Fred Astle, Bill Bernard, Rick Martin and Rey Lovelace win the battles. Dave Darling, Gerry DeGasparre Jr, Mike Cavallaro and Paul Lallier win the wars at Seekonk Speedway
Seekonk, MA — Kyle Casper jumped out to the front of the 18 car Pro Stock field and set the pace for the first 33 laps before the first caution came out. Over those 33 laps, the Somerset native had his hands full with 2 time former champion Dick Houlihan. Tom Scully Sr ran third for the first 30 laps before spinning in turn two. Tom was able to continue without losing any laps, but was out of the hunt for a win.
Once back underway, Houlihan worked the outside and edged ahead of Casper before the next caution came out. His lead however would be short lived, as Astle nudged under Houly and took over the top of the leaderboard for the final three laps. Houlihan held off a hard charging Mike Brightman for second. Ryan Vanasse and Dave Darling were fourth and fifth. With his fifth place finish, Dave Darling is the 2012 Pro Stock Champion, his third with car owner Gary Johnson and crew chief Ronnie Pond.
Bill Bernard of Holliston came into the night 20 points out of the chase, and repeated his action from the previous week by winning his second straight, and fourth overall win of the 2012 season. Mike Marfeo took off from his pole position and led the race for the first five circuits before Scott Dion moved underneath and set the pace. For a while it appeared that Dion would be on his way to his first win of the season before Bernard took over with 6 laps remaining in the 25 lap feature.
While Bernard was working his way through the pack, the race for the Late Model title was hanging in the balance. Bobby Pelland III came into the feature with a 2 point advantage over Gerry DeGasparre Jr. For most of the race, the pair raced with Gerry one position ahead of Pelland, which would have brought the title down to a tie. As the laps wore down, the handle on the #12 appeared to start to go away, and Pelland fell back one more position to Gerry, which allowed DeGasparre to pick up his sixth LM Title by a skim 2 points.
Rick Martin went out and did everything he could to close in the 13 point gap between he and Mike Cavallaro, and he picked up his fourth win of the season in the Sport Trucks, but it was not enough to catch the now five time champion. Nick Uhrig set the early pace in the 25 lap feature, with a hard charging John Paiva glued to his rear bumper. The pair ran nose to tail for eight laps before Martin made his move on the outside. By lap ten, Martin was out front, and took off from the rest of the field.
Uhrig continued his hold on second until Paiva squeezed underneath, and the pair raced side by side for several laps, swapping the second position back and forth. A restart on lap 16 gave Paiva an opportunity to take the lead from Martin, but he was not up for the challenge. Cavallaro started fourth on the restart, but made quick work of Uhrig and Paiva, moving into the runner up position. From there, he followed Martin across the line and clinched his fifth title in the Sport Truck division. Uhrig got by Paiva on the final laps to finish third, with Uhrig and Darryl Church fourth and fifth.
Rey Lovelace broke a winless streak going back to 2011 by picking up the win in the 25 lap Street Stock main. Lovelace out dragged polesitter Vinny Pangelinan to jump out front, and held off the challenges through a handful of restarts. Patrick Delaney was the first to pressure the North Providence native before Scott Bruneau moved into second. Scott had his hands full as Charles Beal pressured him for second late in the race, but was unable to complete the pass. As the laps wore down, Ryan Lineham moved into the top five, and found himself third in the final rundown. Bobby Bettencourt and Beal rounded out the top five.
Paul Lallier came into the night holding onto a comfortable lead in the championship chase, and he needed just about every one of those points, as he was involved in an early race accident, knocking him out of the race on the third lap, relegating him to a 23rd place finish. But it was enough of a cushion to help him clinch his first Street Stock Championship.
Sources: Kevin Boucher/Seekonk Speedway PR