Lee USA Speedway 7/3/20 Race Report
Lee, NH – The annual Don and Aline Coster Memorial race for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Six Shooters was on the schedule as another round of NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series racing took the green flag at Lee USA Speedway on Friday night.
This year’s edition featured and extra-payoff 35-lap main event, with a pair of heat races starting things off. The husband and wife team of Brian and Christin DeStefano of Tewksbury, MA established themselves as the drivers to be after the pair both locked down checkered flags in their respective qualifiers.
When the main event rolled out of staging onto the oval, they made up the front row, with Christin gaining the advantage on the start and moving out to the lead. Paul Childs of Derry quickly made it a three-car battle for the lead, working hard in the outside groove alongside the lead duo.
Childs got a bumper ahead of Christin on a couple of occasions, but he couldn’t complete the pass to overtake the leader. With the laps winding down, Childs eventually dropped out of contention, leaving Destefano to take down her first victory of the 2020 season.
Brian chased his wife across the stripe for a solid runner-up finish, with Travis Hollins of Milford rounding out the podium in the third spot. Fourth went to Tom “Hulk” Harton of Barrington, with Gary Grenier, defending champ Adam Knowles, David Piper, Jesse James, Childs, and Brian Thompson finishing up the top ten.
In the Rodfather Late Model Sportsmen, Frankie Eldredge of Stratham was once again the man to beat, and despite some mid-race issues, he went on to collect his third feature win of the young season when the checkers waved.
This time, Eldredge’s trouble came on a restart just past halfway through the 40-lap main, and he had to dig deep to work his way back to the point. George Helliwell had taken command after the restart, but Eldredge hunted him down and eventually worked past to score the win.
Billy McCarthy grabbed a third-place finish in his first start of the year, with Geoff Rollins and Ray Dinsmore right behind in the fourth and fifth spots in their 2020 debuts as well. Steve Paquette checkered sixth, with Mike Reynolds, Jesse Bousquet, Bobby Frappier, and Jimmy Russell the rest of the top ten.
Jimmy Renfrew, Jr. of Candia continued his perfect season in the R&R Public Wholesalers “The Tool Store and More” Street Stocks, as he drove off to his third consecutive win in the 30-lap feature event. Renfrew was the class of the field all the way, taking the checkers with more than a 2-second lead over the competition.
Rochester’s Cam Huntress was next across the stripe to collect his second straight runner-up finish, with Robbie Bodwell, Travis Hollins, Patrick Tanguay, David Cameron, Devon McConologue, Kris Schroeder, Kevin Aberle, and Ed Flanagan, Jr. scoring third through tenth.
Jon Provost of Hudson made it three for three on the season in the MLM Diagnostic Services Pure Stocks, with Justin Fafors shaking off the bad luck he’s had early in the year to post a strong runner-up finish.
Chris Roberge took home a strong third-place finish in the main, with defending champion Shawn Lessard taking fourth, and Donnie McCaffrey rounding out the top five.
Sources: Rich Hayes/Lee USA Speedway PR