PULEO REBOUNDS FOR CONVINCING SK MODIFIED® WIN; DUANE NOLL SNEAKS OUT A VICTORY IN TRUCK 50

WATERFORD – It had been a challenging few weeks for Jon Puleo that all culminated in a trip to SK Modified® victory lane. Kyle James launched off to the early lead, but Puleo quickly took him down and ran off into his own zip code. The caution would fly with 12 to go when Paul Buzel contacted the turn 1 wall. On the restart, Puleo continued his dominance on the night while James and Andrew Molleur fought it out for the runner up position. Tim Jordan who was on the hook the week prior made some aggressive moves over the last run putting himself into the mix, but ultimately had to fall back into line settling into fourth.

The week off for SK Lights played into the favor of Eddie Gomarlo who was able to repair his heavily damaged machine and win the day including practice and qualifying. Once the feature race came, the path became rocky. Gomarlo would run for cover at the drop of the green, leaving the rest of the field to fight it out. Evan Bourgeois was the biggest threat during the first half of the event not only having to hold off the pack, but also while challenging for the lead. A caution plagued second half of the race tested the restart abilities of Gomarlo, who is in his first season of SK Light racing after running Legend Cars. Nickolas Hovey, who was making his first Speedbowl start this season, was methodically and quickly moved from deep in the starting grid to throw his hat in the ring with the laps dwindling down. The two would drag race using all available real estate with Gomarlo scoring his first career win at the track.

Jon Porter and Ed Gertsch Jr. led the Street Stocks to green but it was Porter who would lock it down for the first handful of laps. Aaron Plemons was the first driver to catch Porter and take over the race, when a melee on the back straight took Gertsch out of contention and gave some battle scars to Norm Root III and Chad Baxter. Plemons and Al Stone III put on a cross-over duel of the night, but a lap 14 caution reset the stage. With Stone and Plemons still going at it, Baxter rebounded from that earlier incident and was now in the mix. Plemons aced an 8 to go restart, holding off both Stone and Baxter en route to his first win of the season.

The Trucks took center stage with a 50-lap main event with Jake Coutu and Brad Strickland kicking off the race out front. A lap 5 caution allowed Charles Beal an early shot at the lead attempting a bold 3-wide move. It didn’t quite go textbook, but in the end Beal was the one now in control of the race. Beal, Duane Noll, and Tyler Chapman ran away from the field in line as the laps were clicking down. A restart halfway would switch Noll and Chapman, with Beal still the man in charge. 12 laps to go, the script got flipped and Beal and Chapman found themselves involved in an incident sending them to the rear with Noll safely out in front. The pair both made daring 3-wide maneuvers against the competition on their rally back to the front, but it was Noll who was able to score in the win in his first start this season.

Still searching for that win, Dylan Freeman started the Legend Car race off strong, holding off a pack of fierce competitors. Jase Mongeon is the first to give Freeman a challenge, but a caution relegated him back in line. That didn’t matter however, as when racing resumed a three wide attempt from Zachary Martinez opened the door for Mongeon to take over the lead. With under 10 laps to go, Martinez and Freeman made contact sending them to the rear. Mongeon would go on to easily win his second race of the season.

Allen Coates Jr., Glen Marion Jr., and Jim Bavolacco were all on the same lap when the 75-lap Compact Enduro came to its’ conclusion. Coates managed to use lapped traffic to cement his position in front of Marion with just two to go.

Next up at the Speedbowl, Wild ‘n Wacky Wednesday continues with Scout Night. Then the New England Dwarf Car Series makes their Connecticut debut alongside our Speedbowl Saturday Night divisions. Keep up with the us at www.SpeedbowlCT.com, The New London-Waterford Speedbowl on Facebook, or @SpeedbowlCT on Instagram and X.

