Joe Mucciacciaro, Jesse Melberg, Peter Amelotte, Shelby Donovan and Tyler Boudreau are Fast Friday winners at The Konk
Seekonk, MA — Joey Mucciacciaro of Wolcott, CT returned to Seekonk Speedway for the second time in 2012, and picked up his first win at the Bay State Oval. Mooch, had an engine failure the last time out here at Seekonk. Taylor Martin of Windham, NH jumped out into the early lead, and led eight laps before Mucciacciaro took over at the helm.
Current Nick’s Pit Stop Legends points leader Shaun Buffington started eleventh in the 13 car field, and took his time getting through the field. By the mid-way point, he was sitting in the top three behind Mucciacciaro and Martin. A late race caution on lap eighteen brought the pack together, and Buffington was able to slide past Martin for second briefly. Taylor battled back to move past Buffington, but in the end, Shaun was the one chasing down the Mooch for the win. Buffington held on for second, with Martin, Tom Gray and Jordan LaMothe rounding out the top five.
The Jackal returned to the Pure Stock Victory Lane with a drive for the ages. Jesse Melberg had to work his way through the 18 car field after starting 13th, and without a caution, needed the entire 25 lap distance, and the help of some heavy lapped traffic, to beat Jamie Salley to the strip by .113 seconds.
Ed Flanagan Jr took off from his pole position and led the a few laps before Jamie took over at the helm. Jamie has been running strong, and opened up what appeared to be a comfortable lead. As the laps wore down, the lapped traffic got heavier, and the stronger cars started coming through the field. Ian Savard ran second for the first half of the event before John Robidoux moved past and started closing in on Salley. With ten laps remaining, Melberg had moved past Randy Moretti and Savard for third and started closing in on the top two.
The top three cars ran under a proverbial blanket, three wide around the speedway as they battled for the lead. John got caught up in the wrong lane while trying to avoid the lapped cars, leaving Melberg to work with Salley. Melberg edged ahead on the 24th circuit, but Salley led the duo into the final corners. As they came off the fourth corner, both cars were sliding around, but Melberg was able to keep his grip a bit better, and held off Salley at the stripe for his fifth win of the season. Salley finished second, Robidoux third, Moretti and Savard fourth and fifth.
Peter Amelotte picked up his first career Sport4 win in the 20 lap main event. Gil Bradstreet led the first several laps, in search of his first win, but Glen Leduc took over briefly. Lenny Sousa moved past for the lead and had to hold off a hard charging Amelotte and Frank Shepard for several laps. Leduc kept in the fight for a few laps before Chuck McDonald moved into the third position.
Amelotte moved past Sousa at one point, but fell back behind in the closing laps. On the final lap, Sousa had some breathing room at the top, and led the pack across for the checkered. Unfortunately, post-race tech wasn’t so kind, and handed the win to Amelotte, his first at Seekonk. McDonald finished second, with Leduc, Henry Lavallee and Taylor Therrien rounding out the top five.
Shelby Donovan gained her first SYRA 750 win in her rookie season on Friday evening, holding off her older sister for the final 15 laps of the 20 lap feature. Shelby jumped past polesitter Ashley Kuhn on the opening lap and led all the way to the checkered. Kuhn fell right back on the outside, which put Kaitlyn Donovan, Tylar Nailor and Willie Sanchez right behind. The four cars ran the full race as a train, as it appeared no one had enough momentum to move past the driver just ahead of them. Chase Belcher and Austin Blais races for fifth for several laps before Blais got loose and lost a lot of ground he was never able to make up.
On the final lap, Kaitlyn was trying to get past her sister, but at the same time, hold off Nailor. Tylar made a move to go under the older sister, but went too low to get under, and contact was made with the pair. Kaitlyn spun to the inside and Sanchez was able to move past for second. Kaitlyn spun across for third with Belcher and Kuhn rounding out the top five. Nailor was penalized for the contact.
With two races remaining on Fast Friday, Tyler Boudreau gave himself his fourth win in the last five races, and put just a sliver of breathing room between he and Taylor Bowser for the championship lead. Kiera Carpenter and Shea Kulpa brought the pack down for the green with Kulpa getting the jump and setting up at the front of the pack. Shaun DeMello settled into second and followed the Westport native around the track for several laps.
A mid race caution closed in the field, and it only took a couple of laps before Boudreau was able to move past and onto the top of the leader board. Once out front, the second generation racer pulled away from the field, proving that he is going to be one tough customer for the final two events. Kulpa hung on for second, with Taylor Bowser in third, David Lougee and Madison Birchall rounding out the top five.
Sources:Kevin Boucher/Seekonk Speedway PR