Twice is Nice: Geoff Rollins Earns Second Straight Victory on North East Street Stock Tour
LEE, NH – Geoff Rollins becomes the first person to win two feature events in the North East Street Stock Tour, as the Groton, MA driver picked up the victory in the “Friday Night Lights” event, presented by the Gobbi Corporation, at Lee USA Speedway.
Rollins jumped to the lead at the start of the race, pulling away from Larry Barnett at the drop of the green. His lead was erased on lap 9, when Matt Morrill came to rest in turn 4 after suffering a broken right-front suspension.
Rollins would fend off Chris Douton and John Hanafin, and increased his lead on the field until the second and final caution flew for Bryan Town, who was involved in an incident with Charlie Beal, sending both drivers to the back of the pack.
On the ensuing restart, Douton was glued to Rollins’ back bumper, but an electrical issue sapped power from Douton’s Ford Thunderbird, as he slowly dropped back. Anthony Belfiore took advantage, and took the second spot from Douton, setting his sights on Rollins. Belfiore chipped into Rollins’ lead, and made a last ditch effort in the final corner of the race, but Rollins held on to earn back-to-back victories on the tour.
“The car was really good on restarts,” exclaimed Rollins. “There was so much work put in this car to get it done in two weeks, it’s unbelievable.”
Rollins made it a perfect night, picking up the feature win in the Late Model Sportsman weekly division at Lee USA Speedway.
Belfiore settled for the second spot, which is a bit of redemption after his twelfth-place finish at Monadnock Speedway. Belfiore explained “My whole crew worked hard on the car this week so [Monadnock] didn’t happen. We’ve had a lot of failures.”
Belfiore used the outside groove multiple times to advance his position. When asked about the outside, Belfiore continued “Everyone goes to the bottom. I go high, I like to go up there. It’s fast for me. When the car is going good, I have no problem up there.”
Patrick Tanguay enjoyed running at his home track, as well. Tanguay finished third, after starting in the eighth position.
“It feels good to come back and do our home track good,” Tanguay said. “We were off just a little bit on the adjustments we made. We took some big swings at it, and made it a lot better, but it wasn’t quite enough.”
Douton would survive to take the fourth spot, with Hanafin settling for fifth. Steve Kenneway fought his way up to sixth, with Barnett falling back to the seventh spot. Robbie Bodwell, Joe Arena, and Jim Boyle completed the top ten. Rollins and Barnett won their respective qualifying heats.
The North East Street Stock Tour is back in action August 15, returning to Speedway 51 in Groveton, NH. For more information on the North East Street Stock Tour, visit www.nestreetstocktour.com, on Facebook (N.E. Street Stock Tour), Twitter @NEStreetStock, or on Instagram at NorthEastStreetStockTour.
UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS presented by the Gobbi Corporation
Lee USA Speedway
7/31/15
Pos. (Start) Driver Hometown
- (1) Geoff Rollins Groton, MA
- (6) Anthony Belfiore Haverhill, MA
- (8) Patrick Tanguay Lebanon, ME
- (3) Chris Douton Waterford, CT
- (4) John Hanafin Quincy, MA
- (11) Steve Kenneway Lowell, MA
- (2) Larry Barnett Moosup, CT
- (9) Robbie Bodwell Sanford, ME
- (7) Joe Arena Bristol, CT
- (5) Jim Boyle Waterford, CT
- (14) Charlie Beal Ledyard, CT
- (12) John Carpenter Danielson, CT
- (10) Bryan Town Charlestown, NH
- (13) Matt Morrill Moultonborough, NH
Dur-A-Flex ($100 gift certificate to halfway leader) – Geoff Rollins
Northeast Race Cars + Parts (Lucky Dog) – Joe Arena
Sources: Shawn Sicard/NESST PR