Winchester—This weekend Monadnock Speedway’s run of good weather came to an end, but not before some racing happened down on the track. This weekend, the NEMA Midgets and NEMA Lites were in town as well as the NE Racing Trucks.
Prior to the commencement of the heats, the Iron Mike Scrivani Memorial Ceremony was held down on the track remembering the former NEMA stalwart and father of NEMA President and supporter, Mike Scrivani Jr.
With clouds gathering to the south, the race crew had things working in high gear to get laps done at speed. In rapid fashion the heats rolled out, and in less than an hour all of them were completed. It was a mark of efficiency on both the track and drivers parts that allowed the heats to get finished with little delay. Knowing that time was of the essence, the Speedway team wasted no time in sending the Young Guns out for their feature.
It was a race right from the drop of the green, as Mariah Stebbins held the top spot. At the front, #10 Mariah Stebbins had the fastest racecar, the question was if she’d be able to hold onto it and keep Justin Littlewood’s #37 at bay. As the laps clicked off, Littlewood tried all he could to get around Stebbins, but the little orange #10 was just too quick getting out of the corners. As the checkered flag waved, Littlewood came across just behind Stebbins, with the #43 of Alexander Pearl coming in a close third in his first race.
Stebbins was excited to claim her first victory of her career, following in her father Mike’s footsteps as he’s visited the winner’s circle a number of times throughout the years.
“It was the best thing I could have done,” Stebbins said after she got out of her car following the victory.
She was grateful for her father’s wisdom saying, “My Dad always has tips for me, after every practice.”
Justin Littlewood was after his 4th win of the season, but came up just one spot shy finishing 2nd to Stebbins.
“It didn’t happen but it was a good race,” Littlewood said about capturing win number four.
Alexander Pearl brought home a third place in his debut visit to the track for the Cliff Nelson Motorsports #43. He thanked his parents, team and sponsors as well as the Littlewood brother’s for helping him set the car up.
Following the Young Guns the NEMA Lites came out to speed things up for the fans in attendance. In a clean race, Anthony Nocella brought the #76 machine around fastest to finish in 1st place. He had checked out from the field as Jim Chambers and Randy Cabral battled it out for 2nd and 3rd.
Cabral was fighting a loose car all day until he made some adjustments that tightened her up, “I’ll take it,” Cabral said of his third place finish.
Jim Chambers was slated to run the Midgets race later, and was anticipating being a little worn down from the Lites race, “I like when we run the NEMA first before the Lites so I have my arms for the fast car,” he said.
“We always seem to go good here,” Chambers went on, “It’s definitely a tricky track but it’s great for these Midgets, we love it.”
Anthony Nocella gave credit to his crew setting up the car, “We were off a little bit all day, but pretty good. It just seems like they always know what to do for the race, they gave me the perfect car.”
With a full docket of racing still expected, the Mini Stocks followed the Lites onto the track for their 25 lap feature.
Caution flew early in the Mini Stock race, with the #8x of Ethan Marsh spinning and not being able to get going again quickly enough. Eventually the field sorted itself out once back under green with the #50 of Matt Kimball leading the pack. There was some good racing for position in the pack between the #03, #04, and #33 of Joel Monahan, Justin Faford and Solomon Brow. It was Brow who got the spot at the line, coming across in 4th with Faford 5th and Monahan 6th.
The race was halted for a caution just before the half way point when Brow running in third came down and made contact with Gauffin in turn two sending Brow into a spin. On the restart it was Gauffin and Raymond battling it for second. With just a few laps remaining, the #62 and #68 running hard for position both spun into the infield.
At the checkers, surviving three caution restarts, it was rookie Matt Kimball followed by#13 of Cameron Sontag and DJ Lazelle in the #8 to take home the win.
“The car ended up good today, it wasn’t tight or loose. It handled alright and it stayed on the bottom,” Kimball said.
A week ago, Kimball was in position to bring home a win when he was turned in the closing laps, this week it worked out the other way for him.
“This week was a little different,” Kimball said, “We needed some redemption.”
Redemption was had as the 13 year old driver grabbed his first win in a NASCAR Whelan All-American Series Division.
At the conclusion of the Mini Stocks, rain settled in right before the NE Race Trucks and a short time later the announcement was made that racing had been suspended for the night. Next week, when racing resumes it will be a night of double features for the Sportsman Mods, Super Stocks, and Thunder Stocks, plus 25 laps of Mini Stocks, 25 lap Lightning Stock, 15 lap Young Gun & Vintage Outlaws as the track is set to host the 2015 Open Track Party & Heroes Of Yester-Year night with the on track party at 5PM and racing action set to begin at 6PM.
Young Gun Results: Mariah Carey, Justin Littlewood, Alexander Pearl, Chris Sontag, Shelby Avery, Dan Starkweather, Hailey Guy
Mini Stocks Results: Matt Kimball, Cameron Sontag, DJ Lazelle, Solomon Brow, Justin Faford, Joel Monahan, Kevin McKnight, Mike McGoldrick, Eric Pomasko, CJ Johnson, Matt Gauffin, Julia Raymond, Ethan Marsh