After a rainout at Riverhead Speedway last Saturday night, Mother Nature brought the sun to the Bond Auto 100 at Claremont Speedway. Early in the day DJ Shaw of Center Conway, was the man to beat, posting a lap of 13.862 in practice. John Salemi of Nashua, NH, Mike Parks of Walpole, NH and Mike O’Sullivan of Springfield, MA also posted competitive laps in the low 14’s. Bill Ahern of Billerica, MA had his night end early, after his throttle hung in the heat and he hit the turn two wall.
This race saw the return of some past Pro Stock racers, as Walt Hammond Jr. of Canaan, NH started seventh and Zig Geno of Canterbury, NH started 17 in the feature. New drivers starting the race included Ryan Bell of Acworth, NH started 14th and Travis Dunbar of Auburn, ME started 16th.
Local racer, Guy Caron of Goshen, NH found himself on the pole with DJ Shaw of Center Conway, NH on the outside. Jeremy Davis of Tamworth, NH, and the winner of the Twin State 100 started in fifth position. Caron took an early lead in the race until lap 19 when Bell spun in turn two bringing out the first caution of the night. After a couple of restarts Caron and Shaw made contact in turn four collecting Mike O’Sullivan in the process, setting up Davis to lead 44 laps of the race.
A caution on lap 43 led to Hammond and Geno pulling out of the race. As Shaw and Caron worked their way back to the front the battle for the lead started between Davis and Shaw. By lap 67 Shaw regained the lead and held it the remainder of the race. By lap 70, Mike Parks had worked his way up to third after starting tenth, when his right front tire went flat ending his top 5 run.
Caron raced hard up to third until taking second from Davis on lap 74. Points leader Barry Gray worked hard all night, in the final laps he made a run on Davis for third, but ran out of laps and finished fourth for the night. Mike O’Sullivan who had to work his way back from the rear of the pack finished fifth rounding out the top five.
The Granite State Pro Stock Series will be racing August 13, 2016 at Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, NH.
Unofficial Finish
1 60 DJ Shaw
2 42 Guy Caron
3 09 Jeremy Davis
4 29 Barry Gray
5 08 Mike O’Sullivan
6 40 Mike Mitchell
7 18 Michael Scorzelli
8 66 Mike Parks
9 1 Cory Casagrande
10 63 John Salemi
11 6 Travis Dunbar
12 98 Walt Hammond Jr.
13 57z Zig Geno
14 4 Tommy O’Sullivan
15 49 Craig Weinstein
16 71 Bob Labine
17 8 Ryan Bell
18 51 Bill Ahern DNS
Contingency Winner
Car #
Name
AR Bodies (Hard Luck) 63 John Salemi
Bond Auto Parts (2nd Place) 42 Guy Caron
Bond Auto Parts (Last car on Lead Lap) 18 Michael Scorzelli
Coilover (Feature winner) 60 DJ Shaw
Embroidery Expertee’s (3rd Place) 09 Jeremy Davis
Five Star Bodies (5th Place) 08 Mike O’Sullivan
MacLellan Metal Finishing (Heat Winner) 63 John Salemi
MacLellan Metal Finishing (Heat Winner) 60 DJ Shaw
Magnus Racing (2nd Place) 42 Guy Caron
Powertrain (4th Place) 29 Barry Gray
RB Performance (3rd Place) 09 Jeremy Davis
RB Performance (7th Place) 18 Michael Scorzelli
Seymour Performance (Random Draw) 08 Mike O’Sullivan
Sunoco (Heat Winner) 63 John Salemi
Sunoco (Heat Winner) 60 DJ Shaw
VDL Fuel (5th Place) 08 Mike O’Sullivan
Track—Claremont Speedway, 0.3 mile Claremont, NH.
Race—Bond Auto 100
Time of Race— 1:06:18
Cautions—(11)—laps 19 20 21 24 49 43 66 70 71 83 87
Margin of Victory— 1.421
Best Lap Time— 14.098
Best Lap By—DJ Shaw
Lap Leaders—(44 Davis, 36 Shaw, 19 Caron, 1 Parks)