D’Agostino Wins ALNRS Race at Adirondack
Newburgh, NY — The ALNRS made their first of three stops to the half mile Adirondack Int. Speedway in Lowville, NY this past weekend. After being off for several weeks the ALNRS teams were eager to get back to action. With only one heat race on the schedule the 14 car field took to the track for their qualifying race. At the drop of the green the #8 of Michael Vasquez Sr. of Newburgh, NY who was on the outside pole position had a little trouble getting his KMV Racing & V-Twin Performance Ford Thunderbird into high gear and caused the field to stack up behind him. With a slight tap from behind the #8 found himself spinning down the front stretch making slight contact with the front stretch wall. With a complete restart the field once again took the green. The battle up front was between several of the series top drivers who began jockeying for position. At the end of the 10 lap qualifier it would be the #44 of Dighton, MA driver James Logan taking the top spot followed by Somers, CT driver Cody Gneiting and Taunton, MA Driver Shane D’Agostino. Rounding out the top five was current points leader Paul Tuthill of Washingtonville, NY followed by Bennington, NH driver Kyle Poodiack who started on the pole.
The first 3 laps of the feature would see Logan, Tuthill, Gneiting, D’Agostino and East Haddam, CT driver Eric Bourgeois battle for the top five postions. On lap 4 Tuthill decided to test his #81 Interstate Batteries sponsored Ford Thunderbird against Adirondacks version of a safer barrier, has he bounced his car off the large foam blocks lining the front stretch wall. After a brief caution to clean up the debris the field was back racing again. There would be green flag racing from lap 5 until lap 22 when a spin by the #9 of aDP Rivet Rookie of the Year Contender Emily Packard of East Montpelier, VT would bring out the second caution of the night. As they say cautions breed cautions and on lap 24 the 89 of Gneiting would spin as he battled for the lead with the front of the pack. On the restart the field would be stacked up again when for the second time of the evening Vasquez was unable to find fourth gear. Everyone was able to get around Vasquez and continue racing. At this point the battle was for second between the #44 of Logan and the #88 of Bourgeois. The 79 of D’Agostino who took the top spot on lap 15 checked out and cruised to his first feature win of the 2009 season. At the checkers the 79 was followed by Logan and Bourgeois. Rounding out the top 5 was Poodiack and Gneiting, who battled back from his earlier spin. The hard charger of the night went to rookie driver Sean Murphy of Mainard, MA, who had his best finish of his rookie season moving up from his13th place starting position and coming in 6th. This after being involved in a hard crash during the second round of practice.
Next on the schedule the ALNRS returns to the fastest quarter mile in the east as they return to Monadnock Speedway for their second of six stops.
Sources: ALNRS PR