Unofficial Results

SK Modifieds® (35 Laps): 1. 7-Jonathan Puleo[3]; 2. 21-Kyle James[1]; 3. 35-Andrew Molleur[4]; 4. 47-Timmy Jordan[6]; 5. 81-Todd Owen[2]; 6. 11CT-Eric Berndt[9]; 7. 25-Anthony Flannery[7]; 8. 51-Rob Janovic Jr[5]; 9. 72-Adam Gada[10]; 10. 09-Brian Norman[12]; 11. 8CT-RJ Marcotte[11]; 12. 15-Jeff Fialkovich[17]; 13. 22RI-Carl Kivisto[14]; 14. 9-Paul Buzel[8]; 15. 94-Justin Gaydosh[13]; 16. 81X-Joshua Zentek[15]; 17. 66-Wendell Dailey[16]

SK Lights (25 Laps): 1. 76-Edward Gomarlo[1]; 2. 16-Nickolas Hovey[8]; 3. 07-Tyler Barry[4]; 4. 78-Evan Bourgeois[5]; 5. 51-John O’Sullivan III[10]; 6. 47-Zack Sangermano[6]; 7. 19-John Brunelle[14]; 8. 12X-Amanda Slater[15]; 9. 91-Jake Hines[7]; 10. 27-Corey Caddick[3]; 11. 21-Sami Anderson[2]; 12. 14-Kali Trapp[11]; 13. 33-Hailey Desaulniers[13]; 14. 3-Steven Midford[9]; 15. 44CT-Bob Charland[12]

Street Stocks (25 Laps): 1. 67-Aaron Plemons[5]; 2. 12-Al Stone III[6]; 3. 10-Chad Baxter[7]; 4. 80-Norm Root III[4]; 5. 39-Christopher Douton[17]; 6. 30-Shawn Gaedeke[2]; 7. 85-Michael Viens[16]; 8. 58-David Ciastko[12]; 9. 3-Adam Coutu[13]; 10. 13-Tony Macrino[9]; 11. 37-Corey Coates[8]; 12. 56-Ike Chima[15]; 13. 21-Tom Musante[14]; 14. 38-Jon Porter[1]; 15. 83-Ed Gertsch Jr[3]; 16. 74-Joseph Arena[11]; 17. (DNS) 30X-Sam Mesick

Trucks (50 Laps): 1. 1-Duane Noll[8]; 2. 81-Tyler Chapman[7]; 3. 30-Charles Beal[5]; 4. 6X-Andrew Pellegrini[6]; 5. 33-Jake Coutu[1]; 6. 99-Milania Shilosky[3]; 7. 07-Austin Long[10]; 8. 84JR-Brad Strickland[2]; 9. 25-David Venice[13]; 10. 7-Kassy Prentice[14]; 11. 12-Ed Ryan Jr[9]; 12. 77-Troy Prentice[11]; 13. 54-Cameron Varricchio[12]; 14. 30CT-Sam Mesick[4]

INEX Legend Cars (25 Laps): 1. 19MA-Jase Mongeon[5]; 2. 12X-PJ Evans[3]; 3. 05-Dylan Freeman[1]; 4. 14Z-Zachary Martinez[4]; 5. 91-Riley Paul[2]; 6. 77-Dennis Pantani[6]; 7. 26-Sydney Cook[8]; 8. 12-Leilani Daniels[9]; 9. (DNS) 7X-Patrick Smith

Compact Enduro (75 Laps): 1. 27-Allen Coates Jr[22]; 2. 67CT-Glen Marion Jr[25]; 3. 5X-Jim Bavolacco[4]; 4. 73-Paul Thurlow[26]; 5. 11-Kyle Johnson[9]; 6. 5-Billy Joe Prevost[13]; 7. 12-Robert Jones[35]; 8. 18-Ethan Russell[18]; 9. 3-Dave MacIntosh[2]; 10. 55CT-Brett Sandberg[8]; 11. 42-Justin Whitney[24]; 12. 99-Justin Ducharme[31]; 13. 71-Justyn Prevost[15]; 14. 6-Joshua Martin[12]; 15. 03-Daniel Morris[3]; 16. 17L-Larry Darling[21]; 17. 86-Kyle Corey[16]; 18. 13-Raymond Jacobs[1]; 19. 29-Joshua Prevost[29]; 20. 42X-Eric Williams Jr[23]; 21. 007-Kyle Therriault[32]; 22. 79-EJ Bertrand[5]; 23. 19-Joe Jaena[33]; 24. 21-Brayden Aitken[19]; 25. 88-Jesse Whitney[11]; 26. 65CT-Matt Wood[27]; 27. 37-Matthew Menders[17]; 28. 38-Kyle Czenthe[6]; 29. 666-Ariana Burton[14]; 30. 111-Kyle Fontaine[7]; 31. 69X-William Blair[10]; 32. 01-Andrew Cooper[34]; 33. 1995-Robert LeMay[20]; 34. (DNS) 00X-Terry Bombard; 35. (DNS) 97CT-Andrew Culley

(Photos by TK Race Photos)