Friday July 19th Results from Lee USA Speedway
Lee, NH — Some folks call him two-time champ, others call him points leader, but after Friday night’s three-segment Benson Lumber and Hardware Small Block Supermodified event, everyone’s now calling Haverhill, MA racer Tommy Tombarello, Jr. “Moneybags”.
Tombarello scored wins in two of the three 25-lap segments of the race to score an impressive win in the season‘s biggest race for the track‘s NASCAR Whelen All-American Series headline division, taking home a big bag of cash with the victory in the Moneybags Special.
Among the heavy pre-race favorites, Tombarello’s teammate Chris Perley, the all-time ISMA Supermodified win leader, was knocked out of contention just five laps into the first segment when he encountered some debris on the race track and ended up taking a wild ride down the frontstretch wall as a result.
Perley’s effort netted nothing more than a Hard Luck award, which he shared with Tony Carroll, who caught a wheel and clobbered the turn one wall in the third segment. Carroll’s car was severely damaged in the incident, but the veteran racer escaped with only minor injuries.
Tombarello, who had started on the pole after being quickest in the time trial session, led every lap in the first 25-lapper to pick up the win. Sparky MacIver was the only one close, taking runner-up honors just .2 seconds behind. Ryan Gath, Moe Lattime, Jake Stergios, Mike Murphy, Mike Spurling, Mike Netishen, Ricky Wolf, and Leslie Keyser were the rest of the top ten.
On a hot streak of late, Murphy was the man to beat in the second 25-lap segment, quickly making his way to the front and running off to collect his first career Small Block checkered flag. Stergios, MacIver, Tony Carroll, Spurling, Gath, Wolf, Tombarello, “Super Dave” Sanborn, and Lattime rounded out the top ten.
With the Moneybags championship on the line, Tombarello once again got the job done in the third and final segment, taking down his second checkered flag of the night in the Ed and Bob Witkum-owned entry, with Netishen, Lattime, Stergios, Murphy, MacIver, Spurling, Wolf, Gath, and Dan Martineau next in the finishing order.
When the final tally was in, Tombarello picked up the overall win by a single point over MacIver and Stergios, who tied for the second spot. Hard Charger awards were handed out by Supermodified legend Bentley Warren, who gave the goods to Dan Martineau, Stergios and Murphy at the end of
the night.
Patrick Stewart was first out of the gate to grab the early lead in the Prime Warehouse and Storage Late Model Sportsman main, but he got turned around just three laps in and collected Bobby Melvin, who caught some air time as the pair tangled to bring out the first yellow of the event.
Ryan Green picked up the lead on the restart, but caution was quickly back on the field for an incident involving crowd favorite Michele Fushpanski, Ricky Porter, David Piper, J.R. Baril, and multi-time feature winner Geoff Rollins in turn three.
When racing resumed, Jimmy Russell quickly made his way to the front, and he opened up a big advantage over the next several laps. Caution-free the rest of the way, Alby Ovitt was in pursuit and gaining ground in the late going, but the laps ran out before he could catch the leader.
Russell went on to post his first win of the 2013 campaign, with Ovitt, Green, Niko Maniatis, Melvin, Baril, Rollins, Grant Aither, Piper, and Fushpanski rounding out the top ten.
Evan Horvath brought the Ironman field to the green flag, and 15 laps later he led them to the checkers, picking up his first win of the season at the finish. Travis Hollins, Zach Washburn, Wayne Osborne, and Tyler Mitchell finished up the top five.
Round three of the DJB Truck Series for the Ekeys 4 Cars Northeast Classic Lites saw George Helliwell return to action and his winning ways with a late-race pass to pick up the win, with Steve Dickey, Jr. and Eddie Gilman rounding out the podium.
This Friday night, July 26th, we will be hosting the David’s Race Cars & Components Hobby Stock 50 Laps along Small Block Super Modifieds, Late Model Sportsman, Ironman Cars. Racing will get under way at 7PM.
Sources: Lee USA Speedway PR