Thompson, CT — A beautiful afternoon greeted the new and returning fans, teams and supporters at Thompson Speedway Wednesday night.
Rookie Charles Beal led the start of the Street Stock main event with outside polesitter Mike Viens going around on lap one. Back under green, Jarrod Soucy stole the lead as Al Stone III and Ryan Lineham joined the picture up front. Veterans Stone and Lineham motored under Soucy by lap six with Ryan Lineham taking the win over Al Stone III and Soucy holding on for third.
Rookies Mikey Flynn and Andrew Brousseau brought the Thompson Sunoco Modifieds to green before Rob Schultz made contact with the backstretch wall to call out the early caution on lap two. Brousseau battled hard with Keith Rocco from then on with the rookie facing the multi-time track championship veteran. Rocco and defending champion Todd Owen made the move under Brousseau before the halfway point and that is how they ran under the twin checkered flags at the end of 35-laps.
The Late Models were next to take the track with Jared Meteras and Travis Hydar putting on a show out front. The two went toe-to-toe as defending champ Jake Johnson and Icebreaker winner Matt Lowinski-Loh joined in for a four-way battle. Hydar and Johnson were next to scuffle with Johnson powering under the rookie but the Stafford champion was far from finished. Hydar kept glued to his tail, making a move to the inside as he tried to lead lap twenty until losing it in turn three. Hydar held on and kept going but left Jake Johnson to take the Wednesday night win over sophomore Late Model racer Jared Roy and veteran Jared Materas.
The Pro Truck Challenge returned to Wednesday Night Racing action at Thompson Speedway with Randy Burr quickly taking control at the front of the field. Through a pair of quick-spin cautions, Burr proved to be the better restarter in the field, launching away each restart all the way to the 35-lap win over Adrien Paradis and Tyler Chapman.
The SK Light Modifieds got off to a shaky start before Todd Douillard and Daltin McCarthy kept things under green out front. Before too long, John O’Sullivan and Kevin Davis entered the picture under Douillard and began to chase down McCarthy. While the chase continued, Douillard’s day ended off turn two with a spin into Danny Gamache to end their nights on lap 10. In the final restart O’Sullivan pulled away but Davis came back with a vengeance to take the win ahead of O’Sullivan and RJ Marcotte at the line.
The Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series rounded out Wednesday’s racing program at Thompson Speedway with Noah Korner and Mike Christopher Jr. fighting hard for the lead in the opening laps. Content to ride it out, veterans Ronnie Williams and Ron Silk followed the leaders before slowly picking them off with the turn three slingshot underneath. After blowing the engine in his primary car in practice, Jon McKennedy ran home to Chelmsford to grab the back-up car and just made the tail of the starting field. By the lap 19 caution for a single-car spin in turn two, McKennedy sat tenth on the grid.
It continued to be the Ronnie and Ron show out front with Williams leading Silk around the 5/8-mile oval until the lap 39 caution sent the field pit-side for fresh Hoosier rubber. Patrick Emerling would use the superior pit stop to take the restart lead but Williams, McKennedy and Silk stayed nose-to-tail behind him. One final restart with 14 laps remaining left this talented gaggle of cars to fight it out to the end. Ultimately it was Ron Silk who took down the $10,000 win with Patrick Emerling across the line in second followed by Ronnie Williams, Austin Beers and Jon McKennedy to round out the top-five.
Thompson Speedway is back in action in just two weeks on Wednesday, July 8 with Twisted Tea Winged Wednesday! The lightening fast New England Supermodified Series (NESS) visits the Thompson highbanks alongside the Thompson Sunoco Modifieds, Late Models, SK Light Modifieds, Street Stocks and Thunderstock Crown Vics with a 6:00pm post time.
The North East Short Track Network (NESTN) will stream Wednesday Night Racing at Thompson Speedway all season long, visit www.nestn.tv for more info including Pay-Per-View pricing and ways to subscribe!