RAINS AGAIN CURTAIL SPEEDWAY 95 PROGRAM for September 7
For the second week in a row, rain forced Speedway 95 officials to cut the program short before all scheduled racing was completed for the night. John Kalel II of Orrington won the Dysart’s Late Model feature postponed from last week by about a foot over defending champion Andy Saunders of Ellsworth. Kalel led every lap of the event from the pole to the checkers, but Saunders made a steady run from his mid pack starting spot, putting his car in the second spot on lap 22 of the 40 lap event after a lengthy battle for the position with Duane Seekins of Stockton Springs. After finally passing Seekins, Saunders steadily gained ground on Kalel, catching him as the two to go sign was shown by the flagman, Saunders was beside Kalel when the white flag flew, but Kalel hung on to his lead and beat Saunders to the checkers by a nose. Saunders finished second with Seekins finishing third. Rookie Andrew McLaughlin of Harrington took the fourth spot with Steuben’s Brenton Parritt finishing fifth.
Donny Silva of Hudson finished the Sport-Four feature in the first spot after taking the lead from Newburgh’s Darren Durrell on lap 12 following a side by side battle after a lap 8 restart. Durrell continued to pressure Silva for the remainder of the race, but settled for second spot at the checkers. Third went to Skowhegan’s Zach Audet, with points leader Ted Ryder of Carmel finishing in fourth. Bradley Dolan of Glenburn finished fifth after an exciting three way battle with Audet and Ryder for the third, fourth and fifth spots over the final 10 laps.
Kris Watson of Hermon was in victory lane in the Darling’s Ford Sportsman after passing rookie Bradley Smart of Bradley on lap 10 of the 25 lap feature and leading from there to the checkers. Last week’s winner Kris Matchett of Skowhegan also got by Smart to post a second place finish with Smart finishing in third. Fourth went to Milford’s Joe Leger, who started on the front row with Smart. Mike Overlock of Franklin finished fifth.
Scott Bonney of Bangor took the Bomber win in a race shortened by the rains, but called official with more than half the scheduled laps run when the race was stopped. Denis Burns of Carmel, driving a car borrowed from Star of Tomorrow driver William McCullough, finished in second with Mark Lane of Newport finishing third. Dustan Durrell of Newburgh and Trey Brown, both Stars of Tomorrow drivers moving up to the Bombers after their Wednesday night program closed for the season rounded out the top five in that order.
When racing resumes at the Hermon oval on Saturday, September 14 at 5:00 p.m., the Keystone Automotive Strictly Streets and the Dysart’s Late Models will run their rained out features prior to the beginning of the regularly scheduled program. Following those events, qualifying will begin for the regularly scheduled program which will include the Dysart’s Late Models, the Darling’s Ford Sportsman, the Keystone Automotive Strictly Streets, Sport-Fours and Bombers.