Lee USA Speedway Event of Friday, July 14, 2017
After an early-evening rain delay and late night of racing forced postponement of a pair of feature events the week before, Lee USA Speedway racers were once again facing a more than full night of racing on Friday, with both the Rodfather Supermodifieds and the R & R “The Tool Store and More“ Late Model Sportsmen running double features.
In addition, the annual El Camino Night saw a strong contingent of all vintages and colors of beautiful street machinery tour the Lee oval, followed by the annual Autograph Night, where hundreds of fans flooded the speedway to visit their favorite drivers for an up close look at the men, women, and racecars that put on the weekly show for them.
In Supermodified action, the biggest field of the year was on hand to participate, but none of them came up bigger than defending champion Dave “Hollywood” Helliwell of Salem, who scored his second win of the season in the held-over feature event aboard the multi-time championship winning Witkum Brothers Racing entry.
An early race caution for debris slowed the pace with Derry’s John Burke on the point, but he lost the lead to former champ Tommy Tombarello of Haverhill, MA on the restart. By lap eight, Helliwell was past Burke and then Tombarello to take over at the head of the field, and it was pretty much a done deal from there.
Helliwell left the field in his dust over the final 22 laps, rolling on to a comfortable 2.629-second margin of victory over Northfield’s Leslie Keyser. Burke checkered third, followed by Mike Keddy of Raymond, Rochester’s Mike Spurling, Mike Netishen of Auburn, Moe Lattime of Kingston, Steve Duphily of Plaistow, Jamie Timmons of N. Andover, MA, and Meredith’s Jim Barker.
Keyser took his turn in the spotlight in the nightcap, catching and passing longtime ISMA Supermodified regular Timmons to take the lead shortly after the field took the crossed flags, and holding the top spot the rest of the way to post his first feature event win of the 2017 campaign.
Helliwell was coming on strong in the late laps, but still finished second some 1.141 seconds back, with Timmons, Spurling, Lattime, Keddy, Burke, Netishen, Duphily, and P.J. Murphy of Groveland, MA the remainder of the top ten.
Newmarket’s Bryan Kruczek topped the first of the two Late Model Sportsman mains, taking home a convincing win behind the wheel of the Brian House-owned, A Family Cab-sponsored machine. Former champ Jay Sands of Hampton checkered second, with Exeter’s Frankie Eldredge rounding out the podium in third.
Fourth spot went to veteran Bob Melvin of Groton, MA, with second-generation racer George Helliwell of Salem, Nate Leavitt of Buxton, ME, Jay Ryan of Salem, “Mad Max” Dolliver of Londonderry, Patrick Stewart of N. Andover, MA, and former champ Nick Maniatis of Manchester rounding out the top ten.
There was plenty of paint swapping going on in the David’s Race Cars and Components Hobby Stock main event, but when all was said and done, it was Rookie of the Year contender Jimmy Renfrew, Jr. of Candia sitting in victory lane after his first career Hobby Stock win.
Jamie Holland of Somersworth finally shook the monkey off his back and took top honors in the Tri City Line-X Ironman main event, after a race-long battle with Austin Elliott that had the fans up and cheering from green to checker.
Defending champion Tyler Mailhot scored the feature win in the MLM Diagnostics Pure Stock main event, holding off a tough challenge from fellow Epping-ite Anthony Nadeau to collect the checkers. Nadeau came across the stripe just .2 seconds behind the winner, with Rob Carleton of Newburyport, MA, John Boomhower of Epping, and “Neon Leon” Keniston rounding out the top five.
Next up at Lee USA on Friday, July 21st is another appearance by the Valenti Modified Racing Series, along with the Pro-4 Modifieds and all of our weekly divisions. For more information on this or any upcoming, call the race hotline at 978-462-4252, log on to www.leeusaspeedway.com, or find us on Facebook.
Sources: Judy MacDonald/Lee USA Speedway PR