Astle Wins, Gains Breathing Room in Championship Race
Seekonk, MA — Flyin’ Fred Astle was living like his nickname, Saturday night at Seekonk Speedway. The Pro Stock multi- champ from Westport stormed his way to the front of the Phil’s Propane 75-lap race by lap 10 and refused to relinquish the top spot all the way to the checkered flag. It was a new jewel in Astle’s crown, as he had not yet won a 75-lap race at the Cement Palace.
The win also granted him breathing room over his nemesis this season, David Darling of Rehoboth. The duo entered the evening just one point apart in the standings and had see-sawed the lead over the past few weeks. Astle held two victories while his antagonist had nabbed three. Darling’s eleventh place finish, exacerbated by losing a tire on-track due to body metal rubbing the right front, will allow Astle some breathing room with three races remaining, but not much.
E for Effort honors on the evening go to Berkley, MA hot shoe Jake Vanada who came up to seriously hound Astle throughout the latter stages of the event. Vanada, who has seen a win on the year, has suffered a yin-yang series of fortunes with mechanical problems on his Pro Stock. It was running like a clock on the evening and Vanada was taking full advantage of his fortune.
[Photo Gallery] by Nicholas Teto
Rob Murphy nabbed third, which should ease him ahead of Mike Brightman in the standings. Brightman managed sixth and will see Murphy overcome the one point lead, causing them to exchange places in the standings. Ken Spencer and Tom Scully, Jr. nailed down fourth and fifth, and the points.
BURR CREATES AND WINS WILD FINISH IN LATE MODELS
Tyler Thompson led 29.75 laps of the scheduled 30. It was that last quarter-lap that spelled all the difference to Middleboro hot shoe, Randy Burr. Thompson, of Somerset, had battled with Dennis Stange throughout the race and held his position until the final turn of the last lap. Burr had started fifth, but elevated himself to third on the second lap. There he remained as Thompson and Stange fought a withering engagement throughout the race.
In the heat of battle through turns three and four of the ending circuit, Thompson and Stange swung up out of the groove – just enough to give the wily Burr the opportunity he’d been waiting for. He pounced full throttle coming through turn four, creating a 3-wide situation and punching his nose to the front of the pack. Thompson, surprised in his effort to win his first career race, hesitated a second and fell back as Stange poured on the coals, to no avail. Burr roared ahead for the checkered flag, a quarter of a second ahead of Stange. Divisional leader Ryan Vanasse also seized the moment and surged past Thompson for third. Thompson finished a quarter second behind Vanasse in fourth with Colbey Fournier of Berkley rounding out the top 5.
“The 66 and 22 were running hard and they gave me a little crack . . . and that’s all that I needed,” said Burr in post-race comments.
LENNY GUY DOMINATES FOR SECOND WIN ON SEASON IN SPORT TRUCKS
Once the traffic was sorted and the early red flag situation was cleared, Lenny Guy put his Sport Truck into the lead on lap two and did not relinquish his hold on first place in a race that ran green flag for 24 of 25 laps. Seekonk’s Mike Cavallaro jumped into second and spent 20 laps doing everything he could to make life miserable for the leader, but could not, in the end, make the pass into first. In addition to his trophy and checkered flag lap, he was issued a big hug by his wife. “You won and you got a huge hug,” noted track announcer Kevin Boucher. What do you think of that? “I got lucky,” beamed Guy.
On the first restart, Dane Saritelli looped it coming off turn 2, and divisional leader Rick Martin, trying to avoid, went hard against the backstretch wall, throwing a tire from the right rear, which sailed high into the air before bouncing into the infield. Roderick got into Saritelli hard and Dumas spun around the wreck, ending up sliding to the infield in turn three.
Martin limped his truck from the backstretch to turn three before he realized his tire was down. It took a long time to separate Roderick from Saritelli, and Roderick’s truck came away with no fenders, hood or front bumper. The crash ended the evening for Martin, Saritelli and Roderick. Ed Gannon went to the rear for the assist on the spin.
