Norm Wrenn Wins Cement Palace Thriller

By admin August 17, 2014 Seekonk, VMRS

SEEKONK, MA — (August 16, 2014) — After a thrilling win, an emotional Norm Wrenn sat in victory lane, winning his first Valenti Modified Racing Series feature, which was a product of some luck, but his plan laid the groundwork to be in the right place at the right time and it worked out perfectly for the Nashua, NH racer. Wrenn said “I was trying to stay in contention and the car was a little loose, but we decided to stay out at every caution. I just hung on and it opened up at the end. I knew it was the checkered flag lap, I aimed for the flag stand and just stood on it. (Earlier) a lot of cars coming up through were pushing and banging and I let a couple go by me. They opened up holes and I just followed through. At the end when they started playing bumper tag, I just said, ‘here we go, I’ve seen this before’ and it worked out for us.

It looked like points leader Justin Bonsignore was going to taste victory for his first win in the Modified Racing Series when he ran side-by-side with race leader Richard Savary of Canton, Mass. In the final rounds of the century lap grind Justin used a neat crossover move to take the lead on lap 98, but Bonsignore and Savary made contact on the last lap and Wrenn was the beneficiary, streaking across the line 0.055 sec. ahead of second-place Rowan Pennink of Huntingdon Valley, Pa. who also benefited from the Bonsignore/Savary contact. In post race when asked about his night Pennink said ” Well, we got wrecked by the 99 on lap three, then we made the best of what we had, almost had the win and got smashed out of the way and moved up the track and lost it to the 53. That’s was about it.”

Bonsignore did grab a podium finish bringing owner Art Barry’s number 21 home in third. “We had a good car, trying to be patient on restarts” Justin said. “We started running the top and got to second, then we crossed him over and made them look foolish and I guess they didn’t like that because they launched us in the next corner. That was strike 3-4-5-6 with him this year and we’ve had enough and I’m not going to get pushed around no more, that’s for sure”

Savary did salvage a fourth-place finish out of the ordeal saying “I just try to race people the way they race me. Rowan might be upset about me going three low, but I didn’t hit the guy I was under, I just went around the corner. If the two guys outside me had an issue and banged, I’m sorry. The last time here Rowan went three low and knocked me out of the consi, and all he said was ‘that’s racing.’ On the last lap I tried to give Justin as much room as I could, but my car was pushing really bad, he did the right thing and crossed over, got under me and knocked me out of the way. On the white flag he went into number one, and got crossed up by himself and by the time we got to the checkered two cars got by us”

Veteran Rob Goodenough of Swanzey, NH, running in his first race of the year had a solid fifth place finish.

Track: Seekonk Speedway, 0.333 mi.

Time: 56:00.173

Margin of Victory: 0.055

Cautions: (9) Lap 2,5,12,50,53,60,80,81,88

Lap Leaders: (Zachem 1-6, Annarummo 7-50, Zachem 51, Savary 52, Zachem 53-57, Savary 58-60, Zachem 61, Savary 62-98, Bonsignore 99, Wrenn 100)

Lead Changes: 10

Best Lap Time: 12.306

Best Speed: 97.416

Best Lap: Todd Annarummo

Unofficial race results
1. 53 – Norm Wrenn
2. 25 – Rowan Pennink
3. 21– Justin Bonsignore
4. 99 – Richard Savary.
5. 1NH – Rob Goodenough
6. 20 CT – Max Zachem
7. 50 – Carl Medeiros Jr.
8. 33 – Rob Richardi Jr.
9. 66 – Dylan Kopec
10. 38 – Mike Willis Jr.
11. 45. – Dan Meservey Jr.
12. 32. – Tom Abele Jr.
13. 52. – Chris Bakaj
14. 12 – Todd Annarummo
15. 5 CT – Chris Pasteryak
16. 76. – Ryan Vanasse
17. 17 – Donnie Lashua
18. 6 – Colbey Fournier
19. 80 – Dick Houlihan
20. 3 – Gregg Hurley

Next on the MRS schedule is Saturday, August 23 on the fast quarter-mile high banks of Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, New Hampshire.

Sources: Jim Snape, YankeeRacer.com