Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough, ME.
Valenti Modified Racing Series points leader Anthony Nocella (Woburn,MA) continued his winning ways by taking down his 4th victory of the year Sat. 8/19.
Tony Ricci (Westbrook, ME) and Josh Cantara (Saco,ME) wrestled the lead from each other for the first 47 laps until Nocella used a restart to overpower Ricci and drive to the victory.
In victory lane Nocella said "Pretty awesome car all day and this track has been pretty good to us for a long time now. All we did was make small adjustments throughout the day hoping they were the right adjustments with the fog coming in. We just wanted to stay up front and to be patient for a while. Those guys were real quick at the beginning. The restart with 30 to go I figured it was a good shot to go, if I couldn't take the lead I could just drop back in line but I was able to get by them and stretch out a short lead until the last yellow, but the car was good right to the end."
Runner up Troy Talman (Oxford,MA.) the Lee USA winner in July started mid-field and used a lap 15 caution to pit for adjustments. From that point on Talman gradually worked his way forward passing Mike Willis Jr. (Grantham,NH) for third place on lap 59 then caught and passed Ricci for the runner up spot on lap 70. His bid to catch Nocella came up 1.128 seconds short at the end of the 75 lap marathon.
A happy Talman said "Second time coming here, first time in a modified, couldn't be more happier. We had a great run. I have to thank all my sponsors and my family, they have been with me from the beginning. We started off mid pack and started too tight. We came in and made a really good adjustment but just came up a little to short. We used up our stuff coming through the field, but really happy. Congratulations to Anthony on win number 4, and I'm having a fun time with the M.R.S."
What was supposed to be a one race deal, early in the year between Tony Ricci, a 2006, two time winner with the VMRS and the Czarnecki #20 team looks to be a great combination as Ricci won his heat race and led the feature 3 different times for a total of 32 laps. Ricci held on to finish 3rd on the podium.
"This is only our third race back, I haven't raced these things (tour mod) since 2009 and these guys (Czarnicki's) haven't been racing and we missed it a little bit. I'm trying to figure this tire thing out so we can get it good at the end of the race. Every race we've gone to this year has been a different strategy with a 100 lapper, twin 50's and now a 75 lapper. I enjoyed leading a couple of times, it gave me a chance to see exactly what I had. But tonight I missed it with my strategy and we missed it a little with the setup. Right now we're running decent and everybody's having fun so it looks like we'll run a few more MRS shows and see where it goes. We've had a good car where ever we've unloaded, we just got to work the kinks out. That we're there and that close, I'm pretty optimistic. I think we can be a contender."
Hard charger of the Beech Ridge event was without a doubt Andy Shaw. The Center Conway NH resident suffered damage in qualifying, then came from the last starting position in the feature to end up with a 4th place. His drive through the field had the locals cheering.
Shaw commented "It was amazing really, we had a great car, actually the rack broke at the beginning of the race, it must have broke from the heat race incident and on restarts I would have to turn the wheel an extra half a turn and it would push until I did that and the wheel would catch and It was fine after that. So I was racing with a bad rack to boot, it was amazing. Starting dead last and I drove to third but I had to pit when it started to leak, then we fixed that. It was so fast, it just never fell off. We're still learning about this stuff (tour mods), I have an excellent crew plus this place, its my favorite track to run."
Summary
Track-Beech Ridge Motor Speedway-0.333 Miles-8/19/2017
Time of Race-44;27.901
Margin of Victory-1.128
Best Lap Time-15.275
Best Speed- 78.481
Best Lap By-#6-Sam Rameau
Entry's-18
Cautions-6-laps,5,15,23,38,47, 69
Lap Leaders-#20-(1/4)--#81-(5)--# 20-(6/9)--#81-(10/13)--#20-( 24/47)--#92-(48/75)
Heat Winners-#20-Tony Ricci---#17-Donnie Lashua
2---#3-Troy Talman
Finish
1---#92-Anthony Nocella
2---#3-Troy Talman
3---#20-Tony Ricci
4---#66NH-Andy Shaw
5---#83-Mike Willis Jr.
6---#17-Donnie Lashua
7---#6-Sam Rameau
8---#27-Derek Robbie
9---#77-Matt Mead
10--#47-Dylan Rock
11--#63-Chris Bolton
12--#93-George Sherman
14--#16-Colbey Fournier
15--#33-Bill Dixon
16--#81-Josh Cantara
17--#55-Ryan Doucette
18--#66-Randall Wimert
Next Valenti Modified Racing Series event-Stafford Motor Speedway, Stafford Springs, CT. Sept. 1st. 2017
Source: Story Jim Snape & Photos by Simply the Best, Crystal Snape
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