{"id":23535,"date":"2018-06-28T15:20:10","date_gmt":"2018-06-28T19:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/?p=23535"},"modified":"2018-06-28T15:20:10","modified_gmt":"2018-06-28T19:20:10","slug":"olsen-collects-first-ever-x-car-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/2018\/06\/olsen-collects-first-ever-x-car-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Olsen collects first-ever X-Car win"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Olsen collects first-ever X-Car win
\nO\u2019Sullivan, Shafer nail down back-to-back wins
\nHarkin back on winning pace in Banoleros<\/strong><\/p>\n

WATERFORD \u2014 Steven Olsen knew he had some firepower to throw at the field in Wednesday\u2019s X-Car race at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl. He just didn\u2019t know how much.<\/p>\n

Olsen, however, had enough speed to get by Josh Cicio with eight laps to go en route to his first-ever X-Car win.<\/p>\n

On other action on Wild and Wacky Wednesday, Marc Shafer survived an assault from Dave Yardley over the final two laps to land his second straight Super-X car win, John O\u2019Sullivan held off Peter Bennett and Mike Blaskey to win a rain-shortened Legends feature. And Maddie Harkin charged back into the winner\u2019s circle with a dominating performance in the Bandolero feature.
\n<\/p>\n

The 25-lap X-Car showdown was a battle of two underdogs, Olsen and Josh Cicio, who had not been on the podium all season.
\nCicio surged into the lead early and gashed open a plush advantage, but Olsen pulled even with 10 laps to go. Then he roared into the lead two laps later.
\n\u201cI knew I had something in practice,\u201d Olsen said. \u201cBut my transponder in the car wasn\u2019t working, so I didn\u2019t know how much I had. But it turns out, I had a hot rod.\u201d
\nCorey Caddick finished third, but also took over the point lead from Eddie Loomis, who was forced to leave the race with car trouble and finished 18th.
\nAfter Mitch Bombard dominated the early part of the 25-lap Super X-Car feature, Shafer\u2019s car came to life and he took the lead. Dave Yardley, who was running second, however, never faded away. The two drivers made contact several times over the final handful of laps, especially during a green-white-checker finish, but Yardley could not stop Shafer\u2019s momentum.
\n\u201cActually, I have to thank Dave Yardley for running me clean,\u201d Schaefer said. \u201cI don\u2019t mind rubbing and riding, and that\u2019s what happened tonight.\u201d
\nO\u2019Sullivan beat Mike Blaskey on a restart with 10 laps to go, then handled Peter Bennett on another restart with 9 laps to go.
\nThen O\u2019Sullivan left the rest to Mother Nature. The race was called by rain with 17 of the 25 laps completed.
\n\u201cI\u2019m glad the rains came now, because I don\u2019t know if we could have held Blaskey and Bennett for much longer,\u201d O\u2019Sullivan said. \u201cThey were tough.\u201d
\nBennett finished second and Blaskey third.
\nHarkin led every lap of the 20-lap Bandolero feature for her third win of the season. Harkin also took sole control of first place in the standings.
\nEmma Monahan stayed close to Harkin for the entire race, but could not get by on the outside. Tyler Alkas finished third.
\nRacing resumes Saturday at the Speedbowl with the 35-lap Summer Showdown Legends race, worth more than $2,000 to the winner.
\nAlso on the card is the 80-lap SK Modified Blast Off race that was originally scheduled for May 6. The SK Lite Modifieds, the Speedbowl Trucks, the Sportsmen and the Mini Stocks round out the action. Qualifying gets under way at 4:45 p.m. with features to follow. Light<\/p>\n

25-lap Super-X: 1. Marc Shafer, Groton; 2. Dave Yardley, Berlin; 3. Peter Martin, Plainville; 4. DennyLee Hoffman, Westbrook; 5. Donald Berge, Uncasville; 6. Keith Brown, Griswold; 7. Aaron Plemons, Uncasville; 9. Mitch Bombard, Willimantic; 9. Jeremy Wasburn, N\/A; 10. Jay Clement. Wethersfield.
\n25-lap X-Cars: 1. Steven Olsen, Essex; 2. Josh Cicio, Seymour; 3. Corey Caddick, Richmond, R.I.; 4. Christopher Lee, Oakdale; 5. Dylan DeCoster, Waterford; 6. Bill Rheaume, Uncasville; 7. Eric Finkbein Sr., Columbia; 8. CP Burdick, Deep River; 9. Chuck McDonald, Groton; 10. Matt Westover, Charleston, R.I..
\n17-lap Legends: 1. John O\u2019Sullivan, Salem; 2. Peter Bennett, Cromwell; 3. Michael Blaskey, Bethany; 4. Colin Haley, Ashford; 5. Brandon Martinez, North Kingston, R.I.; 6. Mason Levesque, Dighton, Mass.; 7. Dennis Pantani, Branford; 8. Devon Jencik, Canton; 9. Jason Palmer, Berlin; 10. Tyler Paslmer, Watertown.
\n20-lap Bandoleros: 1. Maddie Harkin, Portsmouth, R.I.; 2. Emma Monahan, Waterford; 3. Tyler Alkas, Berlin; 4. Nicholas Hovey, Chaplin; 5. PJ Evans, Uncasville; 6. Ethan Simmons, Pawcatuck; 7. Teddy Welch, Griswold; 8. Sawyer Reiss, Guilford; 9. Ari Jencik, Canton; 10. Conor Jencik, Canton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Olsen collects first-ever X-Car win O\u2019Sullivan, Shafer nail down back-to-back wins Harkin back on winning pace in Banoleros WATERFORD \u2014 Steven Olsen knew he had some firepower to throw at the field in Wednesday\u2019s X-Car race at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl. He just didn\u2019t know how much. Olsen, however, had enough speed to get by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connecticut","category-waterford-speedbowl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23535"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23537,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23535\/revisions\/23537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}