of driving for a driver of his age all year at Monadnock. On a day where so much oil and grease was laid down on the track, and on a track where there is limited space to run on the outside to begin with, Littlewood was able to not only make it stick on the outside, but make it work up there. The young driver made the pass on the outside on 4 or 5 cars to take position. With leader Tyler Leary in his sights, everyone could tell Littlewood had it working, but would he have enough space to make the pass? The answer was a resounding yes, as Littlewood took the lead. With about half the race remaining, the question became, could he hold on?
Even after a late spin brought out the caution and brought the field level, Littlewood was able to get a good jump on the restart and hold on for the win.
“We put the body together and we got this car hooked up,” Littlewood said, “We could run anywhere tonight.”
Tyler Leary came home with 2nd place and #03 Joel Monahan came home 3rd.
The final race of the evening was next, with Sportsman Mods back out on the track.
Early on, #22 Tyler Jarvenpaa was out front, but he was bullied out of the lead by Brett Gonyaw in the #87.
As the laps ticked away Bill Kimball’s #43 started to make his move towards the front. After last week’s win, Kimball said it was “Time for business.” Well Bill was all business as Kimball charged to the front of the pack and never looked back, taking home the win.
The first place finish for Kimball vaulted him back up into the points lead to end the night.
Gonyaw came across 2nd and Keith Carzello’s #8 got around Jarvenpaa for 3rd.
#25 Brian Robie didn’t run the 2nd feature, as he did a noble thing and lent his car to Scott MacMichael so MacMichael wouldn’t lose too much ground on Kimball in the championship points race while MacMichael works out his engine issues.
Next week the Granite State Pro Stock Series comes to Monadnock to join with the weekly Nascar Whelan All-American series. Racing starts at 6PM.
Top Ten Sportsman Modified First Feature: Keith Carzello, Brett Gonyaw, Tyler Jarvenpaa, Kim Rivet, Eric Leclair, Bill Kimball, Trevor Bleau, Dennis Charrette, Casey Ouellette, Chris Iganzio, Scott Nordman
Top Ten Sportsman Modified Second Feature: Bill Kimball, Brett Gonyaw, Keith Carzello, Tyler Jarvenpaa, Scott MacMichael, Ben Byrne, Trevor Bleau, Kim Rivet, Jason Barden, Dana Smith
Super Stock First Feature: Tyler Leary, Chris Curtis, Dennis Stange, Cole Littlewood, Nancy Muni, Tyler Lescord, Joel Monahan, Dave Striebel
Top Ten Super Stock Second Feature: Cole Littlewood, Tyler Leary, Joel Monahan, Dennis Stange, Tyler Lescord, Duane Noll, Ken Springer, nancy Muni, Scott Beck, Ian MacDonald
Top Ten Mini Stocks: Cameron Sontag, Julia Raymond, Matt Gauffin, Matt Kimball, Eric Pomasko, Kevin McKnight, Joel Monahan, Solomon Brow, Justin Faford, DJ lazelle
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