Archive for June 21st, 2012

Banfield and Gleason Score Season-First Wins at Thompson

Published at June 21, 2012 in Thompson. Closed

Thompson, CT — Jim Banfield and Jesse Gleason scored their first season wins and led a roster of exciting finishes in the NASCAR Whelen All American Series Thursday Night Thompson Thunder at Thompson International Speedway this week. Ted Christopher and Tommy O’Sullivan earned milestone career finishes for their teams while Cam McDermott and John Lewinski-Loh added to their season totals.

Patience paid off for Jim Banfield in the 50-lap Super Late Model feature Thursday night. The So. Glastonbury, Conn.-native took the lead with two laps to go after then-leader Mike O’Sullivan blew a tire in turn one. Banfield drove to the lead and eventual victory unchallenged. Derek Ramstrom catapulted to the front at the drop of the green, and even an early-race caution couldn’t slow him down. Dick Houlihan and Mike O’Sullivan took over second and third on the restart as the top-five began to string out single file. O’Sullivan maneuvered by Houlihan for second and set his sights on Ramstrom, who was already out to a half-a-straightaway lead. Caution flew on lap seven and tightened the field back up again. O’Sullivan won the drag race into turn one on the drop of the green and took over the lead on lap eight with Ramstrom in his rear view mirror and Larry Gelinas in third. Ramstrom continued to pressure O’Sullivan before reclaiming the top spot at lap 20. Once out front, he was able to pull away by five-car lengths over O’Sullivan and Gelinas. With 14 laps to go, the No. 41 of Scott Rotherforth spun into the infield retaining wall on the front stretch and brought out the caution flag. O’Sullivan beat Ramstrom to the lead, but a caution would force him to try again. Ramstrom appeared to have the lead heading into turn one, but Gelinas went low making it a three-wide battle into turn one. Gelinas took the lead in commanding style, but had a lot of pressure by Ramstrom and O’Sullivan. Ramstrom dove low to challenge, and as he attempted to go by for the lead on lap 40 in turn one, Ramstrom started to go around and collected Gelinas in the mix. O’Sullivan inherited the lead for the restart with Jim Banfield and Rick Gentes rounding out the top-three. With two laps to go, O’Sullivan lost the left front tire on his No. 08 machine and handed the lead and win to Jim Banfield.

Ted Christopher earned his 96th career Thompson International Speedway victory when he powered his way to the win in the NASCAR Whelen All American Series Sunoco Modified division. It was his second win of the season. John Catania and Kerry Malone went into turn one double-file with Malone getting the lead coming out of turn two. Ted Christopher and Ryan Preece moved into second and third with Preece all over Christopher’s bumper for the second position. Woody Pitkat and Keith Rocco made it a five-car bumper-to-bumper train up front. On lap nine, Christopher shot to the bottom and took over the lead with Preece in tow. Malone squeezed into third, but was quickly passed by Pitkat and Rocco. The frontrunners approached lapped traffic at lap 13, but continued in a tight formation without a hiccup. On lap 22, Pitkat broke free of the trio to make a bid on Preece, but lost momentum and turned his focus to Rocco, who threatened his third place position. Pitkat regained himself as Christopher continued to lead Preece less than a car length in front of him. Christopher never faltered and drove straight to the checkered flag.

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Lincoln Tech 80 at Stafford Speedway Offers Stacked Field of Competitors Going for Checkered Flag

Published at June 21, 2012 in Stafford and VMRS. Closed

Stafford Springs, CT — The entry list for the 2nd Annual Lincoln Tech 80 at Stafford Speedway is stacked with drivers who have either weekly or Whelen Modified Tour racing experience at Stafford Motor Speedway. The wealth of experienced drivers coming to Stafford promises to deliver an exciting fight for the checkered flag.

The list of drivers who have both weekly and Tour experience at Stafford include Ted Christopher, Todd Szegedy, Doug Coby, Rowan Pennink, Ryan Preece, Dave Etheridge, Richie Pallai, Jr., Tom Bolles, John Jensen, and Jeff Malave. These 10 drivers have combined to win 175 feature events at Stafford, with Christopher leading the way at 116 feature wins. Coby is next with 19 feature wins, and both Christopher and Coby have won in multiple divisions at Stafford. Christopher has tasted victory in the SK Modified®, ProStock, Whelen Modified Tour, Camping World East Series, and the Valenti Modified Racing Series divisions, while Coby has taken checkered flags in the SK Modified®, Late Model, ProStock, and Whelen Modified Tour divisions at SMS.

Drivers that have just weekly racing experience at Stafford include Mark Bakaj, Tommy Barrett, Jr., and Joey Cipriano, and Todd Owen. Bakaj, Barrett, and Cipriano are all graduates of Stafford’s SK Light Modified division and Bakaj also ran in Stafford’s SK Modified® division. Bakaj, Barrett, and Cipriano have combined to win 25 SK Light feature events, while Owen has won 4 times in the SK Modified® division and 7 times in the ProStock division at SMS.

