Riverside Champ Luke Shannon Doubles Up; Martin Impresses In Late Model Debut; Fellows, Lambert Score Top-5s
SOUTH PARIS, Maine – After winning the Late Model championship at Riverside Speedway last season, Luke Shannon wanted more. The Groveton, N.H., driver spent the better part of this season getting a new car up to speed, and last weekend it paid off.
Twice.
Shannon led the final 16 laps of a make-up feature from the previous week, and then stormed from the rear of the field to win the regularly-scheduled 40-lap Late Model feature at Riverside on Saturday, August 10, to earn his first two victories of the season.
“The car was new at the beginning of the year, and we struggled pretty bad the first race with it. I just couldn’t get it to go,” Shannon said. “We raced the ACT (Late Model Tour) race with it, and I still hadn’t gotten the handle on it. So, I took almost a month off to try and figure it out.
“I was frustrated, but I just kept telling myself that with the old car, it took a while to figure that one out, too. But once I did, I won a lot of races with it.”
The time off paid big dividends for Shannon over the last two weeks. It took him just a handful of laps to grab the lead two weeks ago before the rain postponed the final 16 laps of the race, and he again made quick work of the field in the second event.
“It reacts the way I want it to now,” said Shannon, who has stayed in constant contact with Crazy Horse Racing to improve the car’s performance. “On the stopwatch, it’s not the quickest car in practice by any means. But one thing we have learned is it’s consistent. My times are the same at the end of the races as they are on new tires at the start.
“I got exactly what I was looking for when I asked.”
In both wins last Saturday, he finished ahead of one of his childhood heroes.
“Randy Potter was always somebody I looked up to as a kid going to the races,” Shannon said. “That makes me feel pretty good. It’s a lot of fun racing up there.”
MARTIN’S DEBUT: Taylor Martin made an impressive debut in Late Model competition last weekend, finishing 11th in the Subway Fresh Fit 150 at Canaan Fair Speedway on Sunday, August 11.
“I was definitely pretty happy with it,” Martin said. “I wasn’t expecting to be fighting for a Top-10 in my first Late Model race. We were really just focused on finishing the race. It was a huge shock, and I’m so excited about it.”
Early in practice Sunday, the 15-year-old from Windham, N.H., started developing confidence in her chances at Canaan.
“I was confident after practice, but after the heat race it was a little different,” Martin said. “I ended up starting last in the second heat, and I got blocked in for the whole race. I knew everyone was going to the feature, so I didn’t want to take a chance and wreck my car. After that, I was a little shaky, just because I don’t have experience passing in full-sized stock cars. It the Legends, you hit the gas and it goes. These cars, it doesn’t go right way.”
Martin plans on further testing with the No. 20 TMR Ford Fusion over the next few weeks, including a test session at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. It’s possible she could make a start in the ACT Invitational at NHMS in September.
“Crazy Horse has literally done everything for us,” Martin said. “If I didn’t have them, I couldn’t do this. I was wicked comfortable in the car, surprisingly. I got in that car, and it didn’t feel any different than the Legend cars. The only thing I have to adapt to is restarts on the outside.”
FELLOWS SECOND: Canaan Fair Speedway regular Aaron Fellows had a strong run in the Subway Fresh Fit 150, finishing second in the main event last Sunday.
Fellows had a very strong effort in qualifying, earning the eighth-place spot on the starting grid. He was closing on eventual winner and reigning ACT champion Wayne Helliwell Jr. in the final 10 laps.
Fellows, of Croydon, N.H., currently sits fifth in Canaan’s NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Late Model standings.
LAMBERT STRONG: Brandon Lambert posted a pair of Top-5 finishes in Late Model competition at Riverside Speedway in Groveton, N.H., last Saturday night.
Lambert finished third in the 40-lap makeup feature, and he backed that up with a fourth-place effort in the regularly-scheduled 40-lap event.
On the strength of those two finishes, Lambert has climbed to third in the track’s Late Model standings.
Sources: Travis Barrett/Crazy Horse Racing PR