Eric Berndt with New Team Sets the Standard
WATERFORD – “It’s better to be lucky than good” said Eric Berndt in Victory Lane. But good he has been this season in his new Ferguson Motorsports ride, winning the second Fast 3 Series race for SK Modifieds®. The 70 lap main event got off to a very tame start, with Andrew Molleur jumping into the lead on lap 3 and paces the field for 41 laps without incident. Defending champion Todd Owen, Bill Anderson, and Berndt were the four cars that put a gap on the rest of the field during this time. The yellow flag flew for a single car spin with 29 to go, and that’s when the door opened for Berndt.
Molleur capitalized on the following restart from the outside line, and Anderson moved into 2nd when the yellow flew again for another single car spin 2 laps later. Coming to the green flag, contact between the front row sent both cars into the outside wall head on ending both of their nights. Owen got caught up in the scramble and was forced pitside to change a tire, all this put Berndt on point.
On the next attempt to restart the race Berndt chose the inside of Tim Jordan and the drag race into turn 1 gave Berndt the upper hand. Jordan had to collect his car after he was cleared, and another incident resulting in a roadblock took place on the back straight taking out Kyle James, Cory DiMatteo, and David Arute.
A carbon copy restart took place except this time we made it to the checkered flag. Berndt would lead as Dana DiMatteo kept putting the pressure on, constantly pulling up to the Bulldogs bumper but never being able to make the move he needed to win. Coming to the checkered flag, the 6ct car of DiMatteo broke loose and he spun out, just short of the finish line.
The Street Stocks kicked off the evening with a 25 lap make up race from an earlier postponement. Aaron Plemons got off to an early lead over a strong Brian Norman, who kept reeling in the leader but could never stick the pass. Tony Macrino came from deep in the field to put him in a position to go for the win after a lap 21 restart, but Plemons was too strong and was able to win his first race of the season.
When the Street Stocks rolled out for their regularly scheduled event, it was an opposite event. Jake Coutu led the field to green, but Al Stone III took charge of the race. A yellow flew when Coutu contacted the turn 3 wall, and that began a string of incidents that ultimately brought the race to a premature conclusion. The final incident blocked the track in turn 1, and with midnight looming the race was called. Shawn Gaedeke kept his nose clean and was in the right place at the right time to win.
Trouble took place almost immediately in the Mini Stocks, with Sam Mesick contacting the wall head on. When the race resumed it was Charles Beal leading the field in his Acura Integra with Dave Trudeau in his Mustang hot on his tail. Trudeau seemed to make easy work of Beal, but there was trouble brewing under the hood of Beal’s car which forced him to pull to the infield on lap 11. Trudeau, who competes on a limited schedule and Charles Canfield put on a show for the fans running side by side for the remaining laps until a yellow on the final lap forced them into a green, white checkered finish. Trudeau got the jump and took home the hardware.
Last time out, Nickolas Hovey was on the losing end of a photo finish in the SK Lights. This time he was poised for a redemption story, leading the first half of the event. Point leader Tom Abele Jr. was carving his way through the field while Hovey led, and Abele made quick work of Hovey on a restart to take over. Hovey would get one more chance when a 3 to go yellow flag came out, but Abele was just too strong scoring him his 4th win of the season.
The feel-good story of the day came in the Truck race. After a rocky start, the drivers got into a rhythm led by Andrew Morin, but he had Emma Monahan hot on his tail. Something went awry on Morin’s truck with 15 to go, handing the lead over to Monahan. When a yellow flew with 3 to go, Monahan took her experiences from previous races and nailed the restart this time, holding off a strong Bert Ouellette to win her first ever Truck race.
Avery Stoehr and Dan Cugini won the NEMA and NEMA Lite races respectively.
The Speedbowl is off Wednesday July 13th, but racing resumes next Saturday July 16th for a 6-division show headlined by a 50 lap Street Stock race. Keep up with us at www.speedbowlct.com, on Facebook at The New London-Waterford Speedbowl, or on Twitter @SpeedbowlCT.
