Mother Nature Forces Double Sportsman Mod Features
By Dan Byrne
WINCHESTER—Racing resumed on Saturday at the Monadnock Speedway as the weeks in the season roll by. With just 2 weeks remaining, next weeks’ events will determine the final point standings of the NASCAR Whelen All-American divisions. This past week the skies were threatening all day, but credit the race crew for getting things ready in a timely manner as the green flag dropped at 6PM.
The heats all went off without a hitch, making for some fun, exciting racing. The New England Champ Kart series was there with a few of their drivers putting on a fun show for the crowd.
With the skies looking ominous after the heats, they wasted no time getting the Young Guns out on the track for their feature.
The 15 lap event saw six cars in competition, but the return of Alexander Pearl spelled doom for the rest of the drivers. Pearl was not present for last week’s race, but in the three previous weekends, nobody was even remotely in his time zone.
To the demise of the competition, Pearl’s return meant a return to the top of the podium for his #43. Once again, Pearl dominated as he cruised to his fourth consecutive victory.
After picking up his 4th win, track announcer asked if school kept Pearl from coming to the track last week to which he said, “No, I just decided to take a break.”
Pearl hopes to be back out there for the next two weeks of racing to close out the season.
The NE Champ Karts came out and ran a 15 lap feature race between 4 cars. John Berger came home in first place after a spin on lap 12 saw the yellow come out and put Berger in 1st position where he held onto the win.
The Mini Stock feature came out next, and it was Matt Kimball who out ran rookie Matt Gauffin and Julia Raymond to claim his 2nd victory.
“This one feels great because I actually passed the leader for the win,” said Kimball in victory lane.
Joel Monahan finished behind Raymond for fourth while Cameron Sontag held off Mike Stebbins for 5th place.
The next race was the 25 lap Thunder Stock main even that saw David Greenslit take home his second win in a row.
Greenslit had a strong car but had to make his way through the field to get to the front. He made his way around Paul Barnard and Chris Riendeau before passing by Dan Comeau for third.
Greenslit’s push for the points title was handed a boost when points leader and defending champion Marshall Usher’s transmission blew, forcing him into the infield where he retired from the race, Usher got credit for a 14th place finish.
With Usher’s car down, Greenslit got around Craig Chaffee for the lead and never looked back.
With one points race left, Greenslit has an inside track on the 2015 title.
“It sucks for Marshall; we were going to have a tight battle going into next week. We were back six heading into tonight,” Greenslit said in reference to the points title, “We should be leading now.”
The final race of the night ended up being the next race. As the Super Stocks came out onto the track a light rain began to fall. They dropped the green flag and ended up running a tight, competitive race. Chris Riendeau took 4th in the Thunder Stock race, but came out and put in an even more impressive performance for the Super Stocks, finishing second.
Despite his best efforts Riendeau didn’t have enough to outlast Joel Monahan, who took his #03 to victory lane for the second consecutive week.
Monahan mentioned the track conditions worsening due to the growing amount of precipitation falling from the sky. “I got here as fast as I could,” he said following his win.
As the victory lane ceremony concluded, the skies opened up. Before the Sportsman Mods could get out for their feature, the track was forced to make the call to postpone the rest of the evening.
Due to the rain, next week’s events will contain double features for the Sportsman Modified division plus Super Stocks, Mini Stocks, Thunder Stocks, Lightning Stocks, Young Guns, NE Classic Lites, and Vintage Outlaws.
Young Guns: Alex Pearl, Justin Littlewood, Dylan Morse, hailey Guy, Shelby Avery, Dan Starkweather
Mini Stocks: Matt Kimball, Matt Gauffin, Julia Raymond, Joel Monahan, Cameron Sontag, Mike Stebbins, DJ Lazelle, Eric Pomasko, Kevin McKnight, Solomon Brow, Mike McGodrick, Ethan Marsh
Thunder Stocks: Dave Greenslit, Craig Chafee, Dan Comeau, Chris Riendeau, Paul Barnard, James Nowakowski, Ken Thompson, Joe Ethier, Paul Smith, Chris Lawrence, Evan Burke, Tyler Janovsky, Michelle Leh, Caleb Cashman, Marshall, Richard Vincent
Super Stocks: Joel Monahan, Chris Reindeau, Tyler Leary, Dennis Stange, Tyler Lescord, Joe Brown, Craig Smith, Scott Beck, Cole Littlewood, James Beck, Nancy Muni, James Thompson, Ken Springer, John Lavoie,