RGeeProductions
05-25-2015, 10:14 AM
After weather postponed action at Monadnock Speedway last week, the engines were fired up once again this past Saturday for some high intensity action around the quarter-mile oval on Memorial Day Weekend.
With everyone eager to get back out on the racetrack, there was full card of excitement as they rolled out eight feature series including the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series, NE Vintage Outlaws, and Granite State Pro Stock Series 100 lap feature.
After some action packed heat races got the crowd warmed up, the features rolled out with the Vintage Outlaws leading the way. It took him until five laps remained to make the winning pass, but Paul Laplante was able to cross the line in first place to pick up his fifth straight victory at Monadnock Speedway.
“We love the sport of racing,” Laplante said, “We want to give back to the fans.”
Monadnock’s Youth division, the Young Guns composed of 12-15 year old drivers ran a 15 lap feature event following the Vintage Outlaws. It was Justin Littlewood in the #37 who jumped out head of the field of five cars, and came across the line in first place ahead of second place finisher Dan Starkweather and Bow Smith who came across third.
“I’m very happy with it, first time in forever,” Smith said after the race.
Dan Starkweather wants badly to get back into victory lane after triumphing over the field on week one. “It feels good to be in second place,” Starkweather said, “But I’d rather be in first.”
After coming across second two weeks ago but was awarded first place after the checkered flag flew due to the first place car failing to meet race standards, Justin Littlewood picked up his second win of the season.
“Car ran good all day,” Littlewood said. The winner credited adjusting the tire pressure with helping get his car to go faster saying “We messed with the tire pressure a little bit and made it go faster.”
The always respectful young man displayed poise and grace at the mic in victory lane, making sure to thank those people we all celebrated this holiday weekend as he signed off saying, “I’d like to thank all the Military that served this country.”
Next out on the track the Lightning Stocks ran their 20 lap feature event. Early on it looked like CJ Johnson might repeat his appearance on the podium, as he led Hillary Renaud in the opening stages, but he encountered some problems with smoke billowing out of the right front as he pulled out of the racing line into the infield where he ultimately was credited with a 9th place finish.
At the front it was a three-pack of Tims as Tim O’Shea out ran Tim Paquette and Tim Leblanc. O’Shea nabbed the lead from Paquette with about 8 laps to go. Paquette gave him all he could handle but when the checkered flag was in the air, O’Shea came across first.
“It seemed to get better as the race went on,” O’Shea said, “I don’t know what happened to CJ but we held in there.”
Following Lightning Stocks, Mini Stocks came out with Ethan Marsh in the 8x starting in the pole position for the feature. When the green flag flew, Cameron Sontag and Julia Raymond drove to the front and put some car lengths between the first two spots and the rest of the field. Back in the pack it was some tight racing action. About midway through the feature a single car spin by Solomon Brow brought out the yellow, and when things got going again Raymond and Sontag were leading the field.
Nick Anderson in the #55 got spun around bringing out the caution for the third time during the feature. On the restart, the #76 Kevin McKnight cut a tire and was run into by Marsh in the 8x littering the track with debris and bringing caution to the speedway for the fifth time in the race.
As they got going once again Julia Raymond jumped back ahead and didn’t look back as she came across the finish line first ahead of Sontag and Joel Monahan in the #03 car. Mike McGoldrick in the #1 spun out at the start/finish line after the leader took the white flag so the race ended under yellow with McGoldrick showing in 9th after the race.
“It feels awesome, the car is awesome, we finally got all our ducks in a row,” Raymond said after the win.
Sportsman Modifieds took the track following the Mini Stocks as the sun and temperature at Monadnock Speedway went down for their 30 lap feature. Kim Rivet took the whole shot from the pole position on lap one, but before the completion of lap one, JT Cloutier had a tire go down in turn 2 bringing caution to the track.
Back under green, Rivet lost the lead to Trevor Bleau and second to Brett Gonyaw. The youngster Bleau led Gonyaw for just over a lap before the #87 shot to the front of the field.
On lap 8 caution came out on the track as the #3 of Jeff Murry had contact with the #11 of Scott Nordman. Gonyaw got a good jump on Bleau on the restart and opened up a seven car length lead over Bleau. Tyler Jarvenpaa and Kim Rivet were battling it out for fourth place back in the pack when Bleau spun after contact with Dana Smith.
