Jarvis Blasts to Firecracker 100 Win
Winchester, NH — When the Valenti Modified Racing Series show up at the high-banked ¼-mile Monadnock speed plant, one of the drivers every competitor has to worry about is Dwight Jarvis from Ascutney, VT, and Saturday July 6 was no exception. Thirty of the best showed up for the twenty-four starting spots and at the drop of the green Rowan Pennink of New Egypt, NJ and Chris Pasteryak of Jewett City, CT led the field off turn 4. Pennink would keep the lead for only three laps until Pasteryak built up a head of steam and shot past the #25.
Pennink apparently did not want to abuse his ride this early in the race, as he gave up second place to Rob Goodenough of Swanzey, NH, and then gave up third to Richard Savary of Canton, MA. As the field strung out going into the “tire saving” mode, Goodenough was having one of his best runs of the year, and was getting tired of following Pasteryak. The two racers pulled out to a 10-car lead over the rest of the pack, and on lap 17, the #1NH got ahead of the #5CT, to become the third leader of the race.
[Photo Gallery] by Crystal Snape
Jarvis, who started sixth, dropped back early, but by lap 20 went to the outside groove and motored by Norm Wrenn of Nashua, NH, and then used the same groove to get by Anthony Nocella of Woburn, MA, placing Jarvis back into the 6th spot.
When things started to settle down, a lap 30 yellow, the first of nine, came out for a spin by Eddie Spiers of Beacon Falls, CT. With the pack bunched up behind Goodenough, Jarvis took advantage of the restart and went by Timmy Jordan of Plainfield, CT on the inside for the fifth spot. Two laps later, Nocella brought out the second yellow with a flat tire. On the restart, Pennink must have felt Jarvis breathing down his neck, because Pennink turned up the power, bumping and rubbing the inside of the #99 of Savory to move the #25 back into third. This restart also saw the mount of Goodenough start to fade as he lost the lead on lap 37 to Pasteryak. On consecutive laps Pennink, Savory and Jarvis passed Goodenough, dropping him further back into the pack.
Behind the leaders young standouts Tommy Barrett of Millis, MA and Steve Masse of Bellingham, MA hooked up in a two-car draft on the outside and started making their move to the front. A lap 47 caution flag for Wrenn sliding through the grass, caused Mike Holdridge of Madison, CT, Todd Patnode of Richmond, NH and Dylan Kopec of Palmer, MA to crash in turn 2, eliminating the #66 ride of Kopec from contention. Throughout the remainder of the race, places would change on every lap. Pasteryak would lead a five car train of himself, Pennink, Savary, Jon McKennedy of Chelmsford, MA and Jarvis until lap 79, when Jarvis passed McKennedy for the fourth spot, then pressured Savary, passing him on lap 82. With 15 to go, Jarvis put the pressure on Pennink and moved into the runner-up spot. Now Jarvis set his sights upon race leader Pasteryak, but a lap 87 yellow flew for Barrett’s blown rear tire, dropping the #9 from sixth place. The last restart with 12 laps to go had Jarvis outside Pasteryak, who spun his tires as the green came out, and Jarvis was on his way to the win. In less than a second later, Pasteryak and McKennedy would follow Jarvis over the line.
Track: Monadnock Speedway, Winchester, NH
Track Size: ¼ mile
Length of Race: 100 laps
Time: 57:39:806
Margin of victory: 0.213
Best lap Tie: 12:776 #28 Dwight Jarvis
Best Speed 70.445 #28 Dwight Jarvis
Cautions: Nine: laps 30, 35, 47, 54, 59, 65, 68, 85, 87
Leaders: #25 laps 1-3, #5ct 4-16, #1NH 17-36, #5ct 37-88, #28 89-100
Sources: Jim Snape/YankeeRacer.com