Christian and Molleur Flip Flop in Double Late Model Features; Monahan Trucks Her Way to Second Win
WATERFORD – The night was kick started by the first of two Late Model events of the evening, making up for weather on May 14th. The original lineup without handicapping put Ray Christian III and Jason Palmer on the front row to start the event. Christian got out to an early lead quickly clearing Palmer when a restart on lap 6 gave him a new challenge. Jordan Hadley got a good jump but contact set him back a bit, giving Christian a comfortable lead. Andrew Molleur got to work on Hadley and was able to complete the pass for 2nd. Christian would ace each restart for the remainder of the event, and even hold off a hard charging Molleur in a lengthy side by side battle to win his fourth race of the season. Behind them, Matt Lowinski-loh entered the fray and was able to nose ahead of Hadley for third in the closing laps.
The second Late Model feature event got off to a rocky start, when pole sitter Jason Williams found himself backed into the turn 1 wall. On the ensuing restart, Jordan Hadley got the advantage and attempted to run off with the lead. Andrew Molleur was able to quickly reel in Hadley and make a fast bottom groove pass to take over the lead on lap 4. Hadley, refusing to give up, crossed Molleur over and tried to retake the lead with no success. Behind them, Ray Christian III was methodically working his way through the field from a 6th place starting position and engaged in a side by side battle with Jason Palmer for 3rd. The race would run its course with no further cautions, taking away any chance at a battle for the lead. Molleur won his third Late Model feature of the season by a two second margin over Christian.
In the biggest Mini Stock event of the season, Jesse Oloski shot out like a cannon to lead the first couple laps, but John Bavolacco took charge of the race like he was a man on a mission. Bavolacco would dominate the field as drivers like Charles Canfield, Tom Silva, and Marc Panaroni all worked their way towards the front of the field. The division clicked off the first 24 laps without incident, safely maneuvering lapped traffic and all until trouble struck when Nick Pappacoda’s car started shooting water from under the hood. Bavolacco briefly surrendered the lead to Silva on the restart but he quickly took it back and resumed his domination on the field. With 4 laps to go, caution flew once more for a spinning Oloski. Under yellow, Bavolacco’s reign came to a premature end when his car broke on pace laps. Silva and Panaroni led the field to green, and Silva’s return to Speedbowl competition after motor troubles proved fruitful as he won the 40 lap main event.
The Street Stock field put on an intense race, but it was a long road to get there. Al Stone III would power by the outside of Jon Porter early to take control of the race. Aaron Plemons got his nose underneath Porter to complete the pass, which shuffled Porter back a few positions. The first caution flew around the halfway point, taking away the massive lead Stone once had. Shawn Gaedeke and Stone led the field to green several times after, but the race was interrupted a few more times. Once when three wide didn’t quite work out, sending Joe Arena and Porter pit side. Stone, Gaedeke, and Plemons remained under a blanket until the finish, with Stone scoring his first win of the season.
An opening lap incident in the SK Lights shuffled up the field, that sent Evan Bourgeois spinning. The second attempt went much smoother with Ethan Durocher and Sami Anderson taking part in an early side by side battle for the lead. Anderson got the advantage and pulled ahead briefly, but a hard charging Tom Abele Jr was in her trail. Abele wasted no time getting into the lead, and even after an incident that put Zack Sangermano on top of Durocher, he would not relinquish that position. From being on the hook the week before, Abele came back with his car in winning form, scoring his fifth win of the season.
When the Trucks rolled out, fans expected a good race but nobody could have predicted the events that followed. Andrew Morin took off to an early lead but was quickly under attack by Ed Ryan Jr. Trouble for Morin struck when a 4 way melee resulted in Morin shearing the right rear axle and sending him into the wall. Ryan with the advantage once again, had a strong Kyle Gero in his tracks. They would be the next pair to battle side by side for the lead in the event, with neither driver having a clear advantage. A restart with 12 laps remaining set up what was the most exciting part of the race. Third place Tyler Chapman saw an opening under the dueling trucks that led the field and made it three wide out of turn four and all the way down the front straight. As a result, Chapman took over the lead and pulled Emma Monahan up front with him, placing her in second. Gero fought back trying to get to the outside of Monahan, but she also fought hard to work her way into the lead by throwing it underneath Chapman. Monahan cleared Chapman, and Gero quickly went to work outside of her. Monahan was able to hang on to earn her second win of the season.
PJ Evans was a dominant force in the INEX Legend Cars all day, and he was able to carry that momentum into the feature event when he took his fourth place starting position to the lead in a mere 4 laps. None of the restarts that followed broke his momentum, even with a strong Brody Monahan on his tail.
The Speedbowl is back in action on Wednesday August 3rd with an INEX Regional Qualifier, and again next Saturday August 6th for the big one. The return of the Monaco Modified Tri Track Series with a 100 lap main event where we expect to see the likes of Ryan Preece, Keith Rocco, Ron Silk, and much more. Keep up with us at www.speedbowlct.com, on Facebook at The New London-Waterford Speedbowl, or on Twitter @SpeedbowlCT.
