Winchester—Mother Nature finally eased off after washing out the races the last couple of weeks and graced us with a gorgeous day of racing this past Saturday at Monadnock Speedway.
It was a packed house for Christmas in July. The on-track party where fans donated unwrapped toys and could get up close to meet just about all drivers from the Monadnock weekly divisions and their teams as well as some of the New England Street Stock Tour drivers who were in town as the special guest series was held and it was a great event.
Track Announcer Dave Sutherland was down trackside doing interviews with some drivers and entertaining the fans, as he always does, before the track was cleared for April Cushman’s rousing rendition of the National Anthem and then the action got underway.
One thing some drivers discussed was the possibility of drivers being a little too anxious to get back out there after not racing for two weeks. It could have been the case of some drivers having their helmets on a little too tight after having a couple weeks off, because we saw some of the hardest and worst wrecks all year this weekend.
It started early in the Young Guns heat as Shelby Avery and Justin Littlewood made some contact on coming out of turn 4 and Avery tagged front stretch the wall before collecting Dylan Morse. Morse would go on to walk away with the heat, but when it came time for the feature he ended up having some problems.
In the Young Guns feature, Daniel Starkweather made his way back to the top of the podium as he held off the late challenge of Alex Pearl for the win. Littlewood brought home third place honors as new comer Chase Curtis and Haley Guy rounded out the top 5 Young Guns finishers.
Starkweather notched his third win of the year, but said he gives all the credit to his Grandmother for all the wins. He knew Pearl was coming up quickly behind him, “I knew his car was fast,” he said.
Peal, in just his second race at the track claimed his second podium finish in the runner up spot.
“I didn’t have enough time, but oh well,” Pearl said.
Littlewood’s family run race team had a long day as the 37 car was involved in a crash the night before at Claremont, and on the way to the track Saturday the one of the trucks the Littlewoods used to haul their cars broke down on the way to the track so they had to make two trips.
“I’d like to thank Phil and my dad for staying up all night and fixing it,” Littlewood said, “The whole frontend was in the motor.”
Mini Stocks came out for their feature following the conclusion of the victory lane ceremony for the Young Guns.
It was a scary scene when Nick Anderson made contact with Matt Kimball, as Cameron Sontag tried to get around the two sending him directly into the front stretch wall. Luckily, there were no reports of injury to the young driver, but the #13 was badly damaged.
Matt Gauffin was the man on a mission as he wound the #68 up and passed Mike Stebbins on the outside to take the lead and bring home the checkered flag.
Gauffin was candid in his postrace interview saying, “I need to give all the credit to my girlfriend. She’s the one who told me if I want to get anywhere in this division I need to go around on the outside.”
“I had to go around Mike tonight,” he said, “He was on the bottom good and I just had speed on the outside.”
Last year’s champion gave credit to the winner saying, “I was protecting the bottom, I made him earn it, he went around me, he was really fast.”
“It was Matt’s night tonight,” Stebbins said, “Hats off to him, congratulations.”
Kevin McKnight, Eric Pomasko, and Solomon Brow rounded out the top five in the Mini Stocks.
The next division out on the track was the Lightning Stocks. Tim Leblanc was untouchable as he came across the line ahead of second place finisher Cole Littlewood.
Mid way through the race, the #52 had a big lead, but Littlewood caught up, surprising the winner with a late race challenge.
“I’m not going to lie, I’m actually really surprised that kid is able to keep up with me,” Leblanc said in victory lane.
“That car is pretty fast, I don’t know what happened to it from last week to this week,” he said.
Then Leblanc exclaimed, “Bill Johnson where you at buddy, this one’s for you!”
He explained further saying, “He bought me two right side tires,”
Cole Littlewood said, “This race was a lot of fun, and thanks to everyone who helped me,”
Littlewood got around Kris Kristolaitis for 2nd and Richard Whipple held off Pat Houle to round out the top 5 Mini Stock finishers.
In the New England Street Stock Tour feature Geoff Rollins took his #33 on the outside from 8th on the starting grid to the front to pass pole sitter Joe Arena on a lap 8 restart.
Rollins didn’t let up from there lapping several cars in the field as the laps ticked away. Rollins took off on a restart on lap 38 and went around taking the white flag. As they came to the line in the back Mike Palin spun at the start/finish line and Armand Cote ran right into him brining the caution and checkers out for Rollins.
Rollins commented on his victory after the race, saying “We have a huge advantage,” he said, “I have about a million laps here, and over ten wins.”
“I’ve won in everything from a Late Model, Mini Stock, to a Street Stock. I’ve run some long Pro Stock races here, and I know you can really abuse your car the whole race, because this track is very forgiving on tires.”
Chris Douton fended off a challenge from Billy Clement Jr. for second as Joe Arena came in fourth place.
Monadnock regular David Greenslit took his #20 from 16th at the start to a top 5 with a 5th place finish. He was joined in the top 10 by fellow Thunder Stock drivers Richard Vincent (7th) and Craig Chaffee (10th).
After the NESST finished the Super Stocks came out and went green-checkered, but there was no lack of excitement.
Chris Curtis finished ahead of Tyler Leary for the win as Dave Striebel came through the field in the #71 and got around Dennis Stange for third place.
Leary had fun despite coming in second saying, “Chris ran me real hard, real clean, we were beating and banging, he just had a little bit of an edge.”