Flannery Scores Convincing Modified Win; Back to Back Mini Stock Photo Finishes Go to Garside
WATERFORD – After two difficult weeks, Kyle James launched off the front row in the SK Modifieds® on a mission for redemption. He took off from RJ Marcotte who found himself locked in an early battle with Anthony Flannery. Flannery broke free easily and set his sights on James, reeling him in and trying to make the pass but ultimately he fell back in line. A tough chain reaction of events crippled the cars of Adam Gada and last week’s winner Timmy Jordan. The ensuing restart gave Flannery the opportunity to steal the lead away from James, which he held for the remainder of the race. With Flannery checked out and James safely in second, eyes were on the battle for third between Marcotte, Andrew Molleur, and Jon Puleo. Molleur quickly had third place ripped away from Marcotte until Puleo, who rebounded from a spin earlier, was able to take down the final podium position. Flannery’s win makes him the third different winner in as many events.
Doug Curry tried to carry the momentum from his podium finish last week in the Late Models into this week leading the early laps from the drop of the green. However, Jason Palmer was looking to rebound from last week’s showing and made quick work of Curry bringing Brody Monahan by with him. Previous winner Ryan Lineham got shuffled to the rear after contact with the front straight wall upset the car. By seven to go, Lineham was able to rebound and get past Curry for the final podium position. For the majority of the race, Palmer and Monahan were locked in an intense battle for the top spot. Monahan kept showing Palmer the nose but was unable to edge far enough ahead to take over the lead. Palmer scored the win by about half of a car length after the intense 30-lap battle.
In the trucks, Brad Strickland has been showing improvement since the off-season chassis rebuild and it showed in the early stages this week. He was able to power past Jake Coutu and lock down the lead until a hard single-car crash with Kassy Prentice put the field under red-flag conditions. When racing resumed Tyler Chapman continued his stranglehold on the division by taking the lead and running away leaving the rest of the field to battle for second. Charles Beal and Strickland were going at it when Troy Prentice dove his nose in with a 3-wide attack, sending Strickland backward and leaving Beal and Prentice to go at it in a side-by-side battle. Beal used a restart with 10 to go as his one chance to nose ahead of Chapman, but he couldn’t be deterred. Chapman is now 3 for 3 in the division.
Christian Herman got to the early lead in the Mini Stocks after a side-by-side battle with polesitter Nick Pappacoda. John Bavolacco was the first to clear traffic on his quest to the front, with David Lee and Chris Garside the next to work past Herman with the aid of a caution flag. With ten on the board, Garside started pecking away at Bavolacco that we’ve grown used to seeing. Garside completed the pass and it looked to be in the record books until a caution with 5 to go reset the stage. The pair were locked in another duel and set up for another photo finish, except this time contact was made out of turn 4 and Garside slid across the line ahead of Bavolacco.
After a couple of weeks of hard luck, including the opener where he took “Blast Off” literally, PJ Evans capitalized on a 4 wide maneuver that shook up the INEX Legend Car field. Dylan Freeman and Evans led the field to green but it didn’t take long for Wade Oemcke and Jase Mongeon to try and pass the front row at the same time. The result would give Evans the clear lead holding off a strong Riley Paul for the entire caution-free event.
The first Open Street Stock race of the season was quickly greeted by a caution with an incident between Speedbowl regular Aaron Plemons and Chris Curtis. Ryan Lineham had to rebound from motor issues earlier in the day, but his car was on rails as he found himself in another zip code for much of the race. Behind him, Corey Hutchings and Chad Baxter fought hard for second until a caution late in the race gave Baxter a shot at his teammate for the win. Nothing would come of it and Andrew Gillis managed to pick off a battling Hutchings and Plemons to land himself on the podium for the first time at the Speedbowl.
Dylan Coutu picked up the win at his home track in the 37-lap Shane Hammond Memorial NEMA Lite feature, and Paul Scally won the 25-lap NEMA feature.
The Wild ‘n Wacky Wednesday season kicks off this week with our four divisions plus the American Vintage Modifieds Next week is headlined by a 50-lap Truck race and it’ll also be our first Compacts event of the season. Keep up with us at www.SpeedbowlCT.com, The New London-Waterford Speedbowl on Facebook, or @SpeedbowlCT on Instagram and X.
