Weather Adds Unpredictability at Speedbowl; Palmer Perseveres in Drag Race
WATERFORD – Fans came out in droves with the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series on the schedule, with the Belltown Motors/Fowlers Auto Wrecking 100. A pair of heavy showers ripped through the state near the conclusion of practice for the Modifieds, delaying the schedule quite a bit. Scrapping the heat races and adjusting the schedule we were able to get most of the laps completed before the lightning came in.
Calamity on lap 1 of the Late Models when the door opened on the front row for Brody Monahan to dive low. The door quickly closed and ended the night of a few cars as soon as it started. PJ Evans and defending champion Ray Christian III would resume the race in an intense side-by-side duel that would span nearly 20 of the 30 laps, with Jason Palmer in tow. With laps clicking off on the board, Derryck Anderson Jr. and Andrew Molleur battling for the final top 5 positions would also catch up to the race leaders. A subtle bobble from Evans relinquished the race for the lead to Christian and Palmer. Christian shut the door on Palmer on an outside move, but after a quick crossover, Palmer would shoot into the lead down low. A caution with 9 laps on the board gave Christian a chance to strike but he couldn’t keep it tight enough to Palmer’s bumper to take him down, giving Palmer another win on his quest for 100.
Ed Gertsch Jr. may have launched to a big lead when the Street Stocks went green, but the big splash was for the lap 2 yellow flag when cars broke loose and spun into leftover water below the apron. The caution would immediately fly again for a 2 car incident putting Aaron Plemons in position to strike. Plemons didn’t give Gertsch a chance to retain the lead and would lock down the race lead. Al Stone III in a borrowed ride moved into second attempting to track down Plemons. None of the remaining restarts seemed to hurt Plemons, as he would ace each one of them to keep control of the race. Gertsch would move back into second with Tony Macrino, who had to start scratch on the field, hot on his tail. Second through fourth would shuffle positions over the last 10 laps, but it was Plemons holding off a strong Stone and Macrino across the line nose to tail.
Attrition hit the SK Lights hard during the day as several competitors faced mechanical issues during practice lightening up the field. That didn’t affect the level of competition, however, as Nick Hovey took full command of a majority of the event from his third-place starting spot. Hovey’s bold three-wide move allowed him to control the field, when the original front row got together bringing out the caution flag with 18 to go. Hovey cleared O’Sullivan on the restart and the two would stay in line until 3 to go when O’Sullivan made a strong divebomb move to cruise his way to victory. O’Sullivan’s SK Light win this week marks the first two-time winner of the season in this competitive division.
Another Nick, Nick Pappacoda nailed the initial start in the Mini Stocks, that was extended due to a lap 1 melee shaking up the running order. His massive lead was cut short when a red flag situation put a pause on the race. On the restart, Jared Roy would get the advantage but was quickly under attack by Chris Garside. With Garside clearing Roy, Charles Canfield and John Bavolacco would follow. Canfield gave Garside a run for his money but couldn’t get the job done and would end up slipping back into fourth place. With just 3 laps on the board, Bavolacco would appear to come out of nowhere making quick work of Garside scoring back-to-back wins.
Matt Hirschman pocketed the $10,000 victory, plus bonuses, in the weather-shortened Belltown Motors/Fowlers Auto Wrecking 100 for the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series.
Up next at the Speedbowl, the Northeastern Midget Association returns for their made-up Angelillo Memorial event, as well as our Speedbowl Saturday Nights card presented by GRE6 featuring SK Modifieds®, Late Models, Street Stocks, SK Lights, Trucks, and INEX Legend Cars. Keep up with us at www.SpeedbowlCT.com, The New London-Waterford Speedbowl on Facebook, or @SpeedbowlCT on Twitter and Instagram.
