Jim Santa Maria a First Time Lites Winner on 9/24
Seekonk, MA — Fifteen year old Jim Santa Maria, from Burlington CT, driving the #99 Hawk/Ford Focus owned by Susan Santa Maria came from sixth starting spot to score his first NEMA Lites feature win at the Cement Palace on Friday September 24th.
After battling with NEMA champ Randy Cabral and chasing pole starter Lanson Fornoro (who was outstanding in the Luggelle #00, leading the first 19 laps), Santa Maria made a bold move to the inside of Fornoro as they approached heavy lap traffic in the final corner.
When the checkard flag fell Santa Maria came out on top with Fornoro an impressive, but disapointing 2nd. Young NY high school basketball standout Michael Muldoon squeezed by Cabral for third. Cabral and Russ Wood jr. rounded out the top 5.
The two heat race winners were Ryan Bigelow and Jim Santa Maria.
- T.Q. midget stand-out Ian Cummens was impressive in his first Nema Lites race turning in 11.9 laps in practice.
- Alison Cumens, last year’s T.Q. Champion, rebounded from a practice crash to finish a respectable 9th for the Penn State student.
- The Bertrand team rebuild the front end on her #48 to make the feature.
- Josh Parker debuted his new ride, the former Cabral #47, with an 11th place finish.
- Kudos to D.J. Moniz for finding the right combination after a devistating crash at Waterford in July. DJ ran in the top 5 for most of the race, finally scoring a seventh.
Sources: NEMA Lites PR