Seekonk Speedway, Seekonk, Mass.
Anthony Nocella of Woburn, Ma. has been running a limited schedule with the Valenti Modified Racing Series because of his busy work load running on the USAC midget circuit, but on Sat. June 4th Nocella used a lap 38 restart to power past race leader Dan Meservey Jr. and lead a potent field through 7 more caution periods for the remainder of the 100 lap grind. This victory was his 3rd of his career with the MRS.
"My guys gave me a great car tonight. Normally I don't like to start up front, I wanted to save the tires the best I can. My guys kept telling me who was coming up through the field and that Jon (McKennedy) had pitted. I knew he would be coming hard and I was going to make him work for it if he got to us."
Starting from the second row by virtue of his heat win, Nocella dropped into the third spot behind pole sitter Dan Meservey Jr. of Brewster, Ma. and Carl Medeiros Jr. of Westport,Ma. By lap 20 Nocella picked off Medeiros and trailed Meservey's rear bumper until a lap 38 restart. Nocella used that restart to power his Nocella Paving #92 into the lead becoming the second and final leader of the event.
Jon McKennedy of Chelmsford,Ma. started his quest for a second straight win from midpack and ran his typical race strategy saving his equipment until the end but that plan was waylaid when he was struck from behind and spun in turn one on lap 61.
After a pitstop and repairs McKennedy was a man and machine on a mission starting deep in the pack.
With twenty laps to go he made a daring three car wide pass putting him in the top 5, then methodically began to pick off the top runners.
With 5 laps left and Nocella checking out on the field, McKennedy caught second place Richard Savary of Canton, Ma. and the two ran side by side with McKennedy prevailing on the outside to take over second place but it was too little too late as he could only trail Nocella across the finish line.
Noticeably dejected he said, "It was just unfortunate. We had a really good car and were running for the win. Halfway through the race I was up in the top 5 biding my time when I got run into and spun out. From there I had to pass the whole field again where I got up to second. I had a good car but just not enough. I am just a little disappointed, I thought we had a good enough car to win. We passed about thirty cars tonight and ended up second so it was a decent night. It is just racing I guess."
The defending race winner from a year ago, Richard Savary came home third after many hard fought battles throughout the 100 lap marathon. He, like McKennedy, ran hard enough to stay within striking distance and powered up the Alloy Wheels sponsored #99 with thirty to go, eventually running second to Nocella, but with a handful of laps left McKennedy slipped by leaving Savary third on the podium.
" We knew it was going to be a tough race on these tires, so we tried to save as much as we could for the end. I picked up a push at the end. When I got to second I thought I had something for Anthony, he wiggled a little and I stuck my nose under him but I got tighter and tighter the last 20 laps. With Jon at the end I moved down and gave him the outside and just protected my line and gave him as much race track as he possibly wanted" said Savary.
Summary:
Track---Seekonk Speedway, Seekonk,Mass.
Race---VMRS 100
Time of Race---54:42.501
Cautions---8---laps 38,41,45,49,60,61,73,87
Lap Leaders---#45 Meservey Jr. laps 1--38 #92 Nocella 39--100
Entrys---26
Heat Winners---#45-Meservey Jr.--50-Medeiros Jr--#92-Nocella
Margin of Victory---1.360
Best lap time---12.279
Best Lap by #92--Nocella
1---92-Anthony Nocella
2---29-Jon McKennedy
3---.99-Richard Savary
4---52-Woody Pitkat
5---19-Dave Schneider
6---13-Chase Dowling
7---24-Todd Patnode
8---8-Kyle James
9---88-Russ Hersey
10--12-Todd Annarummo
11--33-Rob Richardi
12--38-Mike Willis Jr.
13--11-Geoff Gernhard
14--04-Branden Dion
15--16-Colbey Fournier
16--50-Carl Medeiros Jr.
17--3-Troy Talman
18--77-Matt Mead
19--93-George Sherman
20--45-Dan Meservey Jr.
21--15ct.-Chris Pasteryak
22--72-Ryan Kuhn
23--27-Kevin Iannarelli
24--38ct.-Nick Ladyga
25--117-Donnie Lashua
26--80-Dick Houlahan
Next VMRS Race---June 18th-- Oxford Plains Speedway--Oxford,ME.
Race re-cap by Jim Snape
photos by Simply the Best, Crystal Snape
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