Bertrand, Stergios Take Down AMES True Value Night Wins at Wiscasset
Todd Bertrand beat back two-time champion John Zych Jr. on a restart with six laps to go to take down an impressive victory at Wiscasset Speedway this past Saturday night. In the Lites division, PJ Stergios romped through the field, and lapped all the way up to right outside of the top five, taking down an impressive NEMA Lites victory.
The evening started with time trials for the NEMA midgets. Randy Cabral set a blistering pace with a 13.050-second lap, one 100th off of John Zych Jr’s track record of 13.040 set earlier this season. Zych was second, followed by Avery Stoehr. An 8 car invert would start the three at the top of the points standings toward the rear of the field. Coming into the event, Zych had a mere 13 point lead over five-time Champion, Cabral.
Paul Scally in the Earth Movers #30 and Todd Bertrand in the K&N Engineering #74 brought the field to the green flag. Bertrand quickly jumped out into the lead. He quickly stretched out his lead to ten car lengths, but further back, John Zych Jr. was slicing through the field from his sixth starting spot, taking over the second position on the fourth lap from Alan Chambers. Zych quickly went to work, and started to narrow Bertrand’s lead to six car lengths at the halfway point, and at this point, five-time champion, Randy Cabral, had worked his way to third.
Zych got to within four car lengths of Bertrand, who appeared to be getting loose, when they approached the #99 of Jim Santa Maria. Santa Maria broke as the leaders went to lap him, and was avoided by only inches. The caution would fly, setting up a side by side restart for the finish.
After two failed restart attempts, Bertrand timed the last start perfectly, taking off and setting sail for the victory, never being seriously challenged over the final laps. Zych finished second, followed by Cabral, A. Chambers, Stoehr, Seth Carlson, Jim Santa Maria, Paul Scally, Doug Cleveland and Jim Chambers.
“I can’t thank my brother Tim (Bertrand) enough for the opportunity to drive his race car tonight. We decided to only bring two cars up to the event due to the travel expense, and I think we made the right call on this 74 car tonight. Aside from a right front tire that was going flat in the time trials, we never touched a bolt on this car all evening,” said Bertrand. “I knew John or Randy would likely be coming. We were really good, but I also know that you need to conserve tires here. I started backing up my corners with ten to go, in case there was a restart. I think it was the right call,” he concluded.
In the NEMA Lites race, a disastrous wreck involving Bethany Stoehr, Jim Cataldo, and Kevin Park occurred very early in the feature event. Stoehr’s tail tank was thrown over thirty feet from the scene of the wreck, and Cataldo’s car into the fence, destroyed. A red flag period saw a shaken Stoehr head to the ambulance to be checked out and was later released, with bruises, but was OK.
When the race resumed, PJ Stergios, who had charged from deep in the pack, took over the lead. Danny Cugini, also made an impressive run through the pack on the outside to get to the second spot.
Once in the lead, Stergios put on a clinic, lapping up to the sixth place car in the feature event, running times in the high 13-second range. He would never be seriously challenged en route to victory. Cugini finished second, and Jim Chambers rallied through the field for third.
Stergios took down the victory over, Cugini, points leader Jim Chambers, Ryan Locke, Randy Cabral, Anthony Payne, Jeremy Decourcey, Ben Mikitarian, Kevin Iannarelli, and Paul Scally
NEMA concludes its final two events of the season at the Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park for the World Series of Racing and at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl.
Pos. # Driver Hometown Owner
1 74 Todd Bertrand Danielson, CT Tim Bertrand
2 9 John Zych Jr. Mendon, MA John Zych Sr.
3 47 Randy Cabral Plymouth, MA Tim Bertrand
4 7 Alan Chambers Atkinson, NH Mike Chambers
5 15a Avery Stoehr Lakeville, MA Russ Stoehr
6 71 Seth Carlson Brimfield, CT Gene Feigel
7 99 Jim Santa Maria Burlington, CT Joe Santa Maria DNF
8 30 Paul Scally Raynham, MA Paul Scally DNF
9 77 Doug Cleveland Sudbury, MA Mike Luggelle DNS
10 Jim Chambers Jim Chambers
NEMA LITES – WISCASSET – 9/10/16
Pos. # Driver Hometown Owner
1 57 PJ Stergios Candia, NH Bill Stergios
2 51 Danny Cugini Marshfield, MA D. Cugini
3 12 Jim Chambers Atkinson, NH Jim Chambers
4 38 Ryan Locke Raymond, NH Ken Locke
5 35 Randy Cabral Plymouth, MA Glen Cabral
6 21 Anthony Payne Fairlawn, NJ Mike Scrivani
7 20 Jeremy Decourcy Rochester, NH Jeremy Decourcy
8 9 Ben Mikitarian Northborough, MA John Mikitarian
9 27 Kevin Iannarelli Maynard, MA Kevin Iannarelli
10 30 Paul Scally Raynham, MA Paul Scally
11 16 Dennis O”Brien Deerfield, NH Chris O’Brien
12 3 Chris Vosey Groversville, NY Chris Vosey
13 52 Kevin Park Foxboro, MA Kevin Park
14 15a Bethany Stoehr Lakeville, MA Russ Stoehr DNF
15 7 Jim Cataldo Sterling, MA Jim Cataldo DNF
16 17 Alan Chambers Atkinson, NH Mike Chambers DNF
Sources: Tim Bertrand/NEMA PR