Pennink Rolls to Stafford Victory
Stafford Motor Speedway, Stafford Springs, September 1,2017
The annual Stafford VMRS 80 drew a full field of potent Valenti Modified Racing Series competitors and when three heats and a consi was completed the field was set for a highly competitive event.
Dave Ethridge (Portland, CT) led from the pole for the first 58 laps until Rowan Pennink (Huntingdon Valley, PA) took over after a restart and went on to a highly contested victory. The 2013 VMRS champion took down his first MRS victory of the year and second series win at Stafford putting him 5th on the all time win list.
Keith Rocco (Berlin, CT) ran in the top five all race long and made a late race charge for the win but came up 0.608 seconds short behind Pennink on a green white checkered finish.
MRS points leader Anthony Nocella encountered power steering issues throughout the day, and started deep in the pack then slowly worked his way towards the front, taking over third place from Ethridge on the lap 78 restart. Ethridge who always runs strong at Stafford held on to finish 4th.
Nocella said “It was a pretty good run, not a win but a good top three especially having to start in the back. Earlier in the day, we had a broken rack (and pinion steering), we missed all of practice, but we still had a good car, still trying to learn this new car. We were close driving from 17th to 3rd. We’re happy with that, just missing the setup a little bit. It was a good race especially at the end with a little bumping and banging. It was good racing , I think, good for the fans. Maybe if we had a few more laps we might have had something for Keith (Rocco) but I don’t think anyone was touching Rowan (Pennink) tonight. He rolled thru the corners too good.”
Absent from racing for over two years Jeff Malave (Manchester, CT) showed he’s ready to return to modified competition. Malave started 15th and powered his way to a respectable 5th place finish.
“Car was good right from the get-go, so I was trying to save it for the end. When we got up front, unfortunately, we got put into the wall, had to pit and the guys did a tremendous job fixing our problem. When I got back out I paced myself making sure the car was good. Once it felt good I went back to the front, luckily. I think we had a top 3 car if nothing happened in the race.
The guys run real clean in this division. The whole thing that happened at the end, it was just we’re on old tires, its a restart, everybody’s tense, it’s just racing. I haven’t run in over two years, last time was with the MRS. Honestly, I was sick the last two years and haven’t been racing and this is my first time back. I really like running with the MRS. I think Jack (Bateman) and the MRS has the best deal in town and we’ll try to run Lee (Lee USA Speedway) and definitely race Thompson (Motor Speedway).”
Hard charger of the event, Donnie Lashua (Canaan N.H.) had to take a provisional starting spot because of a heat race altercation. Starting 26th, Lashua showed he’s on the verge of an MRS victory by picking up 19 spots to finish 7th.
“Car was really good. Good in the heat race, just got in a little mess there, but we recovered from that, fixed it. We had to run the consi but I just played it out to see what we had. We knew we had a provisional if we needed it. In the feature, I tried to maintain what I had and save what I had. We ended up with the stagger a little short and got pretty tight at the end. For the last 20 laps, I was just hanging for what I had. So I’m really glad to get where we got. After that caution on lap 55 I just never got it to come back, right front tire was hurt but we were able to ride it out and save what we got.”
Summary
Track-Stafford Motor Speedway, Stafford Springs,CT.– 0.500 miles
Event-#10-8th Annual VMRS 80
Time of Race-59:23.036
Margin of Victory-0.608
Best Lap Time-19.014
Best Speed-94.667
Best Lap by-#25-Rowan Pennink
Cautions-8-Laps, 25/30/34/55/55/55/56/78
Lap Leaders-#34, Ethridge, 1/55—#25, Pennink, 56/80
Entries-30
Unofficial Finish
1—25-Pennink
2—68-Rocco
3—92-Nocella
4—34-Ethridge
5—14M-Malave
6—14-Barney
7—17-Lashua
8—45-Meservey Jr.
9—76-Galko
10-83-Willis Jr.
11-40-Trayner
12-29-Ricci
13-99-Savary
14-11-Gernhard
15-16-Fournier
16-4-Gallup
17-77-Mead
18-35-Molleur
19-25CT-Flannery
20-6MA-Rameau
21-13M-Masse
22-3-Talman
23-12 Richardi Jr
24-19-Schneider
25-1-Medeiros
26-85-Rocco
Next VMRS event–Oct.7&8, 2017 Lee USA Speedway, Lee, N.H.
Sources: James Snape
Photos by Crystal Snape