Hudson NH – John Morin Jr. won the “Mighty”Mike Lewis Memorial race on Sunday evening August 29th at Hudson International Speedway. Lewis was a longtime Hudson/Star competitor who tragically lost his life in a garage accident while prepping his Street Stock for racing at Star in 1998. While he was a warm and caring individual off the track, on the track he had a “take no prisoners” style that many times put him and his cars, usually numbered with the Dale Earnhardt copyrighted #3, in victory lane. Lewis was the 1992 Strictly Stock Champion at Hudson, which was an epic season-long clash with Dean Weber, remembered by longtime speedway fans as one of best ever.
The race was held in three segments. The first two segments were fifteen laps each and the last one was ten laps. The first two segments set the starting grid for the ten lap shootout.
Scott Duval won the first segment. Steve Dickey won the second segment that included a frightening wreck when Chris Augevitch got sent into the backstretch tire barrier and flipping roof first into a tree. Augevitch was not injured. Morin Jr. started on the outside pole in the last segment and led from green to checkers. Dickey finished second in a car he borrowed from John Swain. Third was Slika Ennis followed by Rosebud Shea, Dean Wendell, Duval, Heath Toutellotte, Jerry Lepage, Dan Murphy Jr. and Corrie Merritt.
Justin Beecher had the early lead in the Thunder Lights before Chad Wendell took over near the midway point of the race, but Beecher wasn’t going down that easy and came back to take back the lead from Wendell in the closing laps. The top two finished that way followed by Sammy Gilman, Nick Fissette, Jarrod Soucy, Megan Lord, Carlos Esquivel and John Daughenbaugh. Gilman won the heat.
Dave Helliwell won his third feature of the year in the Roadrunners. The rest of the top ten were Louie Maher, Jef James, Derek Griffith, Jason Carroll, Eric Miller, Matt Lombardi, Jesse Tellier, Jen Lord and Peter Raby.
Billy Ryder took the checkers first in the Classic Lites followed by George Helliwell, Jim Ryder Jr., Dwayne Skofield, Shane Reinhold, Eddie Gilman, Jeff Gilman, Danny Shields, Dan Shields, and Paul Colson.
Keith Caruso took the top spot in the V-6 Modifieds followed by Chris Keubler, Louie Maher, Wayne Brooks Jr. and Eric Vilandre.
Paul Perreira won the Spectator Drags, Robert Burke won the Flagpole Race and Steve Laplante won the Spectator Race.
Next weekend is back to afternoon racing with cards on both Sunday and Labor Day Monday. On Sunday it’s the Outlaw Sportsman and V-6 Modifieds along with Rookies, Roadrunners, Thunder Lights, Spectator Race, Spectator Drags and Flagpole Race. On Monday it’s the Classic Lights plus Enduros, Rookies, Roadrunners, Thunder Lights, Spectator Race, Spectator Drags, Flagpole Race and Figure 8. Gates open at 11am and the first race is at 1pm. For more info please visit www.hudsonspeedway.info.