RESULTS
SK Modified® Fast 3 Series, #2 (70 Laps): 1. 11CT-Eric Berndt[9]; 2. 25-Anthony Flannery[6]; 3. 51-Rob Janovic Jr[2]; 4. 81-Todd Owen[5]; 5. 47-Timmy Jordan[7]; 6. 6-Joe Gada[11]; 7. 72-Adam Gada[8]; 8. 6CT-Dana DiMatteo[16]; 9. 66-Wendell Dailey[18]; 10. 9-Paul Buzel[15]; 11. 35-Andrew Molleur[3]; 12. 89-Bill Anderson[4]; 13. 21-Kyle James[10]; 14. 67-David Arute[13]; 15. 11-Cory DiMatteo[12]; 16. 88-Marcello Rufrano[14]; 17. (DNS) 5TS-Rene J Marcotte; 18. (DNS) 5-RJ Marcotte
Street Stocks (From 5/14) (25 Laps): 1. 67-Aaron Plemons[4]; 2. 13-Tony Macrino[13]; 3. 12-Brian Norman[2]; 4. 9-Shawn Gaedeke[6]; 5. 52-Al Stone III[1]; 6. 81-Ed Gertsch Jr[7]; 7. 1-Nate Taylor[8]; 8. 33-Jake Coutu[3]; 9. 16MA-Zach Meade[5]; 10. 30-Jaysin Beal[10]; 11. 22T-Timothy Poulin[11]; 12. 21-Tom Musante[12]; 13. (DNS) 14-Steve Barrett; 14. (DNS) 6X-Andrew Pellegrini; 15. (DQ) 11-Corey Fanning[14]
Street Stocks (25 Laps): 1. 9-Shawn Gaedeke[7]; 2. 11-Corey Fanning[13]; 3. 22T-Timothy Poulin[2]; 4. 33-Jake Coutu[3]; 5. 21-Tom Musante[1]; 6. 13-Tony Macrino[10]; 7. 52-Al Stone III[5]; 8. 12-Brian Norman[8]; 9. 67-Aaron Plemons[6]; 10. 30-Jaysin Beal[4]; 11. 81-Ed Gertsch Jr[12]; 12. 38-Jon Porter[15]; 13. 16MA-Zach Meade[9]; 14. 1-Nate Taylor[11]; 15. (DNS) 14-Steve Barrett; 16. (DNS) 6X-Andrew Pellegrini
SK Lights (25 Laps): 1. 07-Tom Abele Jr[6]; 2. 16-Nickolas Hovey[5]; 3. 51-John O’Sullivan III[4]; 4. 47-Zack Sangermano[3]; 5. 91CT-Aaron Plemons[11]; 6. 91-Jake Hines[7]; 7. 21-Sami Anderson[2]; 8. 78-Evan Bourgeois[9]; 9. 16CT-Ethan Durocher[8]; 10. 22-Isaiah Newcomb[1]; 11. 42-Stephen Kelogiannis[14]; 12. 5-Jordan Churchill[16]; 13. 0-Charlie McDougall[15]; 14. 51CT-Matt Brewer[10]; 15. 4-Joe Liskiewicz[13]; 16. 96-Blair Culhane[12]
Mini Stocks (25 Laps): 1. 97-Dave Trudeau[6]; 2. 25-Charles Canfield[4]; 3. 7-Kyle Wing[7]; 4. 49-Jesse Oloski[3]; 5. 91-Raymond Herman Sr[10]; 6. 6-Nicholas Pappacoda[8]; 7. 22-Hailey Beal[2]; 8. 22CT-Tim Baker[12]; 9. 28-Erica Canfield[13]; 10. 30-Charles Beal[1]; 11. 42-John Bavolacco[9]; 12. 2-Sam Mesick[5]; 13. (DQ) 00-Wayne Taylor[11]
Trucks (25 Laps): 1. 78-Emma Monahan[3]; 2. 151-Albert Ouellette[8]; 3. 47-Todd Taylor[4]; 4. 81CT-Bo Norman[12]; 5. 94-Anthony Naglieri[2]; 6. 81-Tyler Chapman[7]; 7. 19CT-Kyle Gero[9]; 8. 31-Brody Monahan[15]; 9. 52-Mercedes Caron[13]; 10. 98-Shawn Passaro[11]; 11. 10-Andrew Morin[1]; 12. 5-Chris Taylor[5]; 13. 12-Ed Ryan Jr[14]; 14. 9-Bill Porter[6]; 15. 30-Jaysin Beal[10]
(Photos by TK Race Photo)
