Winchester, NH. – It didn’t have the dramatic finish like last weeks race at Seekonk, but it had the same result, a large vocal crowd greeting the race winner, this time fan favorite 41-year veteran Dwight Jarvis, when he exited his race car. Jarvis had just won the annual Valenti Modified Racing Series sanctioned ‘Victor Johnson Memorial 100’ and the Monadnock Speedway crowd let him know they liked what they saw.
Jarvis, of Ascutney, Vermont, started 22nd in a 25-car field, worked his way to the front like he’s done many times. Maintaining tire usage, staying out of trouble, and passing cars when he felt it was time to go, Jarvis moved to third bringing the crowd alive and stayed there until a lap-71 restart when he slipped by Woody Pitkat to settle into second.
With heavy fog rolling in over the speedway, Jarvis used a lapped car to his advantage to pass Rowan Pennink of Huntingdon Valley, PA, on lap 93 to win his eighth career VMRS race. It was the sixth series win at Monadnock
Jarvis post race disclosed it was not an easy journey to victory lane. In fact it was old school. Vintage Dwight Jarvis.
“We didn’t start out to good. The battery was dead. The radio’s didn’t work right from lap one. Once in awhile I could hear Mike (Crew Chief Michael Weld) I could tell he was still trying to talk to me but this is awesome. I love winning this race and of course you all know I love this track. I don’t know how many more times I’ll be going around this but we enjoyed it tonight.”
With fog and staying in front the focus, Jarvis didn’t see the 10-laps to go sign from the flag stand. “ I just put it down to move forward.”
Pennink, the reigning series champion, finished runner up. “We had a good car. It went away on me at the end. I got a little bit free and Dwight got by me.”
Pitkat, of Stafford Springs, CT, finished third, after coming back from a crash two weeks ago at Waterford, CT. “ It’s certainly a better finish than we had at Waterford. We a had a good car there and it put us behind to have to fix it. Took last week off to come here to be the best we could. We started off a little bit tight figuring it would come around and it just never did.”
Max Zachem, of Preston, CT, pressured Pitkat to the finish and placed fourth, with Chris Pasteryak, of Jewett City, CT, fifth.
Sixth through tenth were, Kirk Alexander, who led the first 69-laps, Richard Savary, Russ Hersey, Jean Paul Cyr, and Rob Goodenough.
Eight caution flags were displayed over the 100-laps, two on false restarts. The race was completed in 57 minutes. 14 cars finished on the lead lap.