McKennedy Grabs First Win At Speedway 51
Jon McKennedy, of East Chelmsford, MA, played his usual waiting game making tire maintenance a top priority, battled through a failed power steering pump on lap-30, then took the lead from race leader Russ Hersey on lap-79, to go on and win the 100-lap Valenti Modified Racing Series first ever race at Groveton, New Hampshire’s, Speedway 51 Saturday night.
17-cars took the green flag from Chief Starter Tim Bennett with Mike Willis Jr, of Grantham, NH, leading the opening lap with reigning series champion Woody Pitkat, of Sturbridge, MA, taking the lead on lap-2 and holding it until the 23rd circuit when a hard charging Hersey drew the interest of fans. Hersey looked to be heading home to Swanzey, NH, as he opened a sizeable lead over second place driver McKennedy and the rest of the field.
A lap-43 caution flag brought Hersey back to the rest of the field with McKennedy, cruising in second place saving his tires and arm strength for the late stages of the event. McKennedy led laps 44- through 47.
Todd Patnode of Richmond, NH, made his presence known as he took the lead on lap-48 and held it until lap 53. Hersey suddenly blasted into the lead on lap 54 and appeared to be the car to beat as he again took off on the field but McKennedy reached Hersey and went by leading lap-80 through 100.
McKennedy, tired from the heat and humidity of the day and wrestling a car for 70-laps, spoke about his 47 minutes of work. “We had a real good car at the start. Most of the race I rode around fourth and fifth. The front cars the beginning of the race and towards the middle half were running hard and at one point a straight-away ahead and I was thinking to myself why.”
“With the cautions, we were able to close up from a straightaway behind and go by them. Everything worked out. The car was fast all day. We had issues earlier in the day. We ran over a piece of asphalt and blew the nose off the car putting us a little behind but the crew worked hard to get us ready. The car was hard to steer but everything worked out,” said the three-time series champion.
McKennedy becomes the third different driver in three races to win this season. The victory was his 16th career VMRS win, his last was in September of 2012
Patnode, still getting accustomed to the Troyer chassis he purchased offseason, was solid and finished second followed by Mike Holdridge, of Madison, CT, who made it up to third, slipped back to sixth and at the checkered flag got the podium finish.
Pitkat and Rob Richardi Jr, of Easton, MA, rounded out the top five.
Colbey Fournier, Willis, Hersey, George Sherman, and Brandon Dion, finished the race sixth through tenth.
Heat winners were Pitkat and Chris Pasteryak.
The race, slowed by 4-caution flags, was completed in 47 minutes.
Next Event : Seekonk (MA) Speedway June 4, 2016
Race Summary :
Speedway 51 Groveton NH
Quarter Mile-High Banked (asphalt)
May 28, 2016
Entrants (17)
Caution Flags (4) Laps, 20,28,43,80
Time of Race : 47:06:997
Best Lap Time: Russ Hersey 12.485
Best Speed : 72:087 (Hersey)
Margin of Victory: 2.683
Lap Leaders: Willis (1) Pitkat (2-23) Hersey (24-43) McKennedy (44-47)
Patnode (48-53) Hersey (54-79) McKennedy (80-100)
Unofficial Order of Finish : (1) McKennedy (2) Patnode (3) Holdridge (4) Pitkat (5) Richardi (6) Fournier (7) Willis Jr (8) Hersey (9) Sherman (10) Dion (11) Lashua (12) Seidell (13) Rock (14) Pasteryak (15) Medeiros Jr (16) Mead (17) Smith
Sources: John Spence, Sr./VMRS PR