Waterford, CT — Waterford Speedbowl was in action hosting the first Saturday night Whelen All-American Series event of the 2012 season. Claiming the opening Saturday night feature wins included Justin Gaydosh of Newtown who wired the SK Modified® race, leading from start to finish and Dillon Moltz of Waterford, who won his first career victory in the Bob Valenti Auto Mall Late Model division at his hometown track. Corey Hutchings of Salem took the win in the night’s Street Stock feature while Ken Cassidy Jr. of Lisbon won his second consecutive Mini Stock feature to begin the year. Thirteen-year old Kaz Grala of Westboro, MA won the night’s Legends Cars feature and Ken Morin Jr. of Old Saybrook reached Victory Lane in the Bandolero feature.
The 35-lap SK Modified® feature saw Gaydosh jump to the race lead ahead of Harry Rheaume at the drop of the green flag. While Gaydosh moved out to a brief early lead, Kyle James and Nichole Morgillo also snuck past Rheaume’s inside before he was able to get in line in fourth position. The field clicked away the early laps with James slicing into Gaydosh’s lead and Morgillo alone in third place. Behind Morgillo, Rheaume led a train of cars that included Tom Abele, Diego Monahan and Rob Janovic Jr. Monahan was the first to jump out of line on lap-4, moving by both Abele and then Rheaume to sweep into fourth position.
As James began to pressure Gaydosh for the lead, the running order remained the same through lap-9 when trouble broke out in the pack of cars battling for fifth position. Rheaume, Abele, Tyler Chadwick and Ed Puleo all made contact exiting turn two, sending Rheaume and Chadwick hard into the retaining wall. The violent impact sent Rheaume’s car airborne as the field continued to scatter behind the wreck. The incident drew the red flag, resulting in a 35-minute delay for repairs to the wall necessitated by the severe impact. All the drivers walked away from the incident, however only Puleo was able to resume after pitting for repairs.
[Photo Gallery] by Nicholas Teto
Continue reading ‘Waterford Speedbowl 4/7 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Results’
