Carzello Takes Both Sportsman Mod Victories
By Dan Byrne
WINCHESTER– Saturday was championship night at Monadnock Speedway as the points champions were crowned for the weekly NASCAR Whelen All-American Series.
Last week, the rain came just before the Sportsman Modifieds could run their feature so they’d be batting lead-off on Saturday for the first of a two feature showcase for the premiere Monadnock division.
In the opening 30 lap event, Bill Kimball, looked to create some breathing room in the points chase between himself and Scott MacMichael as Kimball held a slim, 30 point lead over MacMichael.
Kimball started 7th just behind MacMichael. Eric LeClair led the field to green from the pole position, but it wasn’t to be for the #84 as he was soon shuffled back through the field.
TJ Bleau in the#15 and Nathan Johnson in the #5J had strong performances as they moved around LeClair. In the #87, Brett Gonyaw was charging hard, but by lap 15 #8 Keith Carzello had his sights set on the top spot. Kimball finished in 7th with MacMichael just behind him in 8th.
“I gotta thank Brian Barnard he put a great set up under this thing. I think about anybody could have won in this thing tonight, it was hooked up,” Carzello said after he claimed victory in the first feature of the night.
Gonyaw came in a close 2nd to Carzello with Tyler Jarvenpaa making a big jump up from the 10th starting position to claim a spot on the podium coming across in 3rd place.
The heats went on as they are regularly scheduled following the first Sportsmans Mod feature.
At the conclusion of heats the visiting Vintage Outlaw Series came out and ran 15 laps at speed.
The Vintage Outlaw throwbacks had only 4 entries. The top 3 cars got going, but the 4th, #19 had issues from the start.By the end he was being lapped, and seemed to lose control on the last turn coming to the checkered flag. He collected #195 who was running 2nd and wrecked into the front stretch wall.
Paul LaPlant in the #7 won the race and #94 Mike Ronhock finshed 2nd.
Daniel Starkweather came out and dominated the Young Guns feature for his sixth win of the year. Dylan Morse ran well and finished second with Justin Littlewood coming home third.
The visiting Classic Lites came onto the track for their 25 lap feautre. Admits a host of spins and cautions, Eric Skofield came out on top. Skofield survived an early spin to come back and win.
“To be honest with you I don’t even know what happened,” Skofield said after the race.
“I ended up spinning out, I thought I was crashed out, but the car was still together.”
Tom Harton in the #85 got around Duane Skofield coming to the line to keep it from being a Skofield, Skofield 1-2 finish. Despite blowing an engine on the last lap Duane Skofield held on for third.
It was time to crown champions once the Classic Lites cleared the speedway, and up first on the docket was the Mini Stock feature.
Just 25 laps stood between Eric Pomasko and his first points championship. The 9 year veteran held the slimmest of margins over his next closest competitor, rookie Matt Gauffin. Should anything happen to each of their cars, Julia Raymond was within striking distance sitting in 3rd in the points just 12 off of Pomasko.
In a cluster of cars, the Mini Stocks ran a tight race, but it was #71 Pomasko who lead the field when the came off the final turn. Title chasing Guaffin needed only to finish on Pomasko’s bumper to clinch the crown finished deep in the pack as Solomon Brow and Joel Monahan came across after Pomasko.
“I didn’t get much sleep last night,” a relieved Pomasko admitted just after getting out of his race car in victory lane, “I was just trying to process in my brain what might happen.”
Last week Pomasko’s lead was six points, but a rough ride coupled with a 2nd place showing from Gauffin saw his grasp on the title slip. He re-established himself this week and came out on top not only on the night, but for the season.
Gauffin finished in 5th place on the evening just behind Julia Raymond.
Next onto the race track came the Thunder Stock for their final points race of the season.
#20 David Greenslit just had to finish the race more or less and he would clinch his points championship over last year’s champ Marshall Usher.
Things looked a little hairy early on for Greenslit as Greg William got into the back of him and sent him around bringing caution to the speedway.