#77 – Lenny Guy
BRUNEAU TAKES DOWN FIRST WIN OF SEASON IN STREET STOCKS
Tiverton driver Scott Bruneau found himself in a pursuit position for most of the Street Stock feature before finding himself in the lead when Chris DeMoura’s car broke down on the 23rd of 25 laps. DeMoura, of North Dighton, had started in the fourth row behind polesitter Ken Kohler and began to wend his way toward the front as numerous cautions slowed the field and eliminated competitors. Thirteen of 24 starters eventually finished the race.
In the championship challenge, where Scott Serydynski had led Ryan Lineham by a single point, fate was not kind to the former, as Serydynski, of West Greenwich, lost a wheel during one of the on track incidents and was forced to retire with a DNF just 13 laps in. He finished in23rd, while Lineham, from Coventry, RI, picked up after early race incidents and finished a solid 6th.
A late single file restart put DeMoura ahead of Bruneau, Tony Oliveira, Travis and Axon. DeMoura went to the lead once more, while Oliveira went high and wide, then slid back to fifth. On lap 23, DeMoura’s car suddenly broke down on the frontstretch, but he limped it off turn two into the infield to allow the race to continue, and Bruneau suddenly found himself with the lead, a lap-and-a-half from the finish. He outpaced Travis through the white flag lap and across the line with a 1/3-second lead. Axon, of Attleboro, followed for third, Beaulieu fourth, Tivertonian Rob Murray fifth, Lineham holding down sixth, Cumberland, Rhode Islander Mike Mitchell seventh, Bamford returning to come in eighth, Ray Negley ninth and Rey Lovelace rounding out the top 10.
NOCELLA CLAIMS BOSTON LOUIE SEYMOUR NEMA LITES CROWN
Anthony Nocella of Woburn, MA, drove a Seymour Enterprises NEMA Lite midget to victory in the memorial race named for the Enterprises’ founder, Boston Louie Seymour. Nocella came on shortly into the race to use great speed and handling to run to a clear cut victory on the third of a mile oval. Andy Barrows of New Ipswich, NH, followed him across for a well-earned second. Plymouth’s Randy Cabral took third. Taunton driver Ed LeClerc, who has won earlier in NEMA Lite competition in Fast Fridays Competition at Seekonk placed fourth, Russ Wood, Jr. of Pelham, NH claimed fifth.
First lap of the race was marred by a red flag accident, between front row starters Kevin Park and Eric Cabral. They had run hard from the start, and coming off turn 4 on the initial lap, they touched wheels, often a formula for disaster in open wheel racing. Cabral’s number 36 car spun, bouncing him off the wall between the end of turn 4 and the starter’s platform. The dynamics of the wheel contact launched Park’s car into the air and then brought him down hard and propelled him into the wall and then back to mid-track. Three of the four wheels on the car were either wrenched away from their mounts or broken off completely The right front was torn off and embedded in the right side of the body; the left front was bent back towards the cockpit. Only the left rear wheel was still in position.
This placed Lanson Fornoro on the pole with Paul Bigelow on the outside. Andy Barrows and Russ Wood, Jr. lined up behind them with Paul Lugelle and Nocella in the third row.
Fornoro snapped to the lead out of turn 1 with Bigelow and Barrows in full pursuit. But 3 cars locked wheels in turn two after a lap had passed. Lugelle was among the trio, and pulled away, leaving a large puddle.
Again they lined up with Fornoro and Bigelow on the front, followed by Barrows and Wood. Nocella was low on the third row with Jesse State to his outside. At the green, Fornoro again grabbed the lead. Nocella went under Barrows and Wood into third. On lap 4, he got under Bigelow in turn 2 for the runnerup spot. Nocella set his sights on Fornoro and was setting up for an underneath pass when Ryan Tidman had his motor die while trying to get into the infield from turn 2 and the caution came out.