Halfway through the race Gonyaw led the field ahead of Jarvenpaa, Rivet and MacMichael were racing for third as last week’s runner up got by the pole sitter with 10 to go.
Jarvenpaa went to work trying to reel in Gonyaw, but as he did so, MacMichael made up the ground he was chasing and overtook Jarvenpaa for second.
With less than 10 laps remaining, MacMicheal just ran out of time, with Gonyaw’s machine producing too much power to be chased down. Gonyaw came across the line first as he claimed his first victory at Monadnock Speedway of 2015 with Kim Rivet spinning on the last lap. MacMichael edged Jarvenpaa to finish second for the second consecutive week. Rivet had a good run but finished 12th.
The winner two weeks ago, Bill Kimball, came across the line fourth and Keith Carzello rounded out the top five.“It was a good race,” Gonyaw said after the win.
“We started up front and we kept it there,” the winner said, “It’s better than going backwards like we did last week.”
“We have a bunch of guys working together for this,” Gonyaw went on, “They’re there week in and week out through the bad weeks and the good weeks and it’s finally happening so thanks to them.”
The 100 lap Granite State Pro Stock Series feature was on deck as Cory Robert led the field to the green, but it was Barry Gray who grabbed the lead on lap one.
Robert’s day was done early as a lap 4 incident with Adam Norton brought the yellow out for the first time.
Three restart attempts later, and the field finally got into a green flag run with Gray leading the field. Caution flew again on lap 25 as Nick Boivin lost his engine.
Once things got going again Gray held the lead as Larry Gelinas and Matt Frahm looked to get by him. The Monadnock veteran was not to be had on this night though as he held off Gelinas and Frahm to grab is his fourth win in the GSPSS Memorial Day 100 at Monadnock Speedway.
Larry Gelinas gave Gray all he could handle looking inside for the pass several times but coming up just short at the line he had to settle for second place with Frahm in third.
“My hats off to my guys, they work really hard,” Gray said after the race.
“This is a home track for us, all the guys ran us good and clean tonight.”
With two races remaining on the card for the evening things were just heating up as Super Stocks came out to run their feature. Tyler Lescord led the field to green. The race stayed green and Lescord led Tyler Leary and Dennis Stange for a clean, green 25 laps to checkered.
“I think we made the right choices,” Lescord said after the race when discussing some adjustments he made that led him to his first win of the season.
(continued)
With everyone eager to get back out on the racetrack, there was full card of excitement as they rolled out eight feature series including the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series, NE Vintage Outlaws, and Granite State Pro Stock Series 100 lap feature.
After some action packed heat races got the crowd warmed up, the features rolled out with the Vintage Outlaws leading the way. It took him until five laps remained to make the winning pass, but Paul Laplante was able to cross the line in first place to pick up his fifth straight victory at Monadnock Speedway.
“We love the sport of racing,” Laplante said, “We want to give back to the fans.”
Monadnock’s Youth division, the Young Guns composed of 12-15 year old drivers ran a 15 lap feature event following the Vintage Outlaws. It was Justin Littlewood in the #37 who jumped out head of the field of five cars, and came across the line in first place ahead of second place finisher Dan Starkweather and Bow Smith who came across third.
“I’m very happy with it, first time in forever,” Smith said after the race.
Dan Starkweather wants badly to get back into victory lane after triumphing over the field on week one. “It feels good to be in second place,” Starkweather said, “But I’d rather be in first.”
After coming across second two weeks ago but was awarded first place after the checkered flag flew due to the first place car failing to meet race standards, Justin Littlewood picked up his second win of the season.
“Car ran good all day,” Littlewood said. The winner credited adjusting the tire pressure with helping get his car to go faster saying “We messed with the tire pressure a little bit and made it go faster.”
The always respectful young man displayed poise and grace at the mic in victory lane, making sure to thank those people we all celebrated this holiday weekend as he signed off saying, “I’d like to thank all the Military that served this country.”
Next out on the track the Lightning Stocks ran their 20 lap feature event. Early on it looked like CJ Johnson might repeat his appearance on the podium, as he led Hillary Renaud in the opening stages, but he encountered some problems with smoke billowing out of the right front as he pulled out of the racing line into the infield where he ultimately was credited with a 9th place finish.
At the front it was a three-pack of Tims as Tim O’Shea out ran Tim Paquette and Tim Leblanc. O’Shea nabbed the lead from Paquette with about 8 laps to go. Paquette gave him all he could handle but when the checkered flag was in the air, O’Shea came across first.