Greenslit recovered, and ended up running 8th and sealing the title for the #20 team.
“I just had to let Greg go,” said Greenslit after the race, “He hit me about 18 times out there.”
“Just had to do what we had to do,” said Greenslit, “Congrats to Marshall on the win, hell of a season with him again.”
As it turns out the win meant a little extra to Greenslit, he revealed after the race he was driving with a heavy heart due to the loss of his grandfather on Thursday, and he dedicated the championship to his memory.
In the race for the lead, 2nd in points Marshall Usher took home the victory followed by Paul Barnard and Craig Chaffee.
Super Stocks came out next and long time driver Dennis Stange looked to put a stamp on his first career championship.
Stange held a safe 24 point lead over 2nd place Tyler Leary heading into the night.
A 5th place finish sealed the points title for Stange.
Twenty Super Stocks packed the ¼ mile track and led to several yellow flags slowing the overall pace.
In front of the pack, Dylan Bodreau out ran Leary to win, Chris Curtis had another strong finish crossing the line third with Josh Wood putting together a good run coming across 4th.
Despite having to manage with restart after restart, Bodreau was able to hold off Leary and get the win.
“It was dreadful there for a while,” said Bodreau of having to deal with the cautions, “I knew the #11 was quick and he was going to be right there every time.”
“It’s really a dream come true to win down here,” Bodreau said, “It’s my first win in anything down here and I’ve been coming here since I was a little guy, it’s just awesome.”
Stange has 34 seasons under his belt and now finally gets to call it the championship belt.
He’s been racing since 1981 and he talked about the championships he won in the years between then and now saying, “None, this is the first one.”
That set the stage for the Sportsman Modified feature #2. Before the race it was announced that Monadnock Speedway’s Sportsman Modified driver Jason Barden was going to be the NASCAR NH Rookie of the Year, a prize worth $1,000 and an invitation to the yearly National Awards banquet. Barden earned the title by accumulating the most points by a rookie at a NASCAR sanctioned track in the track’s premier division.
Sportsman Mod feature #2 featured one of the largest fields of cars all year, as there were 22 cars in the grid to start. It was a field that included young Cameron Sontag in his first Sportsman Mod start, as he looks to make the jump to the premier division next season.
Bill Kimball held about a 30 point lead over Scott MacMichael heading into the final Sportsman Mod points race.
The two drivers were going for the gold early, as tMacMichael went three wide going into turn three. That doesn’t usually work out too well, and caution had to be thrown as a result of the pile up that ensued.
Once they got things going again, laps started to tick off quickly. MacMichael had a strong race car and was charging towards the front. Trevor Bleau and Tyler Jarvenpaa had good runs finishing 3rd and 4th respectively.
MacMichael did all he could to gain track position and cut into Kimball’s point lead, but nobody had a challenge for Keith Carzello, the winner of the first feature.
Carzello swept the night bringing home the victory, while MacMichael had to finish for second both in the 2nd feature and in the points standings.
When asked about if the prospect of sweeping the night crossed his mind earlier, Carzello said he didn’t have any such thought, “With this group of guys, no way,” he said.
“I was able to hang on for dear life with Scotty coming,” Carzello said, “Glad I could get two in a row, I’ve never done that in my racing career.”
Bill Kimball took the title home with a 5th place finish.
The final night of the race was the Lightning Stock division with CJ Johnson taking the early lead. Cole Littlewood battled Kris Kristolaitis for second. As laps winded down Tim Leblanc leading the points carefully ran around the ¼ mile in eighth spot. Kristolaitis never was able to make up ground as Johnson cruised in victory lane followed Kris Kristolaitis and Mike Stebbins.
Tim Leblanc captured his first Lightning Stock championship.
The speedway will take a week off to prepare for their Super Saturday event being held on October 3, 2015. The events will include all the regular divisions plus Pro 4 Modifieds, Spectator Races, Big Wheels race and the great School Bus Race. Race time is at 2pm.