WINCHESTER, N.H. - Second generation star Andrew Brousseau will long remember the biggest night of his still-young Modified career Saturday at Monadnock Speedway.
Ben Byrne will most likely remember his night at the races too. And talented Pure Stock rookie Josh Brigham had a big night of his own Saturday on the high banks of New England’s fastest quarter-mile oval.
Brousseau, starting on the outside of row one in the night’s Allstates Materials Group 604 Modified Mike Brousseau Memorial 81-lap main event, led the final 73 laps en route to his third win of the season and, with it, moved to the top of the points parade, coupling his big victory with Tyler Leary’s - the former Modified champ took the day off to get married - absence from Saturday’s event.
Byrne, who suffered major mechanical problems aboard the Cirillo Modified, also made his career debut in a Pro 4 Modified. Recruited for the Pro 4 run before Saturday’s races started, he finished second to rocketman Rob Richardi Jr in the Dan Meservey Sr Memorial show opener and then came back to score his first-ever win in the nightcap.
Brigham outran a stout 18-car Pure Stock field to score the second win of his rookie season and, with it, move to the top of the championship points chart ahead of Jimmy Zellman.
Limited Late Model hot shoe JD Stockwell won his division-high eighth feature of the summer Saturday. Kyle Templeton, the many-time king of the Minis at Claremont, won with ease in the Keene Towing and Recovery Mini Stocks, and Young Gun Dylan Stati, beaten for the first time this year in Saturday’s heat race, ran away and hid to make it an even dozen in his 15-lap feature.
Ty LeClerc, still searching for his first win of the summer, led the first seven go-rounds of the night’s main event, but then it was Brousseau, laser focused on winning his dad’s memorial event, taking charge and never looking back.
But if Brousseau was unstoppable at the front, LeClerc was just as strong in second. Todd Patnode, Kimmy Rivet, and Eddie Gomarlo all tested him for the runner-up spot and,, over the last 40 laps it was the two teen stars, LeClerc and Gomarlo racing glued together until the checkers.
Brian Robie set the fast time earlier at 12.124 and was quietly fourth in the main event, with Rivet completing the top five.
The LaValley’s Building Supply Pro 4 Mods staged a slugfest in their Dan Meservey Sr. Memorial feature. Through the mayhem, Pro 4 super star Rob Richardi Jr. surged to the front on lap 15 and then soared off to his fourth win of the summer on the high banks.
Ben Byrne, in his maiden voyage in the Pro 4s, impressed in second, and Monadnock Young Gun alumnus Fast Eddie was third.
In the Pro 4 nightcap, Richardi and Byrne were racing wheel-to-wheel for the top spot when they spilt an errant lapper on the 12th circuit. Trying a daring low-groove pass into turn one, Richardi was launched wildly off the top of the track, with Byrne taking over when the dust had settled.
Never looking back, the Bay State blaster then soared off to his first career win. Fast Eddie capped another strong run in second, with Josh Baddach third, Doug Meservey was fourth under the checkers, and Sydney Cook finished with her second top-five of the night.
JD Stockwell took the lead from Zach Zilinski on lap eight of the Twin State Truck Services Limited Late Model feature and his new-found spot at the front of the pack was the safest place to be.
No fewer than eight cautions - there must have been a full moon somewhere - slowed the 30-lapper but nothing slowed Stockwell on his way to his division-high eighth win of the year. Robert Hagar, entering Saturday’s event on a two-race winning streak, stayed solidly in the points chase as the night’s runner-up, and Zilinski held strong to impress in third.
Vernon,VT’s popular one man band Pat Houle had his strongest run of the summer in Saturday’s Keene Towing and Recovery Mini Stocks. Topping his heat, Houle led the first three laps of the main event before giving way to Craig Chaffee, And then there was Kyle Templeton.
Templeton, in a rare appearance on the high banks, did what he does almost weekly at Claremont. Taking charge on lap 15, he sailed off into the night to score a six-length victory over Houle. With Chaffee third, Green Mountain star Kodi Sabins finished fourth, with Tim Paquette fifth.
Reigning Claremont Pure Stock champ Colton Hull, bidding for his second win of the summer on the high banks, led the first six laps of the Brattleboro Towing and Recovery Pure Stock feature. But when he burped on a restart, rookie phenom Josh Brigham took over.
With Brigham soaring to the top of the points parade with his third win of the season, Markus O’Neil came up just shy of victory in second. Previous winner Linsey Wenzel was strong in her run to third, and Addison Brooks impressed in fourth in the 18-car field.
Charging all the way from row nine, Chris Quinn completed the top five, while Jimmy Zellman’s sixth-place finish helped Brigham move to the top of the chart. In a post race inspection, Quinn was disqualified for an altered front suspension moving Zellmann into the fifth finishing position.
Dylan Stati is still undefeated in Doug’s Auto Body Young Guns feature events he has entered this summer. But Tyler LeBlanc has served notice that Stati’s streak may be in jeopardy.
LeBlanc, who won the last time out - Stati was away at Disneyland - won Saturday’s heat race in a nailbiter. Stati, though, stormed back to win the 15-lap feature. LeBlanc was second in the main event, with first-timer Eli Elliott impressing in third.
Monadnock Speedway will return to action next Saturday, September 5, as New England’s premier quarter-mile oval celebrates Labor Day weekend with a full card of NASCAR Local Racing Series events. Post time on the high banks is 6 p.m.
PURE STOCK participants include Josh Brigham, Markus O’Neil, Linsey Wenzel, Addison Brooks, Chris Quinn, Jimmy Zellman, Colton Hull, Michael Yeaton, Maya Bell, Kyle Begos, James Sallee, Timothy Lang, Sofia Rego, Andrew Plumb, Michaela Krafve, Ella Grabowski, Dylan Zullo.
YOUNG GUNS include Dylan Stati, Tyler LeBlanc, Eli Elliott, Maeve Barry, and Mason Bezio.