Column By: BRITTANY NUTILE / RPW – LOUDON, NH – This year’s Musket 250 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway was very exciting and one of the best races of the second annual Full Throttle Fall Weekend.
Bobby Santos won the race after starting fifth. However, we didn’t see him for the first half of the race, he is known as the closer. He started in the front then drifted to the back to save fuel and tires and then usually by the last caution flag or pit stop he has momentum and makes his way to the front.
Jon McKennedy finished the race 2nd and had a really good race leading a majority of the laps. He started the race 2nd and got right up to the lead in the first couple of laps and got himself in a good position and pulled away with about 20 to go and had one of the dominant cars all day. With another caution with a handful of laps left it was everyone time to go, Bobby Santos was restarting in the top 5 and haven’t seen him in the front for the majority of the race but, he always makes an appearance at the end. He got to the lead and McKennedy dropped back to third but, made up a spot and finished the race 2nd.
Doug Coby got the pole for today’s race and was in the top 5 cars running for a little bit then seemed to fall back, it is a long race, so you don’t have to use up all your tires in the first half of the race. Just have to stay out of trouble and be able to be there at the end. He finished 3rd in todays race and is still the points leader going into the fall final at Stafford Motor Speedway next weekend.
Justin Bonsignore had a decent race at New Hampshire Speedway this weekend. He started the race 3rd and dropped back a little bit for the start of the race to save tires and fuel and to not get in an early wreck with such a long race, it would hurt Justin’s points standings with only 2 races after New Hampshire. Justin finished the race 5th. He is still 2nd in points with 21 points behind Doug Coby. He still has two races, Stafford Speedway and Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park, which is Justin’s best track on the circuit.
Top 5 finishers:
1. Bobby Santos III
2. Jon McKennedy
3. Doug Coby
4. Chuck Hossfeld
5. Justin Bonsignore
Top 5 in points:
1. Doug Coby 582points +21
2. Justin Bonsignore 561points-21
3. Ron Silk 518points-64
4. Craig Lutz 505points -77
5. Eric Goodale 457points-125
K&N Pro Series East
Ty Gibbs wins the Apple Barrel 125 K&N series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on full throttle weekend.
He started the race 3rd and kept himself in the top 3, then on lap 8 he took over the lead from Chase Cabre who led the first 7 laps of the race. Then Gibbs took over the lead at lap 8 and lead 71 laps till lap 78, he had one of the fastest and dominant cars in today’s race. On lap 85 he took back the lead again from Chase Cabre who led another 6 laps. Cabre and Gibbs battled back and forth for the majority of the race and had two of the best cars of the race. On lap 85 Ty took back the lead and led another 45 laps till he took the checkered flag on lap 125. On this leg that he led laps, he was gapping the 2nd place car pretty good and by then no one could really touch him.
Chase Cabre was one of the cars that was a contender to win, since he won the July race here at New Hampshire so, Cabre’s team knew they had a good car and could be a dominant car this weekend again. Which it started off to be good, when he won the pole. He had a lot of god battles with a lot of the cars in the field, the top 5 had battles all day with each other. They had two breaks in the race on lap 40 and 80, where when you pit you don’t loose any positions, you are guaranteed your spot back again. With 33 laps to go Cabre had gone backwards since the lap 80 break. He had lost 8 spots from the break. Cabre finished the race in 6th, which is not what his car showed all day before the lap 80 break.
Josh Berry had a very good race this weekend, his team along with Brandon McReynolds won the race last year in September. Berry started the race 8th and stayed out of trouble and stayed in the top 10. After the lap 40 break he restarted in 8th place and had a good battle with Spencer Davis in the 30 car and got around him to take the position. On the lap 80 break, Josh would now restart in the 5th position and had got going very well and was trying to drive himself to the top 3, he had gained a lot of spot in the first few laps after the restart. Berry finished the race in 3rd. He definitely showed his team that he can race and have a good, not getting into trouble and running in the top spots for most of the race.
Top 5 finishers:
1. Ty Gibbs
2. Tanner Gray
3. Josh Berry
4. Spencer Davis
5. Same Mayer
Top 5 in points:
1. Sam Mayer 463points +30
2. Chase Cabre 433points -30
3. Spencer Davis 421points -42
4. Tanner Gray 415points -48
5. Max McLaughlin 402points -61
Pinty’s Series
Andrew Ranger wins the visit New Hampshire 100 Pinty’s Series race on Full Throttle weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
He started the 100 lap race in 3rd place, he started off running up front and trying to pass drivers to get to the top, and just keeping himself out of any wrecks and saving some for the end of the race. Things went a little downhill when he went to pit on the first caution of the race for fuel and ended up restarting in the back. He made his way through the pack and caught the leader, Kevin Lacroix with 8 laps to go and took off not looking back, putting a decent gap on the rest of the field until he took the checkered flag for his first win at New Hampshire Speedway. This is Ranger’s 4th win of the season and is now the current points leader with 11 points in front of Kevin Lacroix.
It was a very crazy last couple of laps of the race for Kevin Lacroix, who got the pole for todays race, he seemed to check out since the first lap of the race. He led the majority of the race, with 8 laps to go. Ranger passed Lacroix for the lead, while battling for second between Lacroix and Alex Labbe, they were side by side with each other battling for the last few laps and on the final lap, coming to the checkered flag 20 feet away from the start finish line. Labbe and Lacroix made contact with each other and Lacroix hit the inside of the wall hard and finished the race 12th. Labbe finished the race 2nd after the wreck. It hurt Lacroix’s points lead he had coming into the race, he’s now 2nd in points with only 1 lap to go.
D.J Kennington had a pretty good day, he started the race 2nd he got a pretty good jump on the green flag, and then on the next restart and couldn’t get through the gears and something went wrong and went backwards. He didn’t move back too far but, he had to get moving back up to the front. By lap 55 he was battling for 4th against Peter Shepherd III, it was an intense battle between them. Kennington and Shepherd III battled for the rest of the race and ended up being in the right place at the right place because they missed the wreck between Labbe and Lacroix and ended up finished 3rd and 4th.
Top 5 finishers
1. Andrew Ranger
2. Alex Labbe
3. D.J Kennington
4. Peter Shepherd III
5. Marc-Antoine Camirand
Top 5 in points:
1. Andrew Ranger 509points +11
2. Kevin Lacroix 498points -11
3. L.P Dumoulin 471points-38
4. D.J Kennington 444points-65
5. Jason Hathaway 438points-71