“It seemed to get better as the race went on,” O’Shea said, “I don’t know what happened to CJ but we held in there.”
Following Lightning Stocks, Mini Stocks came out with Ethan Marsh in the 8x starting in the pole position for the feature. When the green flag flew, Cameron Sontag and Julia Raymond drove to the front and put some car lengths between the first two spots and the rest of the field. Back in the pack it was some tight racing action. About midway through the feature a single car spin by Solomon Brow brought out the yellow, and when things got going again Raymond and Sontag were leading the field.
Nick Anderson in the #55 got spun around bringing out the caution for the third time during the feature. On the restart, the #76 Kevin McKnight cut a tire and was run into by Marsh in the 8x littering the track with debris and bringing caution to the speedway for the fifth time in the race.
As they got going once again Julia Raymond jumped back ahead and didn’t look back as she came across the finish line first ahead of Sontag and Joel Monahan in the #03 car. Mike McGoldrick in the #1 spun out at the start/finish line after the leader took the white flag so the race ended under yellow with McGoldrick showing in 9th after the race.
“It feels awesome, the car is awesome, we finally got all our ducks in a row,” Raymond said after the win.
Sportsman Modifieds took the track following the Mini Stocks as the sun and temperature at Monadnock Speedway went down for their 30 lap feature. Kim Rivet took the whole shot from the pole position on lap one, but before the completion of lap one, JT Cloutier had a tire go down in turn 2 bringing caution to the track.
Back under green, Rivet lost the lead to Trevor Bleau and second to Brett Gonyaw. The youngster Bleau led Gonyaw for just over a lap before the #87 shot to the front of the field.
On lap 8 caution came out on the track as the #3 of Jeff Murry had contact with the #11 of Scott Nordman. Gonyaw got a good jump on Bleau on the restart and opened up a seven car length lead over Bleau. Tyler Jarvenpaa and Kim Rivet were battling it out for fourth place back in the pack when Bleau spun after contact with Dana Smith.
Halfway through the race Gonyaw led the field ahead of Jarvenpaa, Rivet and MacMichael were racing for third as last week’s runner up got by the pole sitter with 10 to go.
Jarvenpaa went to work trying to reel in Gonyaw, but as he did so, MacMichael made up the ground he was chasing and overtook Jarvenpaa for second.
With less than 10 laps remaining, MacMicheal just ran out of time, with Gonyaw’s machine producing too much power to be chased down. Gonyaw came across the line first as he claimed his first victory at Monadnock Speedway of 2015 with Kim Rivet spinning on the last lap. MacMichael edged Jarvenpaa to finish second for the second consecutive week. Rivet had a good run but finished 12th.
The winner two weeks ago, Bill Kimball, came across the line fourth and Keith Carzello rounded out the top five.“It was a good race,” Gonyaw said after the win.
“We started up front and we kept it there,” the winner said, “It’s better than going backwards like we did last week.”
“We have a bunch of guys working together for this,” Gonyaw went on, “They’re there week in and week out through the bad weeks and the good weeks and it’s finally happening so thanks to them.”
The 100 lap Granite State Pro Stock Series feature was on deck as Cory Robert led the field to the green, but it was Barry Gray who grabbed the lead on lap one.
Robert’s day was done early as a lap 4 incident with Adam Norton brought the yellow out for the first time.
Three restart attempts later, and the field finally got into a green flag run with Gray leading the field. Caution flew again on lap 25 as Nick Boivin lost his engine.
Once things got going again Gray held the lead as Larry Gelinas and Matt Frahm looked to get by him. The Monadnock veteran was not to be had on this night though as he held off Gelinas and Frahm to grab is his fourth win in the GSPSS Memorial Day 100 at Monadnock Speedway.
Larry Gelinas gave Gray all he could handle looking inside for the pass several times but coming up just short at the line he had to settle for second place with Frahm in third.
“My hats off to my guys, they work really hard,” Gray said after the race.
“This is a home track for us, all the guys ran us good and clean tonight.”
With two races remaining on the card for the evening things were just heating up as Super Stocks came out to run their feature. Tyler Lescord led the field to green. The race stayed green and Lescord led Tyler Leary and Dennis Stange for a clean, green 25 laps to checkered.
“I think we made the right choices,” Lescord said after the race when discussing some adjustments he made that led him to his first win of the season.
(continued)