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Doug Coby Hoping to Continue Winning Ways at Stafford in Lincoln Tech 80

Published at June 21, 2012 in Stafford and VMRS. Closed

Stafford Springs, CT — Perhaps no driver enters the Lincoln Tech 80 with more momentum on their side than Doug Coby. The Milford, CT native has won both Whelen Modified Tour events held at Stafford thusfar during the 2012 season, and he finished third in both Valenti Modified Racing Series events last season in the Rick Czarnecki owned #20 machine. Coby is hoping to continue his good fortunes at Stafford with another victory in the Lincoln Tech 80, and he says that his team just might have the proper recipe for him to do that.

“You never know what’s going to happen, there’s a lot of cars signed up to run the race,” said Coby. “We’re planning on coming with the best setup we can and we have a new Bob Bruneau motor that we’re hoping will help us get a little better than we were last year. We finished third in both times last year and we thought we were lacking a little motor wise, so we think this year we’ll have something better.”

The VMRS entry list has 41 expected entries for the Lincoln Tech 80, and it is filled with drivers who have either weekly experience or Whelen Modified Tour experience at Stafford, which promises to make for a very competitive race.

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Todd Owen Looking for Repeat Performance in Stafford’s Lincoln Tech 80 in New Car

Published at June 21, 2012 in Stafford and VMRS. Closed

Stafford Springs, CT — With the Lincoln Tech 80 Valenti Modified Racing Series event on the horizon at Stafford Motor Speedway, Todd Owen is looking forward to having a repeat performance of last year’s race. Owen, an SK Modified® regular at Stafford, finished second behind Keith Rocco after starting from the 20th position. But Owen won’t be driving the same #29 he piloted last season; instead he will be behind the wheel of Jack Bateman’s #17 for the Lincoln Tech 80.

“I’ll be driving Jack Bateman’s #17 car, so it’ll be a different car than the car I drove last year,” said Owen. “I drove Jack’s car at Thompson, and I really enjoyed it until we had some motor issues. I think we led like the first 17 laps of the race before we had the motor problem. I’m looking forward to coming to Stafford with Jack’s car.”

Owen finished second in last year’s Lincoln Tech 80 and was running in the top-5 in the Shark Cycle 80 when his power steering belt broke and he retired the car. With his success in the VMRS races combined with his track experience, Owen likes his chances when the green flag falls on this year’s Lincoln Tech 80.

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Granite State Pro Stock Series 112 at Unity Raceway Cancelled

Published at June 21, 2012 in Granite State Pro-Stock Series and Unity. Closed

No makeup date announced; Gate City Classic up next

Canaan, NH — The Granite State Pro Stock Series 112 lap event scheduled for this Saturday, June 23 at Unity Raceway in Unity, ME has been cancelled due to circumstances beyond control. No makeup date has been announced at this time.

The Granite State Pro Stock Series will mark the return of pro stock racing to Hudson International Speedway in Hudson, NH on Sunday, July 8, with the return of the “Gate City Classic”. The 100-lap main event will now be the second event on the 2012 Granite State Pro Stock Series season. Mike O’Sullivan of Springfield, MA scored the win in the season opening event at Monadnock Speedway.

The tight quarter-mile Hudson Speedway is located just off New Hampshire Route 102 on Old Derry Road in Hudson, NH, a short drive from US Route 3 and Interstate 93 and New Hampshire’s second largest city, Nashua, NH.

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Igo Captures Top 10 Finish in First Ever Truck Race

Published at June 21, 2012 in Seekonk. Closed

After failure to start the feature race in what was supposed to be his Truck Series debut because of mechanical issues, Chris Igo, Jr. and the Igo Racing team arrived at Seekonk Speedway last Saturday (June 16) to give his series start another try. This time brought success. After turning quick laps in practice all day, Igo qualified for the feature race 12th.

It appeared as though the front runners got anxious for position as on just lap one, there was a 4 truck wreck which Igo had to avoid. After that, Igo was forced to make an unexpected pit stop to fix a fuel intake problem that had occured on the track with his #08 Chevy machine.

After getting back on the track, Igo drove a clean race where he finished 10th, his first ever in the truck series. "It's unfortunate that we had mechanical troubles that forced us to pit under green but my crew worked hard to get me back out there in short time. For my first race in the trucks, I couldn't be happier going home with a clean truck and a Top 10 finish" stated a happy Igo as he climbed from his Merrimack College Sponsored Truck.

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Waterford Speedbowl Wild ‘n Wacky Wednesdays 6/20 Results

Published at June 21, 2012 in Waterford. Closed

Waterford, CT — After two consecutive rainouts, Waterford  Speedbowl was back in action with its popular Wild ‘n Wacky Wednesday mid-week program. Taking down wins on the evening included Dave Garbo Jr. of Stonington in the Legends Cars and Derek Debbis of Oakdale in the Bandolero feature, while Mike Maskell of Quaker Hill was the night’s Super X-Car race winner and Scott Limkemann of East Lyme took the X-Car victory.

The 20-lap Legends Cars feature had a tough time getting started as Daniel Stolte and Dennis Pantani came together just past the start-finish line on the initial green flag. Pantani went spinning into the wall leaving debris behind, drawing the caution flag. The second attempt to start the race was no better, as a six car melee between turns three and four among the back half of the field kept the race under caution before a lap was completed.

The race finally got underway with Dana Dimatteo showing the way to lead lap-1. Multiple time feature winner on the year Matt Pappa spun exiting turn four on the opening lap, however continued on without caution. As the field was completing lap-2 Pappa spun again in turn four, the second time drawing a yellow flag.

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