RESULTS
Late Models (From 5/14) (30 Laps): 1. 93CT-Raymond Christian[1]; 2. 35-Andrew Molleur[7]; 3. 17MA-Matthew Lowinski Loh[12]; 4. 17-Jason Palmer[2]; 5. 37-Jordan Hadley[4]; 6. 94CT-Charles Bailey III[5]; 7. 2CT-Douglas Curry[3]; 8. 31CTX-Corey Hutchings[10]; 9. 5RI-Rich Staskowski[13]; 10. 4-Reese Bogue[11]; 11. 32-Jason Williams[8]; 12. 50RI-Michael Benevides[6]; 13. 9-Keith Scalia[9]; 14. 2-Derryck Anderson Jr[14]; 15. (DNS) 4CT-Charles Bailey IV; 16. (DNS) 31CT-Ryan Morgan; 17. (DNS) 22-Isaiah Newcomb; 18. (DNS) 7-Paul Newcomb
Late Models (30 Laps): 1. 35-Andrew Molleur[5]; 2. 93CT-Raymond Christian[8]; 3. 37-Jordan Hadley[4]; 4. 17-Jason Palmer[7]; 5. 2CT-Douglas Curry[2]; 6. 17MA-Matthew Lowinski Loh[12]; 7. 94CT-Charles Bailey III[3]; 8. 2-Derryck Anderson Jr[10]; 9. 50RI-Michael Benevides[6]; 10. 9-Keith Scalia[9]; 11. 5RI-Rich Staskowski[11]; 12. 4-Reese Bogue[14]; 13. 31CT-Corey Hutchings[13]; 14. 32-Jason Williams[1]
Mini Stocks (40 Laps): 1. 31-Tommy Silva[6]; 2. 51-Mark Panaroni[7]; 3. 25-Charles Canfield[3]; 4. 82-Kevin Moore[8]; 5. 9-Rick LaFlesh[5]; 6. 2-Sam Mesick[2]; 7. 49-Jesse Oloski[1]; 8. 00-Wayne Taylor[11]; 9. 22CT-Tim Baker[13]; 10. 28-Erica Canfield[12]; 11. 91-Raymond Herman Sr[14]; 12. 42-John Bavolacco[4]; 13. 6-Nicholas Pappacoda[10]; 14. 22-Hailey Beal[9]; 15. (DNS) 88-Bill Sylvia
SK Lights (25 Laps): 1. 07-Tom Abele Jr[7]; 2. 16-Nickolas Hovey[4]; 3. 78-Evan Bourgeois[5]; 4. 21-Sami Anderson[1]; 5. 51-John O’Sullivan III[3]; 6. 91CT-Aaron Plemons[11]; 7. 47-Zachery Sangermano[8]; 8. 22-Isaiah Newcomb[6]; 9. 5-Jordan Churchill[10]; 10. 16CT-Ethan Durocher[2]; 11. 42-Stephen Kelogiannis[14]; 12. 34-Daltin McCarthy[12]; 13. 91-Jake Hines[9]; 14. 51CT-Matt Brewer[13]
Street Stocks (25 Laps): 1. 52-Al Stone III[2]; 2. 67-Aaron Plemons[4]; 3. 9-Shawn Gaedeke[5]; 4. 21-Tom Musante[7]; 5. 12-Brian Norman[3]; 6. 22T-Timothy Poulin[9]; 7. 74-Joseph Arena[6]; 8. 38-Jon Porter[1]; 9. 1-Nate Taylor[8]
Trucks (25 Laps): 1. 78-Emma Monahan[8]; 2. 19CT-Kyle Gero[7]; 3. 81-Tyler Chapman[6]; 4. 12-Ed Ryan Jr[4]; 5. 151-Albert Ouellette[5]; 6. 94-Anthony Naglieri[12]; 7. 6X-Andrew Pellegrini[11]; 8. 31-Brody Monahan[2]; 9. 5-Chris Taylor[9]; 10. 98-Shawn Passaro[13]; 11. 52-Mercedes Caron[16]; 12. 80-Mike Cavallaro[14]; 13. 90-Allen Coates[15]; 14. 10-Andrew Morin[1]; 15. 47-Todd Taylor[3]; 16. (DNS) 32-Randy Burr; 17. (DNS) 52CT-Sean Caron; 18. (DNS) 81CT-Brian Norman
INEX Legend Cars (25 Laps): 1. 12-PJ Evans[4]; 2. 31-Brody Monahan[6]; 3. 27N-Nicholaus Bulkeley[5]; 4. 34-Kyle Caissie[10]; 5. 05-Dylan Freeman[3]; 6. 91-Riley Paul[8]; 7. 89-Dylan Cote[1]; 8. 99-Dustin Gagne[7]; 9. 86-Scott Limkemann[2]; 10. 77CT-Thomas Martucci Jr[12]; 11. 23-Jordan Rosado[9]; 12. 15-Scott Kinsman[11]
(Photos by TK Race Photo)