The lap 5 restart had Nocella on Fornoro’s high side with Bigelow and Barrows in the second row. Wood and state were behind them. Fornoro broke into the lead with Nocella on his tail. The latter waited, made an outside move then dived underneath through the turn to turn the advantage on Fornoro. He began to accelerate away, leaving Barrows to chase Fornoro.
Five laps later, Nocella had built a straightaway lead over Fornoro, who had Barrows to contend with, and on lap 13, Barrows went for an underneath move to take second. By lap 15, he had secured second place.
Lapped traffic loomed for the leader on the 19th circuit, but it hardly seemed to slow his progress. Barrows was still a good distance behind, with Randy Cabral following and Jim Santamaria at his back. Fornoro was now fifth. Eddie LeClerc was moving up rapidly and now was sixth.
Santamaria did a solo pirouette on lap 25 in turn 4 and a pair of cars got tied together. Bethany Viets and Carl Medeiros were pushed to the infield, leaving 10 cars in the field which had started 18. Five laps remained.
Nocella led a single file restart with Barrows on his tail, followed by Randy Cabral, Santamaria, LeClerc, State, Wood and Fornoro. Nocella jumped hard on the restart; Barrows made an attempt to battle him, but Nocella moved quickly away. Cabral was attempting to pass on the high side. Barrows pulled away on lap 26 as LeClerc passed Santamaria for the fourth spot.
It was parade laps for the finishers through to the 29th and final lap.
JEFF ABOLD NAILS DOWN DUAL WIN FOR SEYMOUR ENTERPRISES IN BOSTON LOUIE MEMORIAL
Jeff Abold of Penniville, NY, started 10th on the NEMA midget field, took 10 laps to get to the front, then waltzed the rest of the way home in the 29 lap Boston Louie Memorial race for NEMA midgets. The win, in a Seymour Enterprises car made a sweep of the Boston Louie Memorial for the companies that Boston had founded. Anthony Nocella had won the NEMA Lites division also in a Seymour car.
Anthony Marvuglio started on the pole and saw outside pole Jim Miller grab a quick lead, but John Zych and Barry Kittredge tangled at the start. Kittredge was stopped in turn 2, facing the wrong direction. As Zych drove his car to the pits, a push start got Kittredge underway again. He returned to the pack.
On the lap 0 restart, Marvuglio took the lead Miller, who grabbed second, followed by Chris Deritis, Adam Cantor, Bridgewater’s Russ Stoehr, BJ MacDonald and Plymouth driver Randy Cabral.
With Marvuglio at the front, Miller, Deritis, Cabral, and Russ Stoehr were shadowed by a charging Abold who was moving his way up. Stoehr was his next victim as Abold went underneath into fifth place on lap 4. Cabral yielded to Abold on the backstretch of lap 6, who then began working under Deritis for third.
But Deritis passed Jim Miller for second, with Abold following him through into third. On lap 9, he took second from Deritis and a lap later he was by Marvuglio for the lead. He would not relinquish that lead for the remaining 20 laps. Deritis slipped back to third, as Marvuglio filled the spot, but moved back up on lap 15. Cabral chased him through into third, relegating Marvuglio to fourth.
Cabral worked his way into second place on lap 21 with an outside pass of Deritis. Russ Stoehr and Aaron Wall gave chase. Cabral couldn’t find a way to overhaul the rocketing Abold, who now had a half straightaway lead. On lap 26, MacDonald slowed and took his car off the track and then Brian Cleveland took a turn 4 spin on lap 27, bringing out caution with three laps remaining.
The lap 26 restart was single file with Abold leading Cabral, Stoehr, Deritis, Wall and Greg Stoehr. Abold dropped the hammer early, coming into turn 4. Cabral made a Herculean effort to chase him down, but Abold slipped away and into Victory Lane.
Sources: Kevin Boucher/Seekonk Speedway PR