Joey Payne Best in NEMA's Iron Mike Memorial at Monadnock; Meg CuginiTops Lites Field

Posted by Wayne G. Barber

Tim Bertrand September 7 at 9:25am   JOHN ZYCH JR - JOEY PAYNE - AVERY STOEHR Joey Payne Best in NEMA's Iron Mike Memorial at Monadnock Winchester, NH This past Saturday evening, NEMA made its return to the Monadnock Speedway for the continuation of the Iron Mike Scrivani Memorial race for the NEMA cars, and a full program for the Lites cars. Fierce racing throughout the pack in both divisions highlighted the evening, as NEMA continues one of its most competitive seasons ever on record. On a track that is known as a "drivers track" due to the variable banking between the turns and high speeds, Joey Payne became the ninth different winner in 12 races for NEMA, and Meg Cugini became the second female driver to ever win in the Lites division. In the NEMA division, Joey Payne and Jim Santa Maria paced the field to the green. Payne, consistently in the top three throughout the day on the time charts, blasted out into the lead. Payne paced the field at a torrid pace, pulling out to over a half track lead at one point. Behind him, there was close racing throughout the pack. 2014 Champion Randy Cabral, in a tight points battle with John Zych Jr. raced for the 4th position for much of the race, until Cabral got together with the #21 of Jim Chambers, sending Chambers spinning and bringing out the caution. Cabral retired to the pits later in the race due to the incident with a broken steering arm.  On the restart, Payne jumped into the lead, but Zych made a daring move, taking four spots away, and then set his sights on Payne. Zych slipped by Payne into the lead, only to be negated by a Bethany Stoehr caution on that same lap. On the next restart, Payne was ready for Zych, who is known to be very sharp on restarts. Payne launched in the middle of turn three, and rocketed up the track, taking away Zych's line. The duo sliced and diced, with Zych trying both the high side and the low side of Payne to get by. On the white flag lap, Zych made one more attempt in turn one, but Payne shut the door and went on to take down his first NEMA victory of the season, and first with Bertrand Motorsports. Following Payne and Zych across the line were Avery Stoehr, Seth Carlson, Alan Chambers, Jim Chambers, Bethany Stoehr, Paul Scally, Randy Cabral and Andy Barrows. "The car was really good. I had went into 'cruise mode' thinking that we had them covered, and then John surprised me after the restart when he got by. I've been doing this a long time, and knew what I had to do in order to make sure that didn't happen again. After the restart, the car loosened up a little, but I dialed it back in and hooked it back up for the finish," said Payne. "It feels awesome to win for the Bertrand team and for the Scrivani family in the Iron Mike Memorial," he said.  The club was born May 30, 1953 Only two point races to go, New London Waterford Speed Bowl and the World Series at Thompson ! NEMA MIDGETS - MONADNOCK - 9/5/15 Pos. # Driver  Hometown Owner 1 74 Joey Payne Fairlawn, NJ Tim Bertrand  2 9 John Zych Jr. Mendon,MA John Zych Sr. 3 15a Avery Stoehr Lakeville, MA Russ Stoehr 4 71 Seth Carlson Brimfield, CT Gene Feigel 5 7 Alan Chambers Atkinson, NH Mike Chambers 6 21 Jim Chambers Atkinson, NH Mike Chambers 7 5b Bethany Stoehr Bridgewater,MA Greg Stoehr 8 30 Paul Scally Raynham, MA Paul Scally 9 DNF 47 Randy Cabral Plymouth, MA Tim Bertrand 10 DNF 46 Andy Barrows New Ipswich, NH Andy Barrows 11 DNF 99 Jim Santa Maria Burlington, CT Jim Santa Maria 12 DNF 87 Doug Cleveland  Sudbury, MA  Doug Cleveland