Friday Night Recap July 12, 2019
The Seekonk Grand Prix Bandolero division continues to showcase the rising talent of Seekonk Speedway. Friday, we had one first-time winner visit Everett’s Auto Parts Victory Lane, and we had another return to the winner’s circle, taking another victory lap.
It was “Smilin” Reese Bogue who added another win to his list in the Bandit division. Bogue, who leads the championship standings headed for the second half of the season, has been one of the fastest cars since day one. Brenden LeBelle, who has been chasing Bogue, finished second, while PJ Evans followed up his victory the week before with a third-place effort.
Samantha Dell finally found Victory Lane in the Outlaw class. As our track announcer Kevin Boucher said while interviewing her on the frontstretch, she had found just about every way to lose a race before Friday night. I can’t count how many times she was in the front of the field in the final laps and something happened for her to lose it. This time, she wasn’t to be denied. When Isaiah Newcomb spun off turn four while in the lead, Dell took the point, and never looked back.
The Sport 4 race was a battle right down to the final corners. It was Tyler Almedia, who has one previous win to his credit in his Seekonk career, who captured the checkered flag. Almedia got to the lead early, but it didn’t matter, because the next 16 laps were not easy. Almedia had to hold off Karlin Levesque, who was trying everything to find his way around, but had to settle for second. AJ Manuel, the defending division champion, was third.
After winning his first title last year, Doug Benoit was looking to make it two straight in 2019. And even though he didn’t quite get off to the start he wanted, he found his first checkered flag of the year on Friday. Benoit took the point on lap 4, and had to hold off multiple TFB Racing teammates in the final circuits to get the job done. Mike Henriques was second, while Greg Perry, who holds the early championship lead, was consistent again with a third-place finish.
The Nick’s Pit Stop Legends feature wasn’t the best of the season. There were a lot of crashes early in the race, and after just 13 laps, the race was called because it went over the time limit. It was RJ Marcotte who led the early laps, taking control and holding off the rest of the field on restarts. But when Marcotte spun off turn four in the lead by himself, it handed the win to Peter Bennett when the race was called. Bennett is no stranger to Legends Cars, but is new to Seekonk this year, and seems to have found the right setup.
Sources: SeekonkSpeedway.com