Hinckley Helps Point Lead With Seekonk Win
Seekonk, MA — Les Hinckley, of Windsor Locks, CT., passed race leader Dwight Jarvis, of Ascutney, VT., on lap 78, to go on and win the Valenti Modified Racing Series “Seekonk 100” Saturday night at Seekonk Speedway, Seekonk, MA.
Hinckley started 14th in a 19 car field and methodically worked his way to second to battle with Jarvis. The second generation driver raced with the Vermont hot shoe for six laps before passing him for the lead.
“We started deep in the field and it’s always gratifying passing a lot of race cars. We had a little trouble in the heat race that put us to the back for the feature but I knew we had a good piece.”
Early on in the race, very spirited battles took place between several drivers. Hinckley feels you need to be aware of what is happening toward the front of the field.
“You have to keep a balance between what’s going on in front of you and beyond,” he said, “I saw some cars banging and you have to be careful. Coming up through you have to be on your toes.”
Jarvis, who has run selected events this season, finished second. “The boys (crew) did a helluva job getting the car set-up for me,” he said. “Les did a good job, I didn’t realize he was that close. I don’t have a lot of radio chatter on my radio, I like to drive the car myself. He got by me, I thought at the end I would get back by him, but he was good,” he said. “ He is a good clean driver that you can run on the outside. It was fun.”
Chris Pasteryak, of Lisbon,CT., finished a solid third after starting outside front row and running in the top four throughout the 100- lap race. “We ended up a little tight and it really went away at the end but it was a fun race,” he said, “Congratulations to Les and Dwight, they both had good cars tonight.”
The victory, Hinckley’s second this season, was his third win at the famed 1/3 mile speedway and his 15th career VMRS win.
Hinckley joins Pasteryak as the only two-time winners this season.
Joey Jarvis, Ascutney, drove to a solid fourth place finish, with Norman Wrenn, of Nashua, NH., rounding out the top five. Sixth through tenth were; Mike Holdridge, Jimmy Kuhn, Joe Doucette, Jack Bateman, and Rowan Pennink. The Pennink team changed an engine prior to qualifying and started last in the 19 -car field.
Hinckley entered the race only 6 points ahead of Chris Pasteryak, of Lisbon, CT., as the two Connecticut drivers have emerged as the two contenders that will battle it out for the series title. Hinckley is vying for his first series championship. Pasteryak claimed that honor in 2008.
20 cars entered the program with 19 starting the feature race.14 drivers finished the race on the lead lap.
5 caution flags slowed the race that took 38 minutes 53 seconds to complete.
Race Summary
August 20,2011, Seekonk Speedway Seekonk, MA
Distance: 100 laps
Time of Race: 38:53:737
Best Lap Time: 12:24 (Dwight Jarvis)
Best Speed: 97.941
Margin of Victory: 5.508
Lead Changes: 6 Lap Leaders: Mechalides (1-24) Pastertyak (25-34) Annarummo (35-50) Pasteryak (51-52) Annarummo (53-72) D. Jarvis (73-78) Hinckley (79-100)
Cautions: Laps; 21,22,36,49,87
Unofficial Order of Finish; (1)Hinckley (2) D.Jarvis (3) Pasteryak (4) J. Jarvis (5) Wrenn (6) Holdridge (7) Kuhn (8) Doucette (9) Bateman (10) Pennink (11) Preece (12) Jordan (13) Mechalides (14) Goodenough (15) T. Annarummo (16) V Annarummo (17) Berghman (18) Malave (19) Zachem.
Sources: John Spence, Sr./VMRS PR