Ray Parent puts on a driving clinic at the Cement Palace Late Model 50 Lapper 6-2-18

Posted by Wayne G. Barber & Photos by Wayne G. Barber

1	98	Ray Parent	50	48:06.254		00:13.507	15	88.754
2	RI17	Vinnie Arrenegado	50	48:06.636	00:00.382	00:13.627	15	87.972
3	15	Jake Johnson	50	48:06.858	00:00.604	00:13.521	4	88.662
4	50	Jeramme Lillie	50	48:07.111	00:00.857	00:13.606	14	88.108
5	1	Ryan Lineham	50	48:07.169	00:00.915

 Veteran Ray Parent #98 the 2017 Thompson Speedway Late Model weekly NASCAR points champion ventures down to Seekonk for the bigger races and tonight he brought down a pure rocketship to wheel. The race car wore

a special wrap to honor all the veterans and had Mr. Parents dog tags blown up in the fantastic tribute scheme. Numerous re-starts created some fantastic side by side action with Parent and the 2017 ROTY  Jake Johnson #15 to the delight of the very large crowd for the first points race of the 2018 racing schedule. 3 rainouts in May. Young Johnson finished third in 2017 with a few wins and will be running for Pro-Stock ROTY honors in 2018 starting next week on Saturday night. John Paiva handed the car toggle switch to Austin Blais in the 21 and he got caught up in a bad spin and had to take the hook early in the  50 lapper. Vinnie Arrenegado RI 17 won his heat with ease and marched to front and snagged a solid 2nd place finish with a 3 wide pass on the last lap. 5 more laps and I think it would have been a different outcome.  Last years late model division champion Ryan Lineham #1started up front with Parent and stayed in the top 5 the entire race and Jeremy Lillie #50 proved that he too will be force in 2018. This race was worth the price of admission in this scribes view with a very large field. Who said the Late/ Models were dying ? Not tonight at Seekonk Speedway. This was also race one of the Phil's Propane special events in 2018.The field was so large they had 3 heats and a consi and 23 race teams scored points in the excellent feature to kick off the 2018 late season.