Tombarello, Sands, Dumas, Washburn, and Tellier secure Lee USA Speedway championships, Barthelemy, Eldridge, Evans, Horvath and Mailhot take feature wins.
Lee, NH – It was championship night at Lee USA Speedway on Friday, the final weekly program for the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series divisions to decide the 2015 division titles at “New Hampshire‘s Center of Speed“.
Haverhill, MA’s Tommy Tombarello, Jr. locked up another Supermodified championship title, but his season didn’t end quite the way he would have liked. He was involved in a scary incident during his qualifying heat, slamming the retaining wall and destroying his championship machine. Tombarello was uninjured in the hard wreck and joined the post-race festivities to accept his championship.
Lance Barthelemy of Fremont finally shook the monkey off his back and scored win number one on the season in the EKeys4cars Supermodified main event, closing out his sophomore campaign with a trip to victory lane. Barthelemy was a multi-time winner during his rookie season in 2014, and he was thrilled to be back in the winner’s circle after a tough summer on the fast 3/8th‘s mile oval.
Rookie of the Year contender Mike Keddy of Raymond put in another strong performance, holding off Kingston’s Kyle Sawyer to collect runner-up honors. Fourth went to Mike Ordway, Jr. of Fremont, followed by Mike Murphy of Groveland, MA, Leslie Keyser of Northfield, Jarrod Soucy of Hudson, MA, Rochester’s Mike Spurling, Jim Barker of Meredith, and Moe Lattime of Kingston.
The R & R Public Wholesale Late Model Sportsman championship was decided during the course of the night, with eventual champion Jay Sands of Hampton coming into the night tied with Jimmy Russell of Brentwood. Sands scored a heat race win and a third place feature run to outdistance Russell by a two-point margin for the season.
Frankie Eldridge of Stratham ended the regular season the same way he had started it, with a trip to victory lane at the end of the 30-lap feature event. It was Eldridge’s third win of the season, with Russell and Sands next across the stripe. Nate Leavitt of Buxton, ME was scored fourth, followed by Bryan Kruczek of Newmarket, George Helliwell of Pelham, Ray Dinsmore of Waterboro, ME, Ricky Porter of Epping, and Barrington’s Alby Ovitt.
Nashua’s Dennis Dumas locked up the 2015 title in the David’s Race Cars and Components Hobby Stocks, while veteran competitor Pete Evans of Berwick, ME took down the feature win. Lebanon, ME’s Chris “Rooftop”
Harding led the first 18 laps, but when he and challenger Brian DeStefano drifted high coming off turn four, Evans made it three-wide and got past for the lead and the eventual win.
Bill Helliwell of Pelham had another solid run to score the runner-up finish, followed by Kenny Scott of Salem, Dave MacDonald of Tewksbury, MA, DeStefano, Harding, Kevin Bowman of North Grafton, MA, Dumas, Nottingham’s Zac Fraser, and Trevor Randlett of Holderness.
Shane Horvath of Nottingham dominated the Tri-City Line-X Ironman feature event, making his division-leading fourth trip to victory lane after the 20-lap main. Shane’s brother Evan scored runner-up, followed by Christin DeStefano of Tewksbury, MA, Travis Hollins of Milford, and newly-crowned 2015 champion Troy Washburn of Farmington.
Washburn will be seated at the head table for the second time, backing up his 2011 Ironman title with a second. Mike Farrington, Hannah Shaw, Greg Brannan, Jamie Holland, and Luke Grammont rounded out the top ten finishers in the Ironman main.
Jesse Tellier was celebrated as the Pure Stock champion for the second consecutive year, while Tyler Mailhot scored his first-ever Lee USA win in the night’s feature event. Tellier and Rob Carlton rounded out the podium in that one.
Sources: Lee USA Speedway PR