Hudson NH – The 7th annual Don Hayes Memorial was held this past Sunday evening at Hudson Speedway. Hayes was a pioneer in local racing photography/videography with a career spanning 7 decades at Hudson Speedway from the late 1940s until his death in 2002. This years edition of the Hayes Memorial was expanded from a Roadrunner event to include the Northeast Classic Lite main.
The Roadrunner portion of the Don Hayes Memorial was a two segment event with the lowest combined total determining the winner.
The 1st segment was 20 laps and went green to checker. Louis Maher started last in the 19 car field and steadily moved up, going three wide at times taking over the top spot with five laps to go and drove his Honda over the stripe 1st. Jef James had the early lead in the 15 lap 2nd segment until Maher took command and headed to victory. By winning both segments Maher was clearly the overall winner. Don Mayo finished second overall. Third through tenth overall were James, Gary Stagliola, Eric Pomasko, Patrick D’Alba, Jesse Tellier, Eric Miller, Tom Hamilton and Tim Griffin.
Paul Colson held the lead early in the Classic Lite portion of the Don Hayes Memorial. Lap 4 saw Eric Bacon going backwards off the backstretch into the brush needing help from the wrecker crew to get his mount out and back on its way.
A few restarts later a few cars got crossed up coming off turn 4 ending with Jon Provost doing a double barrel roll in front of the crowd. Provost walked away as his car was towed to the pits.
Billy Ryder had the lead when racing resumed but Bacon had already made his way up to 2nd and Jeremy Wilcox had moved into 3rd. Bacon slipped past Rider taking Wilcox with him. Bacon got a good jump on a late race restart and led the rest of the way. Wilcox had to settle for 2nd and Ryder 3rd. Fourth through tenth were Dennis O’Brien, Jeff Miller, Ralph Cook, Eddie Gilman, Roger Provost, Danny Shields and Tom McGowan.
Jerry Lepage led his usual 5 laps at the beginning of the Rookie Stock Main until Scotty Duval took over the point. Dean Wendell moved up to challenge Duval and got by after a few laps in the outside lane leaving Duval to battle with John Morin and Corrie Merritt for 2nd and 3rd. Duval and Meritt made contact a few times in the closing laps ending with Merritt spinning out of 3rd place in the last corner of the last lap. Wendell picked up his 2nd win of the season. Morin finished 2nd with Duval being penalized for rough driving and Lepage finished 3rd. Fourth through tenth were Brian Harron, Heath Tulrtelotte, Mark Nevers, Ryan Destephan, Larry Fortin, Andy Nichols and Corrie Merritt.
Dylan Bilodeau made it two wins in a row in the Thunder Lite feature followed by Bobby Stirk lll, Derek Griffith, Sam Gilman and Jen Lord.
Derrick Poutre won the Spectator Drags. Keith Cabral won the Spectator Race and Buddy Wilkins won the Flagpole Race.
“Awesome August” continues next Sunday August 23rd with the Outlaw Sportsman, Rookies, Roadrunners, Thunder Lites, Spectator Race, Spectator Drags, Flagpole Race and Enduros. Gates open at 4pm and the first race begins at 6pm. For more info please visit www.hudsonspeedway.info.