Dion picks up second Pro Stock win, Vanasse, Cavallaro and DeMoura find Victory Lane again
Seekonk, MA — Scott Dion from Taunton scored his second feature win by quickly moving up to the front from his fifth place starting position and stayed safely at the front through the division’s event-filled feature.
Scott Dion from Taunton scored his second feature win by quickly moving up to the front from his fifth place starting position and stayed safely at the front through the division’s event-filled feature. It wasn’t an easy win, as he had to first wrest the lead away from Dick Houlihan, then protect it from him. Rob Murphy claimed second at the midpoint and annoyed the leader for ten laps before Dave Darling moved into the runnerup spot in lap 28. Darling pursued Dion to the checkers determined to take the lead away. But Dion was equally adamant that he would not yield and took the victory .878 seconds ahead of Darling. Murphy finished third, while brothers Kevin and Kyle Casper rounded out the top five. The family duo of Tom Scully Jr. and Tom Sr. claimed sixth and seventh. Points leader Fred Astle was eighth. Colby Fournier and Bobby Tripp made up the rest of the top ten.
The mood of the race was signaled when Jake Vanada had to drop out of hot laps into the pits for adjustments, and then the start was called back when Phil Meany got into Mike Brightman, taking away the latter’s right front fender. By the final laps, Brightman had lost the body panels down his whole right side and the whole body was flying from the frame like a big sail.
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Finally, the feature began as Houlihan went to the front ahead of Ferreira; Dion leapt from fifth to third and Darling went from seventh to fourth. Lap 2 saw Scully, Sr. and Astle together to the infield after Murphy, trying to get into the low groove, caught Jason Ferreira. Brightman went again to the pits dragging body pieces, came out and then went back in. Vanada had retired for the evening with just a single lap in the books.
The lap 2 restart had Houlihan below Kevin Casper with Dion and Darling behind them. Murphy and Tripp were the third row. Houlihan went to the front with Casper falling back and Dion, Murphy and Darling following under.
Lap six saw Colby Fournier launch himself around Tripp and Dave Hutchins for a three wide at mid pack. The move was for naught as Fournier was forced back, Tripp going to the front and Hutchins spinning on lap 9. It was the beginning of Hutch’s problems, as the field restarted in lap 8. On the next circuit, Hutch was around in turn 2.
The restart had Houly and Dion on the front with Murphy and Kyle Casper behind. The leaders went door to door; Murphy tried under Dion but fell back allowing Dion to get around Houlihan for the lead. Murphy nabbed third as the Caspers went door to door over fourth.
Dion established a 15-car lead over several laps of green flag racing with Murphy in second and Darling clinging to his bumper in lap 19.
Darling worked on Murphy until lap 26, when he got underneath into second. Kevin Casper latched on to Murphy‘s tail as Dion continued to increase his lead. By lap 31, Dion was coming up to Ferreira, and Darling began to close the gap.
Brightman, who had visited the pits liberally as collisions had broken off more and more of his body panels, was running with no body on his right side. The wind, working under the fiberglass, began to pull it loose and the roof rose up and trunk lid flap in the breeze while the tailpiece began to hang out to the rear. He was black flagged with four laps to go with all the fiberglass waving in every direction possible.
With both Brightman’s black flag and the white flag sailing over the starter’s stand, Dion lined up his final lamp and powered home to claim victory.
Astle, though not favored in the feature, won the first heat race over Murphy, followed by Kyle, Kevin, and Scully, Sr. Vanada claimed the second heat, ahead of Darling, Houlihan, Tripp and Dion.
Mike Cavallaro claimed victory in the laps-added Sport Trucks feature, adding to his points lead and claiming a half dozen wins. The Sysco Boston-sponsored evening had a 30-lap Truck feature, and Cavallaro had been working his way to the front slowly. Had the race ended at the usual 25 laps, it would have been a different story. Mike Ronhock had gone to the front passing pole sitter Billy Clarke on lap one and held on for 25 circuits.
None had an answer, once Ronhock ran to the front. He led by as many as 12 cars, but Dan Leach began to reel him in. Meanwhile, Cavallaro began progressing from his ninth place start. He was in fifth place at the end of lap one and in fourth a lap later. He held on as Leach tried to make headway on the leader from lap 5 all the way to lap 25.
Danny Thibeault spun on lap 25, and the restart had Ronhock and Leach at the front with Cavallaro and Ted Berube in row 2. Ed Gannon and Rob Andreozzi backed them up. Ronhock went back to the lead and it became a three-wide for second as Cavallaro went under Leach while Berube went around. Cavallaro and Berube moved ahead of leach as Ronhock got loose into turn 3. But Lenny Guy looped on the backstretch and the restart had Ronhock still on the pole with Cavallaro outside. Berube and Leach were behind them.