Unofficial Results
SK Modifieds® (35 Laps): 1. 25-Anthony Flannery[4]; 2. 21-Kyle James[1]; 3. 7-Jonathan Puleo[6]; 4. 11CT-Eric Berndt[7]; 5. 35-Andrew Molleur[11]; 6. 9-Paul Buzel[8]; 7. 81-Todd Owen[5]; 8. 8CT-RJ Marcotte[2]; 9. 94-Justin Gaydosh[15]; 10. 09-Brian Norman[12]; 11. 15-Jeff Fialkovich[13]; 12. 81X-Joshua Zentek[14]; 13. 22RI-Carl Kivisto[10]; 14. 72-Adam Gada[3]; 15. 47-Timmy Jordan[9]
Late Models (30 Laps): 1. 17-Jason Palmer[3]; 2. 31-Brody Monahan[5]; 3. 10-Ryan Lineham[4]; 4. 2DJ-Douglas Curry[2]; 5. 31CT-Ray Christian III[8]; 6. 35-Andrew Molleur[9]; 7. 03-Derek Gluchacki[6]; 8. 50RI-Michael Benevides[1]; 9. 78-Emma Monahan[11]; 10. 33-Jaret Curtis[7]; 11. 88-Chase Curtis[10]; 12. 32-Paul Heard[12]; 13. (DNS) 9-Keith Scalia
Trucks (25 Laps): 1. 81-Tyler Chapman[6]; 2. 30-Charles Beal[4]; 3. 77-Troy Prentice[7]; 4. 12-Ed Ryan Jr[12]; 5. 54-Cameron Varricchio[8]; 6. 84JR-Brad Strickland[2]; 7. 07-Austin Long[13]; 8. 99-Milania Shilosky[3]; 9. 30CT-Sam Mesick[5]; 10. 25-David Venice[9]; 11. 33-Jake Coutu[1]; 12. 16MA-Doug Rioux[11]; 13. 6X-Andrew Pellegrini[10]; 14. 7-Kassy Prentice[14]; 15. (DNS) 20-Joe Bavolacco
Mini Stocks (25 Laps): 1. 83-Christopher Garside[8]; 2. 42-John Bavolacco[4]; 3. 19-David Dorr[5]; 4. 25-Charles Canfield[3]; 5. 49-Christian Herman[2]; 6. 88-Bill Sylvia[13]; 7. 28-Erica Canfield[10]; 8. 16-Tim Dorr[7]; 9. 6-Nicholas Pappacoda[1]; 10. 11-Jason Kokoszka[9]; 11. 24-Brad Caddick[11]; 12. 22-Hailey Beal[17]; 13. 46-John Curry Jr[12]; 14. 81-Stacey Zentek[14]; 15. 12-Ben Sullivan[15]; 16. 23-Matt Pinson[16]; 17. 50-David Lee[6]
INEX Legend Cars (25 Laps): 1. 12X-PJ Evans[2]; 2. 91-Riley Paul[4]; 3. 21X-Jacob Burns[6]; 4. 19MA-Jase Mongeon[5]; 5. 05-Dylan Freeman[1]; 6. 65-Wade Oemcke[3]; 7. 77-Dennis Pantani[7]; 8. 56-Richard Regan Jr[9]; 9. 7X-Patrick Smith[8]; 10. 26-Sydney Cook[10]
Open Street Stocks (25 Laps): 1. 19-Ryan Lineham[2]; 2. 10-Chad Baxter[3]; 3. 77-Andrew Gillis[6]; 4. 36-Corey Hutchings[1]; 5. 67-Aaron Plemons[5]; 6. 33-Mike Caprio[7]; 7. 49-Josh Bercham[8]; 8. 38-Jon Porter[10]; 9. 21-Tom Musante[11]; 10. 26-Chris Curtis[4]; 11. (DNS) 30-Charles Beal
NEMA (Top 5) 1. Paul Scally; 2. Dylan Rock; 3. Avery Stoehr; 4. Mike Horn; 5. Randy Cabral
NEMA Lites (Top 5) 1. Dylan Coutu; 2. Joey Bailey; 3. Randy Cabral; 4. Ryan Macarteny; 5. Kyle Valeri
Sources: Mitch Bombard/New London-Waterford Speedbowl PR
(photos by TK Race Photos)
2813 – 4 wide move on lap 1 of Legends. inside to outside, Jase Mongeon, Wade Oemcke, Dylan Freeman, PJ Evans
2925 – Chris Garside (83) and John Bavolacco (42) fight it out in Mini Stocks
3065 – Tyler Chapman (81) holds off an attack from Charles Beal (30)
3191 – Kyle James (21) and Anthony Flannery (25)’s brief battle for the SK modified® lead
3403 – Jason Palmer (17) and Brody Monahan (31)’s battle for late models