Unofficial Results
Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series A-Main (100 Laps): 1. 60-Matt Hirschman[6]; 2. 3-Bryan Narducci[8]; 3. 7NY-Michael Christopher JR[19]; 4. 07-Kyle Bonsignore[3]; 5. 99-Richard Savary[18]; 6. 76CT-Dana DiMatteo[5]; 7. 88-Woody Pitkat[16]; 8. 51CT-Joey Cipriano[1]; 9. 50-Ronnie Williams[4]; 10. 16-Ron Silk[12]; 11. 25-Matt Swanson[7]; 12. 9-Chase Dowling[20]; 13. 76-Kirk Alexander[13]; 14. 75-David Arute[27]; 15. 13-Keith Rocco[21]; 16. 15MA-Jake Johnson[2]; 17. 55CT-Teddy Hodgdon[9]; 18. 35-Andrew Molleur[15]; 19. 11-Cory DiMatteo[17]; 20. 5CT-Chris Pasteryak[10]; 21. 11CT-Eric Berndt[28]; 22. 47-Joey Mucciacciaro[24]; 23. 10A-Jeff Rocco[11]; 24. 25CT-Anthony Flannery[25]; 25. 06-Les Hinckley[30]; 26. 85-Anthony Bello[22]; 27. 24MA-Mikey Flynn[26]; 28. 51-Rob Janovic Jr[29]; 29. 50R-Sam Rameau[14]; 30. 55-Ryan Doucette[23]
Late Models (30 Laps): 1. 17-Jason Palmer[7]; 2. 93CT-Ray Christian III[6]; 3. 35-Andrew Molleur[10]; 4. 2-Derryck Anderson Jr[8]; 5. 12CT-PJ Evans[3]; 6. 0-Joey LeMay[9]; 7. 1-Corey Fanning[12]; 8. 94CT-Charles Bailey III[2]; 9. 71-Michael Lindquist[13]; 10. 50RI-Michael Benevides[11]; 11. 78-Emma Monahan[1]; 12. 6-Brody Monahan[4]; 13. 29MA-Joshua Hedges[5]
Street Stocks (25 Laps): 1. 67-Aaron Plemons[7]; 2. 12-Al Stone III[4]; 3. 13-Tony Macrino[8]; 4. 9-Shawn Gaedeke[5]; 5. 74-Joseph Arena[3]; 6. 83-Ed Gertsch Jr[1]; 7. 30-Jaysin Beal[6]; 8. 52-Charles Canfield[13]; 9. 56-Ike Chima[11]; 10. 28-Austin Flanagan[2]; 11. 22T-Timothy Poulin[10]; 12. 21-Tom Musante[9]; 13. 66-Charles Beal[12]
SK Lights (25 Laps): 1. 51-John O’Sullivan III[5]; 2. 16-Nickolas Hovey[3]; 3. 78-Evan Bourgeois[6]; 4. 22-Isaiah Newcomb[1]; 5. 47-Zachery Sangermano[4]; 6. 41CT-Tyler Chapman[2]; 7. 91-Jake Hines[8]; 8. 21-Sami Anderson[9]; 9. 36RI-Michael Cooper[10]; 10. 12-Dennis Krupski[11]; 11. 16CT-Ethan Durocher[7]
Mini Stocks (25 Laps): 1. 42-John Bavolacco[8]; 2. 83-Christopher Garside[5]; 3. 1CT-Jared Roy[7]; 4. 25-Charles Canfield[6]; 5. 6-Nicholas Pappacoda[2]; 6. 19-David Dorr[4]; 7. 88-Bill Sylvia[3]; 8. 72-David Lee[12]; 9. 97-Dave Trudeau[16]; 10. 11-Jason Kokoszka[14]; 11. 91-Raymond Herman Sr[13]; 12. 22CT-Brad Caddick[10]; 13. 73-Eric Julian[11]; 14. 28-Erica Canfield[1]; 15. 7-Kyle Wing[15]; 16. 81-Stacey Zentek[9]
Sources: New London-Waterford Speedbowl PR
(photos by TK Race Photos)
Ray Christian’s final attack on Palmer of the night
Street Stocks scatter into a puddle from the day’s rain