{"id":20407,"date":"2016-03-28T08:03:10","date_gmt":"2016-03-28T12:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/?p=20407"},"modified":"2016-03-28T08:03:10","modified_gmt":"2016-03-28T12:03:10","slug":"mckennedy-take-checkers-in-inaugural-southern-modified-racing-series-event-at-hickory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2016\/03\/mckennedy-take-checkers-in-inaugural-southern-modified-racing-series-event-at-hickory\/","title":{"rendered":"McKennedy Take Checkers In Inaugural Southern Modified Racing Series Event At Hickory"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JonathanMcKennedy Take Checkers In Inaugural Southern Modified Racing Series Event At Hickory<\/strong><\/p>\n

HICKORY, NC (March 26) \u2013 Jonathan McKennedy grabbed the lead from Brandon Ward on lap 94 and led the race until it was called for rain on lap 108 to win the inaugural Southern Modified Racing Series (SMRS) Presented By PASS event Saturday night at Hickory Motor Speedway. McKennedy\u2019s Easter Bunny 125 win came in an action packed race that saw the lead change hands 11 times among six different drivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to be here at Hickory, it\u2019s got a lot of history to it and it\u2019s pretty awesome to win down here,\u201d said McKennedy in victory lane. \u201cI knew we had a real good chance to win at about halfway when the other cars started coming back to me. We had a great pit stop and I was able to get the lead, and the rain obviously helped us a little bit too.\u201d
\n<\/p>\n

Lisbon, CT\u2019s Chris Pasteryak blistered the legendary speedway in qualifying with lap of 85.651 miles per hour, but would start sixth after the top six qualifiers redraw. Former North-South Shootout winners Matt Hirschman and Burt Myers would move up to the front row and lead the field to green for the inaugural SMRS event.
\nMyers quickly jumped into the lead, but just as quickly Cale Gale took it from him on lap two. Several cars were making their way up through the field, including Bobby Measmer, Jr. and Brandon Ward, who wasted little time moving towards the front.
\nThe lead pack of ten cars changed the lead back-and-forth, lap-after-lap, with several drivers taking turns at the front, such as Gale, Myers, Pasteryak, Ward, and Jeremy Mayfield. Eventually, Ward would take the lead from Mayfield on lap 40 and take command with Gale and Myers following close behind.
\nAfter leading more than 30 laps, Ward would lose the lead when Burt Myers moved to the outside to take the position on lap 76. Gale followed Myers around Ward for second and then would bypass Myers for the lead again on lap 83.
\nThe first caution of the night did not wave until lap 92 when Kevin Orlando slowed in turn three, causing the lapped cars of Gary Putnam and Josh Nichols to check up and spin, collecting the third place running Ward in the process. While the leaders took the opportunity to pit for fresh rubber, Ward stayed out, opting for track position and hoping for rain.
\nBut, the rains did not come and once back under green, McKennedy moved by Ward for the lead on lap 94. McKennedy led until the rains came on lap 108 and was awarded the win over John Smith, B. Myers, Measmer, and Hirschman. Rounding out the top ten were Kyle Bonsignore, Pasteryak, Jason Myers, Patrick Emerling, and Gale.
\nThe Southern Modified Racing Series Presented By PASS will be in action once again for 150 laps on Friday, April 22nd at Ace Motor Speedway in Altamahaw, NC. Entry forms will be available at SouthernModifiedRacingSeries,com. Be sure to \u201cLike\u201d the Pro All Stars Series and Southern Modified Racing Series on Facebook or follow us on Twitter at @PASSSLM14.<\/p>\n

SMRS Modifieds \u2013 SMRS Easter Bunny 125 \u2013 Unofficial Results
\n1. 29 \u2013 Jonathan McKennedy 13. 1x \u2013 Mike Leaty<\/p>\n

2. 25 \u2013 John Smith 14. 59d \u2013 Renee Dupuis<\/p>\n

3. 1m \u2013 Burt Myers 15. 5 \u2013 Charlie Pasteryak<\/p>\n

4. 14 \u2013 Bobby Measmer, Jr. 16. 19 \u2013 Brandon Ward<\/p>\n

5. 59h \u2013 Matt Hirschman 17. 34 \u2013 Josh Nichols<\/p>\n

6. 22 \u2013 Kyle Bonsignore 18. 13 \u2013 Chase Hunt<\/p>\n

7. 15 \u2013 Chris Pasteryak 19. 77 \u2013 Gary Putnam<\/p>\n

8. 4 \u2013 Jason Myers 20. 53 \u2013 Ryan Russo<\/p>\n

9. 07 \u2013 Patrick Emerling 21. 00 \u2013 Kevin Orlando<\/p>\n

10. 95 – Cale Gale 22. 12 \u2013 Mike Norman<\/p>\n

11. 23 \u2013 Brian Loftin 23. J2 \u2013 Jeremy Mayfield<\/p>\n

12. 40 \u2013 Edward LeClerc DNS. 31 \u2013 Zach Brewer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

McKennedy Take Checkers In Inaugural Southern Modified Racing Series Event At Hickory HICKORY, NC (March 26) \u2013 Jonathan McKennedy grabbed the lead from Brandon Ward on lap 94 and led the race until it was called for rain on lap 108 to win the inaugural Southern Modified Racing Series (SMRS) Presented By PASS event Saturday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-pass"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20407\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}