Claremont Motorsports Park Friday, August 7, event story
CLAREMONT, NH - Hayden Bushey won the Tour Type Late Model main event Friday at Claremont Motorsports Park. It was the Fairfax, VT hot shoe’s second feature win in as many tries at the Thrasher Road speedplant. If he was entering the track through the front gate, Bushey would almost qualify for child’s admission. But as a competitor, he’s as savvy as a veteran of decades on the asphalt. Tough, smooth, flawless, Bushey is only 13 years old.
The Green Mountain State young gun was one of six drivers earning victory laps Friday at the fast third-mile oval. Robert Hagar, red hot the last month, scored an easy win in the Super Streets, and Kodi Sabins won his second of the summer in the Mini Stocks on LaValley Building Supply Night at CMP. Konner Janovsky scored his first career win in the Ridge Runners Friday, and Carter Conroy found the magic he’d displayed earlier in the season as he blasted off to victory in the Pure Stock main event. Steve Miller Jr. won his fourth overall victory this summer on Friday, going back-to-back in the Crown Victorias, those wins in addition to a pair in the Six Shooters. To earn Friday’s victory, Miller had to hold his dad, Steve Sr., in his shadow as they sailed under the checks. The Millers weren’t the only father and son duo stopping in Country Fuels Victory Lane on the first event of August. In the Pure Stocks, Dakota Bushey raced home second, his father Ben glued to his bumper in third.
Aaron Fellows Jr. and Aiden White sat up front as the night’s 35-lap Tour Type Late Model main event went green. Fellows took charge from the get-go, holding the top spot for the first 18 laps. Charging from row three, Hayden Bushey was on a mission, in quest of his second win in as many tries at CMP. Rocketing past Allen Fellows for second on lap 14, he low-lined past the younger Fellows five circuits later and never looked back. Bushey, though, wasn’t the only driver on a mission Friday. Landon O’Donnell got up for second on lap 25 and chased Bushey home. White, a previous 2026 winner, came back to finish third, with points leader Stephen Donahue fourth and the younger Fellows fifth.
Erik Smith, who’d earlier topped his heat race, led the first 11 laps of Friday’s RE HInkley Fuels Super Street feature. Joe Tetreault, firing from row three, then took charge, taking the lead in turn two on lap 12. All eyes in this one though were on Robert Hagar. Hagar, on a rail all night long, rocketed his Monster Energy ride to the front on lap 13 and darted off into the night to win for the third time in four weeks, Friday’s victory scored in a romp. Tetreault was the best of the rest in this one, taking the checkers more than 15 lengths behind Hagar. Top points man Chris Riendeau - himself, an eight-time winner - was third Friday, with Robbie Streeter fourth and Smith fifth.
Former CMP champ Kodi Sabins took the lead from Sean Lantas on lap three of the Mini Stock feature and was never tested en route to his second win of the summer. Top points man, and defending track champ. Kyle Templeton got up for second on lap nine but Sabins was already far away. With Templeton closing the huge gap to finish eight lengths back in second, Andrea St. Amour’s lap-14 pass brought her home third. Lantas and Tim Paquette rounded out Friday’s top five. Ben Smith and Jordan Gonyea shared row one as the LaValley Building Supply Pure Stocks went green. But second generation Sunshine Town ace Carter Conroy would dominate this 25-lapper. Smith led lap one, with Conroy then taking a lead he would never relinquish the next time around. Dakota Bushey held the deuce spot most of the way, seeming to be on his way to an easy second-place finish, but the three cars racing under a blanket for third, wheeled by Ben Bushey, Gage Dillingham, and Chris Chambers, had other plans. While he would lose much of his large advantage, Dakota Bushey held strong to edge his father, Ben for second. Chambers, the points leader, was fourth, and Parker Fowler fifth. Dillingham, hung out to dry at the top of the track, finished sixth on the night. Konner Janovsky survived an early-race trip to the pits to win his first career JP’s Trucking Ridge Runner feature Friday. The Jacksonville, VT pilot led the last four laps to nip Ethan Meyette in a nose-to-tail finish. Heat race winner Jim Rhodes had the early lead but when he went wildly into the turn one wall on lap three, sending Janovsky to the pits for quick repairs, Meyette took over. Charging back through the field, Janovsky low-lined to the top spot to lead lap 17 and hold on for victory number one. With Meyette second, top points man Trevyr Young raced home third, first-timer Karson Hussey was fourth, and Lane Lantas fifth. In the upstart Crown Vic division, Grantham’s Steve Miller Jr. swept both his heat and feature races, both times with his dad, Steve Miller Sr., at his bumper. Justin Mulse was third. Skip Swiantek of Higganum,CT was first under the checkers aboard his immaculate Flying 70 “37 Chevy coupe in the Senior Tour Auto Racers Modified feature. Paul Jacques, in a Ford coupe was second, and John Jalbert third. In the STAR Sportsmen, Michael Kugler took the win. Pinto pilot Gary Moore was second, with heat race winner Skip Stearns third.
Claremont Motorsports Park returns to action next Friday, August 14, with the thundering Outlaw Late Models back in action atop a full card of NASCAR Local Racing Series events. Post time is 7 p.m. each Friday at CMP.