Pollard and Skinner Score First Wins of Season; Zaikarite and Herman Repeat
WATERFORD – This week there was a bit of a twist to our normal Wednesday program. With the numerous weather cancelations to start the year there was twin 20 lap feature events for the X-Cars and Super X-Cars to make up for it. First time winner Ben Pollard and first of 2022 winner Sean Skinner took home the hardware in the Super X-Cars, and Pete Zaikarite and Christian Herman repeated in the X-Cars. Milania Shilosky scored another win in the INEX Bandoleros, and Brian Norman won the American Vintage Modifieds.
Ben Pollard shot out of the gate like a rocket in the first Super X-Car race, taking the green flag outside of Bud Kuehne. Pollard and Kuehne pulled away from the field while a battle for third between Sean Skinner and Mitch Bombard led a pack of 7 cars all running side by side. Skinner cleared Bombard for third and got to work on Kuehne but couldn’t complete the pass. While all this was going on, Dave Yardley was methodically working his way through the field. A caution flew near the halfway point and Pollard once again rocketed out of the gate. Kuehne, Skinner, and Bombard all kept the pressure on for second place while Pollard saw himself with a near straightaway lead. Bombard settled into third but Yardley powered underneath him to take the spot on the final lap. Ben Pollard would remain in his own zip code to score his first career win.
When they rolled out for the second race, the game was the same, but the players changed. Toby Leonard and David Ciastko led the field to green, but it was Leonard to get the advantage. He was quickly passed by Sean Skinner who got out to a health lead. Mitch Bombard led the charge into 2nd taking with him Bill Reiman, Bill Rheaume and Dave Yardley. Reiman got a nose underneath Bombard and the two battled fiercely side by side for most of the event, slowly chipping away at the big lead Skinner created. With 2 laps to go, Bombard was able to clear Reiman for 2nd, and Yardley made a power move on the outside to cross the line in 3rd. This marks Sean Skinner’s second career win, but first of the season.
Using a backup car after hard contact last week, Wade Robbins led the field to green and set the pace for the first X-Car event. It didn’t take long for the heat to get turned on as he found himself under attack by both Corey Caddick and point leader Pete Zaikarite. Robbins tried to hang on the outside for a few laps with Caddick on the attack but ended up surrendering the lead. Caddick, Zaikarite and now Christian Herman ran away from the field until a caution with 5 laps to go changed the pace of the race. Zaikarite used the outside line to power by Caddick and stay out in front to win his 4th race of the season. Caddick fell into third after a brief side by side battle with Herman.
X-Car feature race number two was led in the early stages by pole sitter Tim Burgess. Wade Robbins with a dive bomb move on lap 3 gave him the lead for a brief second, but it was rookie Ryan Magliano who was scored with being the leader. Magliano took off from the field as Christian Herman chipped his way into second and made quick work of Magliano to pull into the lead at the halfway point. The caution flag flew with 5 to go for a single car incident, that was extended due to some cleanup. When racing resumed, Herman and Magliano would engage in a fierce battle side by side for the lead. Magliano made a crossover attempt but Herman managed to hold his ground to go on and win his 2nd of the season. Behind them for 3rd, a photo finish with Zaikarite and Caddick put Caddick on the podium.
Milania Shilosky led all 20 laps to win her 4th INEX Bandolero race of the season by a healthy margin.
Brian Norman won the 25 lap American Vintage Modified race.
The Speedbowl is back in action on Saturday July 30th for a 6 division show featuring a 40 lap Mini Stock main event, and double features for Late Models, and again next Wednesday August 3rd with an INEX Regional Qualifier added in to our weekly divisions. Keep up with us at www.speedbowlct.com, on Facebook at The New London-Waterford Speedbowl, or on Twitter @SpeedbowlCT.
RESULTS
Super X-Car #1 (20 Laps): 1. 88-Ben Pollard[2]; 2. 38-Donald “Bud” Kuehne[1]; 3. 76-Dave Yardley[8]; 4. 10-Mitch Bombard[3]; 5. 24-Sean Skinner[4]; 6. 25-William Reiman[5]; 7. 29-Donald Berge[10]; 8. 14-Devin Tate[7]; 9. 43-William Rheaume[6]; 10. 78-Jeremey Washburn[14]; 11. 12-David Ciastko[12]; 12. 5-John Nunes[9]; 13. 82-John Nash[11]; 14. 2-Caity DeSomma[15]; 15. 30-Pipper Beal[13]; 16. 41-Toby Leonard[16]
Super X-Car #2 (20 Laps): 1. 24-Sean Skinner[3]; 2. 10-Mitch Bombard[4]; 3. 76-Dave Yardley[10]; 4. 25-William Reiman[6]; 5. 43-William Rheaume[8]; 6. 88-Ben Pollard[7]; 7. 14-Devin Tate[9]; 8. 41-Toby Leonard[1]; 9. 38-Donald “Bud” Kuehne[5]; 10. 12-David Ciastko[2]; 11. 5-John Nunes[13]; 12. 2-Caity DeSomma[12]; 13. 78-Jeremey Washburn[16]; 14. 30-Pipper Beal[11]; 15. 82-John Nash[15]; 16. (DNS) 29-Donald Berge
X-Car #1 (20 Laps): 1. 07-Pete Zaikarite Jr[7]; 2. 9-Christian Herman[10]; 3. 27-Corey Caddick[2]; 4. 7X-Wade Robbins[1]; 5. 02-Ryan Magliano[6]; 6. 23-Brandon Lindahl[13]; 7. 26-Steven Talaba[19]; 8. 01CT-Chuck McDonald[3]; 9. 18-Jeremy Palmer[12]; 10. 42-Chris Palamar[17]; 11. 11-Tim Burgess[15]; 12. 12-Bruce Sperry[16]; 13. 45CT-Josh Piper[5]; 14. 31-Matthew Tumolo[18]; 15. 13-Matt Martel[9]; 16. 93-Richard Nye[8]; 17. 19-Dylan Cabral[4]; 18. 7-Mike Trask[11]; 19. 56-Keith McDonald[20]; 20. (DNS) 47-Grant Spaulding
X-Car #2 (20 Laps): 1. 9-Christian Herman[13]; 2. 02-Ryan Magliano[8]; 3. 27-Corey Caddick[10]; 4. 07-Pete Zaikarite Jr[9]; 5. 01CT-Chuck McDonald[6]; 6. 13-Matt Martel[16]; 7. 26-Steven Talaba[2]; 8. 23-Brandon Lindahl[12]; 9. 12-Bruce Sperry[14]; 10. 42-Chris Palamar[11]; 11. 45CT-Josh Piper[7]; 12. 11-Tim Burgess[1]; 13. 7X-Wade Robbins[4]; 14. 93-Richard Nye[17]; 15. 18-Jeremy Palmer[3]; 16. 7-Mike Trask[18]; 17. 19-Dylan Cabral[5]; 18. 56-Keith McDonald[20]; 19. (DNS) 47-Grant Spaulding; 20. (DNS) 31X-Kenneth Tumolo
Bandolero (20 Laps): 1. 99-Milania Shilosky[1]; 2. 84JR-Brad Strickland[3]; 3. 10-Allyha Desomma[4]; 4. 9-Trenton Starkweather[2]
American Vintage Modifieds (25 Laps): 1. Brian Norman; 2. Ben LeVangie; 3. Paul Jacques; 4. Jeff Heath; DNS. Gary Byington
