North Woodstock, NH- Brad Babb held off a hard charging Jeremy Davis in a caution-riddled event to pick up his second win of the season in the Fadden General Store 100 at White Mountain Motorsports Park (WMMP).
The largest field of the year saw 32 cars fight to get into the inaugural Fadden General Store 100. After the inversion, Bobby Nadeau and Barry Gray led the field to green at the head of the 24 car pack to begin the race. Gray would overtake Nadeau and lead the first few laps, before the first of 12 cautions came out for Nadeau, as the Buxton, Maine driver spun on lap 15. That would pit veteran against young-blood as Gray would see Babb on his outside on the restart. Babb took the lead on lap 16, and would fend off Gray’s multiple challenges on restarts, including a hard hit by 2012 champion Bobby Cabral head-on into the wall, until Jeremy Davis nabbed the second spot, setting up a good battle between two feature winners on the 2014 season. Davis and Babb had the cars to beat, as on every restart the two would rocket in front of the rest of the field, and at one point enjoyed a 10 car-length lead over the rest of the pack.
The championship standings shook up when Matt Frahm and Quinny Welch tangled in turn one at the mid-point of the race. The incident left both cars disabled, and Frahm’s point lead unofficially relinquished as a result.
Babb and Davis would engage in battle on every restart, and Davis would fight multiple times on the outside groove, but would fall back in line eventually, trying to save his car for the end of the race. The field scattered on lap 73, when Barry Gray spun in turn one, sending the field in multiple directions, with George Bessette and Larry Gelinas suffering damage, as well as George Helliwell ending up perpendicular to the wall.
Things really began to heat up on the restart, as Babb and Davis made contact in turn one, sending Davis into the third groove, and eventually back to the 8th position. Davis would turn the burners on, passing multiple cars with a head of steam, and using an incident between Richie Dearborn and Michael Lavoie, who were running third and fourth at the time, and set up a 6 lap shootout between Babb and Davis. Babb proved to be too strong, as he motored to the win, becoming the first repeat winner in the 2014 season.
“This was a race I was really looking forward to,” an excited Babb said after the race. “I knew we were going to have a good shot at the win tonight. There was a lot of outsiders that showed up, and I knew it was going to be tough, but it feels amazing to win at one of my favorite tracks.” Babb also apologized to Davis in victory lane for the incident on the track, but was glad Davis fought his way back up to challenge him for the lead one more time. On becoming the first repeat winner in the 2014 season in the Granite State Pro Stock Series, Babb isn’t settling for just two wins on the season. “It’s cool, but it will be real cool win I win (the World Series) at Thompson.”
Davis, who settled for the second spot, was disappointed with the result. “I had been saving behind Brad (Babb), and trying to have something left to take him at the end, but I had to use it up coming back up through the field,” Davis explained. “I got a good jump on him on the restart, I don’t know, I didn’t cut down, he got into the left rear, and I barely kept it off the backstretch wall. I just tried to keep it going.” Davis was on fire, cutting up through the field after the incident to challenge Babb once more. “I just had to use everything I had saved up the entire race. I still had a little bit left, but by the time I got back up to him, I had nothing left. I wasn’t going to wreck him, I’m better than that.”
Dillon Moltz quietly kept his car clean, and was rewarded with a third place finish, even with mechanical troubles. “We had no power steering since lap 2. We had a good car all day long, got a bad draw in the heat, and then just methodically picked our way through to the front in the feature,” Moltz remarked. “Once my spotter told me Frahm wrecked, we just had to be smart and use our head. We did have a decent car, but I don’t know if we had anything for the 4 (Babb), and the 09 (Davis) was fast too. We just wanted to make it a solid night for us.”
Youngster Derek Griffith survived to finish fourth after scattering to avoid race cars on lap 73. Tommy O’Sullivan picked up his best finish of the year, securing the fifth spot. Zig Geno and Larry Gelinas, who started in the back row, finished 6th and 7th respectively. Craig Weinstein, Mike Parks, and George Bessette rounded out the top 10. Trevor Sanborn, who qualified the number 37 for Gelinas as the Buxton, Maine driver competed in the Bond Auto ACT Invitational at NHMS earlier in the day, Weinstein, Parks and Dearborn picked up heat wins. Tommy O’Sullivan picked up the win in the consi.