MacMichael Celebrates Two In A Row
By Dan Byrne
WINCHESTER,NH—It was a beautiful day on Saturday at Monadnock Speedway following the disappointment of being washed out last week just before the event got going. This week, the Valenti Modified Racing Series came to town for the Victor Johnson Memorial 100 race.
All six of the regular weekly divisions also competed on Saturday.
In the Young Guns 15 lap feature, Alexander Pearl took the lead and never looked back, capturing his 2nd win of the year by a big margin over 2nd place Daniel Starkweather. Jaret Curtis, Chase Curtis, and Chris Buffone rounded out the field of 12-15 year olds.
“The car ran good today,” Pearl said, “I’m really happy with it.”
Richard Whipple captured his first win in the Lightning Stock division. Whipple walked away with the win after starting on the pole. He finished ahead of a hard charging Mike Stebbins who came across the line 2nd. Kris Kristolaitis, CJ Johnson, and Tim Paquette finished in a dead heat for third through fifth place.
“I heard them back there,” Whipple said, “They were close.”
Whipple summed up his feelings about the race in a single word, “Awesome.”
The Mini Stock main event featured a handful of cautions for various wrecks and spins. Point leader Eric Pomasko had an unfortunate incident where he spun and hit the backstretch wall. Cameron Sontag was also forced to retire after being involved in another wreck when Louis Mahar bounced off the wall then making contact with Sontag.
At the front, Matt Kimball wheeled his #50 car around to a first place finish ahead of Matt Gauffin in the #68. Solomon Brow finished third as he outran Ethan Marsh and Julia Raymond.
The Thunder Stocks dropped the green flag and Paul Barnard was leading James Nowakowski, but it didn’t take long for Marshal Usher to work his way to the front of the field.
With Usher out front, David Greenslit had to knife his way through the field to run down the point’s leader. It took Greenslit a few laps to work his way through the traffic and run down Usher, but the green #20 was right on the back bumper Usher’s #11 by the time the white flag dropped. With one lap to claim victory, Usher out ran Greenslit to capture the win. Craig Chaffee got around Barnard and Nowakowski to nab a podium finish in third place.
Super Stocks came out next and Chris Curtis was on a rail. Nobody was touching the #26 car as Curtis didn’t have much trouble finding victory lane. It got a little close at the end with a late caution, but Curtis held on for the win. Not even MRS driver Woody Pitkat, in the #03x could put a move on Curtis. Pitkat ran the Super Stock race as a warm up for the ACT Tour race he is running in a few weeks up at Loudon. Pitkat came in 2nd in the Super Stock race, and then had to get back to the pits for the VMRS race shortly after. Dennis Stange got by Tyler Leary to come home in third.
Following the Super Stocks, the Sportsman Mods came out for their 30 lap feature. Trevor Bleau had a good run at the front of the pack, but he was unable to hold off the speedy Scott MacMichael as the driver of the #7 car brought home the victory. Bleau was able to hold on for a second place finish as point leader Bill Kimball came from 8th starting position to put pressure on Bleau for 2nd. Keith Carzello came across the line in 4th place with Eric LeClair rounding out the top 5. It was an important win for MacMichael as he looks to get back into the chase for the points championship. Kimball did his part to hold onto his point lead, and Carzello did well to make sure he could still be mentioned among the contenders for the championship.
With the regular divisions out of the way, the track turned over to the Valenti Mods for their 100 lap Victor Johnson Memorial race. The race is held in memory of former Modified driver Victor Johnson, who tragically lost his life in 2011.
This year’s race was given extra incentive thanks to the efforts of Lisa Patnode, wife of driver Todd Patnode, who began reaching out over two months ago to obtain sponsorship for every lap, as well as special bonuses for certain positions every 5th lap, deemed “Johnson laps” since Victor Johnson drove the #5 car. With all her efforts, Lisa was able to raise the purse over $6,100.
That made the stakes even higher for the drivers who were set to embark on 100 laps of excitement. When it was all said and done, Les Hinckley stood victorious for the 18th time in his VMRS career, 5th win at the Monadnock Speedway. The race lasted just over 27 minutes and was slowed by only one caution.
Hinckley started on the pole and led for the first nine laps before being overtaken by Woody Pitkat.
Pitkat held the lead until lap 51 when he was passed by Hinckley once again. The Winsor Locks, CT driver never looked back and claimed victory at the track where a year ago, he suffered an injury that required neck surgery. Being cleared to race again, Hinckley wanted nothing more than to see victory at Monadnock.
“They cleared me to race a month ago and I didn’t want to race anywhere else.” He said, “I wanted to come back here,” explained Hinckley.
“Can’t race every week it’s just not in the plans. We could have gone to Beech Ridge or Waterford but it had to be here (Monadnock).”
It couldn’t have been a more idealistic return to racing for Hinckley as he claimed victory ahead of Todd Patnode, Russ Hersey, Todd Szegedy, and Woody Pitkat.
Racing returns to Mondnock next Saturday when the Pro 4 Modfieds join the weekly Whelan All-American divisions, racing starts at 6PM.
Sportsman Modifieds Finish: Scott MacMichael, Trevor Bleau, Bill Kimball, Keith Carzello, Eric Leclair, Ben Byrne, Nathan Johnson, Brett Gonyaw, Kim Rivet, Rich Hammann, Casey Ouellette, Ray Grassetti, Jason Barden, Brian Robie, Dana Smith,
Super Stock Finish: Chris Curtis, Woody Pitkat, Dennis Stange, Tyler Leary, Ken Springer, Joe Bates, Scott Beck, Nancy Muni, Glen Noll, Jimmy Beck, James Thompsom, Tyler Leary, Joel Monahan
Mini Stock Finish: Matt Kimball, Matt Gauffin, Solomon Brow, Ethan Marsh, Julia Raymond, DJ Lazelle, Mike McGoldrick, Kevin McKnight, Louie Maher, Eric Pomasko, Cameron Sontag, Joel Monahan
Thunder Stock Finish: Marshall Usher, Dave Greenslit, Craig Chaffee, James Nowakowski, Paul Barnard, Ben Williams, Dan Comeau, Paul Smith, Michelle Leh, Richard Vincent, Chris Lawrence
Lightning Stocks: Richard Whipple, Mike Stebbins, Kris Kristolaitis, CJ Johnson, Tim Paquette, Jim drew, Pat Houle, Eric Silvernale, Steve Fucile, Hillary Renaud, Tim LeBlanc, Sonja Carey, George Morgan, Bill Elliot, Matt Croteau
Young Guns: Alexander Pearl, Dan Starkweather, Jaret Curtis, Chase Curtis, Chris Buffone