Arsenault Gets Out of Sparky Slump with D.A.V. Streeter Win
The “Sparky Slump,” as his daughter Amy called it is now finally over. Sparky Arsenault had struggled for the entire 2016 season at Seekonk Speedway with handling and some mechanical gremlins along the way. But in the season finale 30 lap Street Stock main event, Arsenault was the dominant car for the entire distance. Early on, it was Rob Murphy showing the way in his No. 2, but it wasn’t long before the first caution came down.
The first caution was for a spin by the No. 4 of Rob Kohler, but before long, Arsenault was in control when the field went back green. He took the advantage on lap five and from there he never looked back at the front of the field. Behind him, there were multiple cautions along the way that slowed the action. Wrecks included Miles Bonalewicks, Brenden Nutter, and many other drivers. The middle portion of the race went green, but many drivers were forced to the pit area and did not return. Craig Pianka pitted but went left once he got to the top of the tunnel, which got him a disqualification from the remainder of the race because of rules.
Former Street Stock champion Ryan Lineham was out of the race before halfway as well as Pro Stock driver Kyle Casper, who had a mechanical problem on his No. 54 Phil’s Propane ride.
[Photo Gallery] by Nicholas Teto
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The final few laps of the race saw a restart with just three laps to go and Arsenault had a challenge from Mike Mitchell on the outside, who was one of the fastest cars in the division all season long. When it came to battling for the win, it was all about Mitchell for most of the season, but this time he had nothing for the Chaz Auto Body No. 96. While Arsenault pulled away a little bit coming to the white flag, Mitchell started struggling up on the outside lane.
He went back to the fourth spot in his No. 10 while Tom “The Bomb” Adams and Murphy got by. In the final corner, Murphy was running second but he got a bump from behind by Adams and went sliding up the track, barely hanging on without spinning out. However, even though Adams finished second across the line and Murphy third, a post-race penalty gave Adams a two position penalty. That moved Murphy to second and Mitchell to third in the final running order.
It was Arsenault celebrating while a little bit emotional in victory lane with his daughter after a dominating D.A.V. Fall Classic victory. With Murphy second and Mitchell third, Adams finished in the fourth spot following his penalty. Anthony Kolher finished in fifth, with defending champion Scott Bruneau finishing in sixth spot. Scott Serydynski, Paul Lallier, Vinny Pangalinan and Jesse Melberg rounded out the top 10.
Sources: SeekonkSpeedway.com