Photo by RPM 360
Wiscasset, ME – For the third of nine times in the 2015 season, the Amsoil NELCAR Legends Tour competitors travelled up the coast for a date with the fastest track in Maine, Wiscasset Speedway. After a week off, the drivers were eager to tear up the track once again, and finish out the month of May on a positive note. 15 cars lined the pit area for a chance to take home the trophy in the 25 lap main event.
Under the new format, heat race lineups have started to take shape, in an effort to make the feature more competitive and exciting for the fans.
For the first heat, current 9th place points man Tylar Braunschweig in the 70 started out on the pole with Terry Kirk in the 17 to his outside. The wiley veteran Kirk got a great jump on the start to lead the field into turn 1, but Braunschweig came right back on the preferred inside line to regain the top spot, and held that lead for the first several laps. The 38 of Mathew Bourgoine sliced his way from the 4th starting position to take the lead away from the 70 machine, bringing 6th and 7th place starters, the 84 of Matt Grant and the 19 of Kevin Girard Jr., with him. The top three drivers in the points standings raced bumper to bumper the remainder of the race, as the 3-time champ Bourgoine held on to win the caution-free 10 lap heat, over Grant and Girard.
Heat 2 was paced by a pair of Masters, the 8 of multi-time New Hampshire state champion Matt Chagnot, and the 399 of local favorite Bob Weymouth. Weymouth hustled on the high side to put his blue and white sedan on point, and began to pull away from the field. Chagnot settled into second and ran there uncontested, while the the best battle on the track was for the third spot, as the 92 of first year pilot Colby Meserve battled hard with a pair of fellow rookies, the 29 of standout kart racer Austin Teras and the 7 of former Beech Ridge Wildcat driver Steve Benincasa. With a couple laps to go, Teras made his move under Meserve to snake away the third spot, bringing Benincasa with him to 4th. The caution free event saw Weymouth comfortably cruise to the checkers, with Chagnot holding on to 2nd over Teras.
With the top 3 finishers from the Speedway 95 race headed to the back of the pack, the front row for the feature was left in the hands of Kevin Girard Jr. and Tylar Braunschweig. Right off the get-go, Girard put his Mainely Plumbing & Heating coupe out front and began to distance himself from the field. Behind him, things spread out a bit as the field ran single file for the most part. There was an exception to this however, as Matt Grant and Mathew Bourgoine took turns leading a furious charge from the rear, bringing the 33 of Alan Smith with them. With 10 laps remaining, the pair of Matt’s cracked the top 5 and began to track down Braunschweig who had dropped to 3rd, and Weymouth who had climbed to 2nd after starting 5th. On lap 19, the caution flew for a spin in turn 2 by the 80 of sophomore driver Dylan Varney, erasing Girard’s seemingly insurmountable lead with 6 laps to go. It now became anyone’s race to win with the mad dash to the checkers ahead. On the restart, Weymouth got a big jump into turn 1, but couldn’t quite close the door on Girard, as the driver of the 19 was able to regain the lead with Weymouth sliding into 2nd. Grant took over the 3rd spot after a slip by Braunschweig, and went to work in pursuit of the runner up spot.
The race finished clean and green, and at the checkers, Kevin Girard Jr. was able to step away from all challengers to take his 3rd win of the season, and remain perfect at Wiscasset in 2015! Bob Weymouth held on to post his best finish of the season with the Tour, earning the second place trophy, Matt Grant rallied his #84 machine from the 13th starting position to finish 3rd, remaining the only driver to finish on the podium at every race, Tylar Braunschweig brought home another solid finish in the Wedgewood Motorsports 70 with a 4th place effort, and Mathew Bourgoine rounded out the top 5 with his Corinna Auto Body coupe after starting shotgun on the field.
With race #4 in the books, the Amsoil NELCAR Legends Tour will look forward to another visit with Wiscasset Speedway next weekend, before shifting gears to race twice on most weeks during the summer stretch, as the popular, 10-race Thursday Thunder series at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway begins on June 11th!
Special thanks to our Tour Sponsors for all their contributions, Amsoil Four Season Synthetic, Puzzled Racing for Autism Awareness and New England Legends Sales and Service.
For more information on how YOU can get yourself involved in legends or just simply want to keep tabs on your favorite driver, check out our website, www.NELCAR.net, Like us on Facebook, and see us at the track!
Feature Finish
1-19 Kevin Girard Jr. – Old Orchard Beach – S
2-399 Bob Weymouth – Topsham – M
3-84 Matt Grant – Windham – P
4-70 Tylar Braunschweig – W. Newfield – P
5-38 Mathew Bourgoine – Newport – P
6-33 Alan Smith – Lincoln – M
7-17 Terry Kirk – Durham – M
8-10 Ed Getty – Gray – M
9-8 Matt Chagnot – Derry, NH – M
10-29 Austin Teras* – Windham – Y
11-92 Colby Meserve* – Buxton – S
12-80 Dylan Varney – Windham – Y
13-49 Pete Cannell – S. Berwick – M
14-67 Zachary Godbout* – Mt. Vernon – S
15-7 Steve Benincasa* – Buxton – M
Heat Finish
Heat 1
1-38 Bourgoine
2-84 Grant
3-19 Girard Jr.
4-70 Braunschweig
5-17 Kirk
6-10 Getty
7-33 Smith
Heat 2
1-399 Weymouth
2-8 Chagnot
3-29 Teras*
4-7 Benincasa*
5-92 Meserve*
6-49 Cannell
7-67 Godbout*
8-80 Varney
* denotes rookie