Ronhock and Cavallaro went door to door as Berube and Leach produced a good imitation. Ronhock got loose on the backstretch of lap 27, sending Cavallaro to the front. Berube took advantage to get undrneath into second. Gannon, Leach and Andreozzi each took advantage, and made up the top 5. Ronhock managed fifth, followed by Barry Shaw, Guy, Thibeault and Anna Gregoire.
Ronhock could take solace in a win in the first heat, leading both Berube and Cavallaro across the line with Andreozzi taking fourth. In the second heat, Gannon led Leach, Guy, Gregoire and Billy Clarke to the checkers.
Is Ryan Vanasse unstoppable? It seems so, especially after he took his seventh win on the season in typical dominant fashion. And yet, with 7 wins to Gerry DeGasparre’s 1, Vanasse has yet to overtake the points leader. Certainly the two are close, but DeGasparre has a way of protecting that slim lead. As this time, when he finished second to Vanasse in the feature, yielding only two points at a time that Vanasse needed 10. In the heats, both finished in second; Vanasse to Bill Bernard and DeGasparre to Tyler Thompson.
Vanasse jumped from his eighth place starting spot to third by lap 4. Lap 6 saw him move past Dylan Estrella into second behind Ron Barboza, Jr. And on lap 13, he was in the lead, something the Seekonk faithful have almost come to expect from the Late Model wunderkind.
#11 – Ryan Vanasse
DeGasparre, starting eighth, moved more leisurely through the field, arriving at second behind the already-leading Vanasse on lap 13. David Hutchins, Jr. spun out of turn 2 and the restart had Estrella outside Vanasse and DeGasparre low in the second row. Vanasse took the lead, but Barboza looped in turn 2. Tyler Thompson joined him at the rear for assisting on the spin. The second restart saw Estrella falling back with DeGasparre glued to Vanasse’s bumper.
The pair pulled away from the field, and dueled nose-to-tail through to the checkered flag.
Estrella finished second, while last week’s feature winner, Bob Pelland III, held on to fourth. Thompson finished fifth. Bill Bernard, Barboza, Jeramee Lillie, Matt Breault and Jariah Roderick rounded out the top 10.
Chris DeMoura claimed his third victory of the season, but not in easy fashion. The focus on the night belonged to the recently returned Jim “Pepe” Silvia, who took off from the pole, and could not be passed in racing or on restarts for 23 out of 25 laps. In between, there were plenty of cars together in wild melees, giving competitors opportunity to try Silvia in a restart.
DeMoura had shadowed Silvia since lap 15; a spot he had inherited when second place-runner Scott Cestodio had broken from the pack to head for the pits. Steve Axon got sideways in the pack and collected Ryan Lineham, whose body got shredded. Several cars went to the pits. Lineham returned minus his left front.
#08 – Chris DeMoura
Lap 20 saw Joe Kohler sideways on the back stretch bringing out the caution. Now DeMoura started outside Silvia, but as the pack came around under the green, Frank Duquette spun on the front stretch and the field piled in. Joe Kohler got sideways trying to avoid Duquette and Justin Travis joined them at the end of the front stretch. Rey Lovelace, coming full bore, drove over Kohler’s trunk and hooked all the body metal off the car, save the hood and the nose. The cars were separated, Kohler’s sheet metal was piled back over the roll cage and he and Travis headed for the pits. Duquette had to be wreckered off, ending his evening.
Silvia and DeMoura were door to door on the restart, with Silvia gaining the front. But Vincent Arrenegado, Jr. was around in turn 3 and they lined up again.
Again, Silvia went to the front after some wheel-to-wheeling, but coming through turn 4 on lap 24, DeMoura tapped Silvia from behind, and Silvia got loose enough for DeMoura to get by. Silvia fell back, tried to drop down between turns 1 and 2 on the final lap, caught his rear quarter and spun to a stop. DeMoura powered home to the win.
Rey Lovelace fired home second followed by Chris Beaulieu, Sparky Arsenault, Patrick Delaney, and Steve Axon. Michael Mitchell, Lineham, Tim Eaton and Scott Bruneau rounded out the top ten.
Silvia did have a grain of redemption, having won the first heat for the division over Paul Lallier, George Rego, Pat Delaney, Chris Beaulieu and Crystal Serydynski.
Kohler won the second heat over Cestodio, Bruneau, and Travis.
Sources: Kevin Boucher/Seekonk Speedway PR