Chris Lima and Henry Lavallee Breakthrough for First Career Wins; Shawn Buffington Wins Second in 3 Days; Austin Blais Makes it Six in a Row; Taylor Bowser Widens Points Lead with Second Win
Seekonk, MA — Chris Lima from Dighton MA picked up his first career win in the Pure Stock 25 lap main event. Chris started fourth on the grid, but made quick work of Tom Blackwell, Bill Doyle and Ian Savard, who led the first four laps, and once out front, he was never heeded.
The name of the game for some of the championship contenders was traffic. John Robidoux, Jesse Melberg, Jamie Sally and others had to bide their time and pick and choose their marks, as getting to the front of the field was making thing exciting in the middle of the pack. While they were fighting for every inch of asphalt, Savard and Doyle were hanging on to second and third. As the halfway point hit, Lima was cruising along at the top of the leader board, with Savard, Doyle, Joe Fortin and Salley were sitting in the top five. Salley started 13th and was picking cars off, and by lap 17, was sitting third, and moved past Savard four laps later.
By that time, the traffic jam was clearing and found Randy Moretti, returning after a two race absence, was making some noise, and had moved up from his eleventh place starting position. He had followed Salley through the field, and with just three laps remaining, moved into second, but by that time, Moretti needed a caution to catch Lima, which never came, and he finished .75 seconds behind.
Jesse Melberg, the points leader, found working his way through the field a difficult task on this night, and was kept off the leaderboard until the final lap, when The Jackal was able to squeak by Doyle at the stripe. The top five at the finish were Chris Lima, Randy Moretti, Jamie Salley, Ian Savard and Jesse Melberg.
Shawn Buffington makes the trek from Plainfield, CT makes the 60 minute trek to Seekonk Speedway every Friday, and added a mid-week show this past Wednesday, and made them both count, as he picked up wins on both events, making it three wins in the last three races at Seekonk.
Reigning SYRA 750 Champion Branden Dion of Taunton jumped out front and led the first four circuits. Buffington, who started sixth in the field moved up quickly, and by lap five, was setting the pace. Following Buffington was Nick Lascoula and Tom Gray. The pair were battling amongst themselves for a couple of laps, until Lascoula broke through and started to close in on the leader, and started to put some pressure on Buffington until a caution came out midway through the race.
Once back underway, Buffington was able to distance himself from the rest of the pack, which left Lascoula and Gray to settle second place between themselves. Over the middle third of the race, they swapped second and third back and forth until a caution on lap 15, which allowed Lascoula to take over second for the final time, and held him off through one more caution, beating him to the finish line by .2 for second. Joey Parker finished fourth, with Matt Carpenter rounding out the top five.
Henry Lavallee of Groton CT improved on his runner up finish from the last event, and picked up his first career victory in the Sport4 class. Henry started in the middle of the field, but used some good timing and patience to find himself running in the top three. By the half-way point, he started to put pressure on leader Devin Miranda, fresh off his first career win in the previous event.
Over the final half dozen laps, the pair waged a battle for the lead, with Lavallee winning the fight. Once back into second, Miranda found himself ties up with Chuck McDonald, as they pushed each other around the speedway. As the pair came down for the checkered, McDonald and Miranda got together, with McDonald pushing the sideways Miranda across the start/finish line, with Miranda taking the spot. Defending champion and current points leader Kyle Pacheco and Dave Westgate Jr rounded out the top five. Miranda and Westgate did not pass post-race inspection, moving McDonald to second, Pacheco to third, and moving Lenny Sousa and Jason Enos II fourth and fifth.
Austin Blais continues to find different ways to win the SYRA 750 feature each week. This time, he hounded Ashley Kuhn for several laps before squeezing under and moving past with just a couple of laps remaining. Ashley jumped out front from the drop of the green, and set a hard pace with the field jockeying behind her. Shelby Donovan followed Kuhn for the first few laps before the big sister Kaitlyn took over second. That would only last one lap before The Bullitt moved past and set in the runner up position.
Following Blais through the field was defending SYRA 600 Champion Curtis Rolando. Shelby and Kaitlyn Donovan rounded out the top five at the halfway point. Over the next several laps, Blais put heavy pressure on Kuhn, who continued to lead the pack. As they raced off turn two, The Bullitt shot underneath and raced with Kuhn for the next lap while taking over the lead. Kuhn had her hands full, as she was trying to hold onto second place, battling with Shelby D for position. The pair made contact and Kuhn found her best finish of the season goes around with her.
Blais held on to win for the sixth straight event, with Rolando moving back to finish second, Shelby Donovan, Willy Sanchez and Kaitlyn Donovan rounded out the top five.
It appeared there might be a new winner in the SYRA 600 class, as Matt Barboza jumped out front and set the pace for most of the event. But it wasn’t an easy lead, as Madison Birchall set in the second position with Brooke Meservey battling with her. The pair made contact with Birchall spinning. Meservey was penalized for making contact. Back underway, Taylor Bowser and Tyler Boudreau were in pursuit, with Boudreau making the moved into second, and taking the outside line over Barboza. The pair raced wheel to wheel for the final several laps, swapping the lead back and forth.
As the pair came under the white flag, Boudreau had the edge, and everyone was on the edge of their seats as they encountered a pair of lapped cars. As they came off turn four, the pair moved up the track, and opened the bottom lane for Bowser, who found some momentum, and moved underneath the duo, making it a three-wide race to the checkered. Bowser edged past and took her second win of the season by .044 over Barboza. Boudreau was .132 behind, and Brett Meservey was right there also, finishing .164 seconds behind the winner. Tom Morsehead Jr, making his debut rounded out the top five, less than half a second behind.
Sources: Kevin Boucher/Seekonk Speedway PR