Lee USA Results – Friday, August 23rd
Lee, NH — The main event at Lee USA Speedway last Friday night was the annual Lance Davis Memorial, a 50-lap Late Model Sportsman race held in honor of the popular driver whose sudden passing shocked and saddened the Lee USA community in the summer of 2003.
The Davis family was on hand to present the top ten finishers with trophies commemorating the event, and it was once again Grant Aither taking home the biggest one after a convincing victory in the extra-distance affair for the Prime Storage and Warehouse-sponsored LMS division.
When Steve Grant dropped the green flag to get the race underway, rookie competitor Niko Maniatis served notice that he was going to be the man to beat, jumping out to the lead and pulling away to a comfortable lead aboard the Rick Solt entry.
Fan favorite Michele Fushpanski was among the frontrunners in the early going, but a tangle while running third sent her hard into the turn four wall and brought out a red flag 14 laps into the race. Fushpanski was a bit shaken, but she walked away after a quick check by the track safety crew. Her car sustained heavy front-end damage in the incident.
Maniatis picked up the lead once again when racing resumed, and he continued to set the pace well past the halfway mark. After restarting third, Aither made quick work of Ryan Green to take over the second spot, quickly setting his sights on leader Maniatis.
Aither got to Maniatis’ back bumper in short order and went to work, finally making the pass on lap 35 to take over the top spot. It was all but over from there, as Aither led the rest of the way to lead the field across the stripe and earn yet another trip to victory lane.
Maniatis picked up the bonus money from David’s Race Cars and Components for his strong run to the runner-up slot, with Jimmy Russell filling out the podium in third. Fourth went to first-time LMS competitor Joey Doiron, followed by veteran Boe Green, Bobby Melvin, Ryan Green, Patrick Stewart, Geoff Rollins, and Ray Dinsmore.
The Benson Lumber and Hardware Small Block Supermodifieds saw another new face in the winner’s circle at night’s end, when Mike Spurling made it eight different winners for the 2013 season when he beat all the top guns to capture that long-awaited first career checkered flag.
After starting sixth on the grid, Spurling was up to second on lap three after Sparky MacIver and Leslie Keyser tangled while battling for the lead, but it looked like that was as good as it was going to get for the likeable veteran, as defending champ and current point leader Tommy Tombarello, Jr. slipped past to take over the second spot a few laps later.
But Spurling made the move of his career on lap 13, when he dove to the low side, passing both Tombarello and leader Mike Netishen in one turn. With the two top men in the 2013 point standings now in his rear view mirror, Spurling never looked back and went on to post the victory.
Netishen was next across the stripe to claim runner-up honors, with Jake Stergios up in the late laps to finish third. Tombarello, Ricky Wolf, Moe Lattime, Keyser, Bill Kimball, Jon Booth, and Dave Papuga rounded out the top ten.
The David’s Race Cars and Components Hobby Stocks also ended their night with a first-time winner in victory lane, as second-year racer Kyle Sawyer outran a strong field of entries to pick up his career first in the 25-lap feature event.
Sawyer slipped past early leader David MacDonald on lap five to take over the point, and he stayed comfortably out front for the next 20 circuits to lead them under the checkers.
Dennis Dumas and former champ Jim Shorey put on quite a show over the last several laps, battling door handle to door handle for the second spot, with Dumas getting his second runner-up finish of the season by .208 seconds at the line.
Shorey grabbed third, with fourth going to Paul Palen and fifth to Ron Washburn. Patrick Tanguay, Brian DeStefano, Torrey Kovalesky, Eric Hoffman, and Wade Worster rounded out the top ten finishers in the main.
2012 Rookie of the Year Tyler Mitchell grabbed his second win of the season in the American Used Auto Parts Ironman feature event, with Shane Horvath up in the late laps to score second, and Hannah Shaw taking home the third place trophy.
Sources: Lee USA Speedway PR