Lee USA Results: 06/01
Lee USA Speedway officials gathered trackside for a somber pre-race ceremony before the beginning of last week’s program, paying tribute to the late Jay Merryfield, push truck driver and faithfulsupporter of the track who passed away during the off-season.
At the close of the tribute, longtime track manager Bob Watson took the microphone and led the crowd in the singing of the Star Spangled Banner. Watson’s long-threatened retirement has finally come, as he’s heading back to his family and Florida home, having spent the past several summers promoting the action at New Hampshire’s Center of Speed.
The temperature was hovering in the mid 90’s when the action hit the track at Lee USA Speedway Friday night, and although the weather was hot, nothing was hotter than open-wheeler Jake Stergios, who picked up checkered flags in both the NEMA Lites and Small Block Supermodified feature events. Stergios battled hard before getting to the front in the NEMA Lites main, and then had to hold off a furious late-race charge from Anthony Nocella to score his first win of the year by just about a car length, as the leaders split a lapped car coming to the stripe, with Stergios taking the high line to victory.
In the highly-competitive NASCAR Whelen All-American Series, Benson Lumber and Hardware-sponsored Small Block Supermodified feature event, Stergios made it four winners in the first four races of the 2013 season after taking the lead at the drop of the green and leading flag to flag for his first career win. Leslie K eyser bounced back from a tough outing in the previous race to finish in the second spot, with Ricky Wolf, defending champion Tommy Tombarello, Sparky MacIver, “Super Dave” Sanborn, Wayne Helliwell, Jr., Ryan Gath, Mike Spurling, and Mike Netishen rounding out the top ten.
Ray Dinsmore grabbed the early lead in the Prime Storage and Warehouse Late Model Sportsman feature event, but he was quickly knocked off the point by 2011 champion Ryan Green, who made his way to the front on lap three and set the pace for the next several laps. With eleven laps showing on the board, Michele Fushpanski spun on the front straightaway to bring the field under caution, and the race was on from there. Defending champ J.R. Baril restarted to the outside of leader Green, and after a couple of laps battling side by side, Baril moved to the top spot. From that point on it was all Baril, as he steered the Brian House entry to victory lane, picking up the first win of the team’s title defense season. Niko Maniatis came on stron g in the late laps to get another podium finish in the second spot, with multi-time champion Grant Aither taking third. Fourth spot went to Boe Green, who got past son Ryan with the checkers in sight to win family bragging rights for the week. Sixth went to Fushpanski, followed by Alby Ovitt, Ricky Porter, and Dinsmore, with David “Doc” Piper rounding out the top ten.
The David’s Race Cars and Components Hobby Stocks spent most of the night chasing veteran competitor Paul Palen, who outran hotshoe Jim Piaseczny to grab the win in his qualifying heat, then repeated the effort in the 25-lap main event, going the distance to post his first feature win of the year.
Like Stergios had earlier in the night, Palen became the fourth winner in four races, holdin g off Wade Worster and Billy Clement, Jr. to collect top honors. Fourth spot went to Patrick Tanguay, with Torrey Kovalesky, Chris Jacobson, David MacDonald, Troy Washburn, Ron Washburn, and Piaseczny the rest of the top ten.
Zach Washburn set the pace a t the start of the American Used Auto Parts Ironman main, but seven laps in, he lost the lead to Shane Horvath, fresh off a runner-up finish the last time out. Horvath was out front the rest of the way, surviving some wild three and four-wide action to co llect his first checkered flag of the 2013 campaign.
With several of his classmates from Greater Lowell (MA) Regional Vocational Technical High School on hand to watch, Tyler Mitchell scored his best finish of the year in the runner-up slot, with Wayne Purington, Danielle Simoneau, and Wayne Osborne closing out the top five. Next up at Lee USA on Friday, June 7th NASCAR Whelen All-American series; Small Block Supermodified, Late Model Sportsman, Hobby Stock, and Ironman action along with Spectator Drags presented by Mobil Oil.
Sources: Lee USA Speedway PR