Dwight Jarvis Claims VMRS Victor Johnson Memorial 100
Veteran Dwight Jarvis of Ascutney, VT added another victory to his already impressive resume when he raced to his sixth Monadnock Speedway victory with the VMRS. Starting from the rear of the field, Jarvis methodically worked his way forward settling into third place by lap 41. Jarvis was content to follow early race leader and pole sitter Kirk Alexander of W. Swanzey, NH in the John Corliss owned number 88 and the second place runner, your defending MRS champion Rowan Pennink in the Gary Casella owned number 25.
In post race Dwight said “We were a little out to lunch in the heat. I don’t know if it was the car or the driver. We scuffed our tires in the heat and ended up with a stagger we weren’t happy with, but we worked on it and got stagger where it should be.
“This car was on a rail. It stayed underneath me and when I decided to go it was there. I had no radio and it was hard to know how many laps were left. I just wanted to follow Rowan (Pennink) and when he slipped up a little, I had the opportunity to go underneath him and I told myself ‘Okay, it’s time to go.’ Otherwise, it was pretty clear sailing. I had to dodge some bullets, especially with the big wreck early. There was some bumping and banging but that’s short track racing.”
By lap 70 Pennink took the opportunity to pass a fading Alexander and slid by on the inside to become the second race leader of the event, with Jarvis using a lap 71 restart to take over the runner-up position. Jarvis now went on the hunt to track down race leader Pennink, while behind him Woody Pitkat of Stafford Springs, CT, Max Zachem of Preston, CT, and Chris Pasteryak of Lisbon, CT worked over Alexander, dropping Kirk back to sixth.
With eight to go, Jarvis pulled up beside Pennink and the two ran wheel to wheel for two laps before Jarvis finally gained the advantage and took the lead on lap 94, running a perfect line to win by 1.286 seconds over Pennink.
Rowan said “We had a good car, but it just started freeing up on me. I started feeling it get free at halfway, and tried to baby it until the end. Dwight was just better than me and got around me at the end. The race was pretty uneventful for me. I just tried to conserve the tires and ride, but the 88 started holding me up and I decided to go by him, but just didn’t have enough at the
end (for Dwight).”
Pitkat and Zachem battled cleanly to the end with Woody taking the third place podium finish. Zachem and Pasteryak rounded out the top five.
Race results
1. 28 –Dwight Jarvis
2. 25 –Rowan Pennink
3. 42 – Woody Pitkat
4. 20 CT –Max Zachem
5. 5 CT –Chris Pasteryak
6. 88 – Kirk Alexander
7. 99 – Richard Savary.
8. 51 – Russ Hersey
9. 44 – Jean Paul Cyr
10. 1NH – Rob Goodenough
11. 66 – Dylan Kopec
12. 38 – Mike Willis Jr.
13. 50 – Carl Medeiros Jr.
14. 23 – Michael Douglas, Jr.
15. 52 – Chris Bakaj
16. 53 – Norm Wrenn
17. 22 – Roy Seidell Jr.
18. 14 – Dana Smith
19. 34 – Dave Etheridge
20. 77 – Matthew Mead
21. 21 – Justin Bonsignore
22. 33 – Rob Richardi Jr.
23. 06 – Les Hinckley III
24. 17 – Donnie Lashua
25. 45Vt – Ken Thompson
Race – VMRS Victor Johnson Memorial 100
Track – Monadnock Speedway 0.250 mile
Time of race – 57: 03 .026
Margin of victory – 1.286
Best lap time – 12.762 (28 –Dwight Jarvis)
Best speed – 70.522
Best lap by – 28 –Dwight Jarvis
Cautions – 8 – laps 10, 11, 13, 13, 22, 65, 71, 71.
Lap leaders –(#88, 1 – 69) (#25, 70 – 93) (#28, 94 – 100)
Heat winners –#25, Rowan Pennink –#66, Dylan Kopec –#77, Matthew Mead
Next race – August 29 Stafford Motor Speedway, Stafford Springs, CT 80 laps
Sources: Jim Snape/YankeeRacer.com