Column By: BRITTANY NUTILE / RPW – THOMPSON, CT – Todd Owen won the Sunoco Modified race on World Series weekend at Thompson Speedway.
Todd started the race 2nd and got the lead very quickly in the first couple of laps. He battled for the lead early with Troy Talman and Ronnie Williams. On lap 20 there was an accident on the restart when Owen and Williams were battling, and Ronnie moved Owen up the track and then there was an accident in the middle of the field from the effect of the front two battling. Ronnie was DQ’d and parked for the rest of the race. The accident on lap 20 took out several cars in the field including the 79 of Danny Cates and the 47 of Timmy Jordan. When Cates got air borne and went over Jordan’s front end of the car. Then in the last couple of laps, Todd Owen was battling with Michael Christopher Jr. who came out of nowhere but, Christopher couldn’t keep the battle got loose and ended up 3rd.
Woody finished the race 2nd but, came up short for the championship. Woody started the race 6th and battled his way up through the field to the top 3. He finishes the year off 2nd in the point standings. Being in a new car with a new owner and crew this year for the Sunoco Modified series. He had a good year in the series with 2 wins, 2 2nd, 1 3rd, 1 4th, and 2 6th place finishes.
Keith Rocco wins the 2019 Sunoco Modified Series championship at Thompson Speedway today. Rocco has a total of 18 career championships and now has 8 championships at Thompson Speedway. He started the race 5th and finished the race 5th. In order to win the championship, he had to be with in 20 positions of Woody Pitkat and it wasn’t too hard to get that done. After lap 20, because of the accident even if Rocco had a problem and was in the bac there was only 14 cars on the lead lap. Keith has had an overall fantastic career in the Sk modified division and racing in general.
Top 5 finishers:
1. Todd Owen
2. Woody Pitkat
3. Mike Christopher Jr.
4. Troy Talman
5. Keith Rocco
Top 5 in points:
1. Keith Rocco
2. Woody Pitkat
3. Todd Owen
4. Troy Talman
5. Ronnie Williams
MRS Series
Ronnie Williams won the MRS series on World Series Weekend at Thompson Speedway.
Ronnie started on the pole, based on owner points. He had been very good at Thompson in the MRS series this year. Ronnie has won 3 times in the series this year. He and car owner, Gary Casella have a good thing going. The crew and everyone in the 25 camp have good chemistry and have a good car and driver to win races. Ronnie led all the laps from the green flag to the checkered flag.
Mike Willis Jr. wins the 2019 MRS series championship. Willis won the championship by 54 points ahead of Ronnie Williams. Mike had a good season in MRS, he won one race this year and had been very consistent for the rest of races to maintain his point lead over Williams. He finished the last race of the season 22nd and that all he needed to get the championship.
Chase Dowling finished 2nd in the final race of the season. He started the race 13th. Chase has also had good races in the MRS series this year. He won 2 races this season at racetracks that he’s done pretty well at. He got up to the top 5 by lap 13 and stayed there till the end of the race.
Top 5 finishers:
1. Ronnie Williams
2. Chase Dowling
3. Craig Lutz
4. Todd Owen
5. Joey Cipriano
Top 5 in points:
1. Mike Willis Jr
2. Ronnie Williams
3. Brian Robie
4. Dylan Rock
5. Anthony Nocella
ISMA Supermodifieds
Jon McKennedy won the ISMA race at World Series weekend at Thompson Speedway.
It was a very emotional race for McKennedy because this was his first race back after his father passing away in September. He started the race 2nd and dominated the race, leading all 50 laps of the feature. McKennedy finishes the ISMA season in 8th in points.
Mike Ordway Jr. finished the race 2nd, he started the race on the pole. He stayed in the top 3 for the entire 50-lap feature, he was in 2nd for the majority of the race and the dropped to 3rd for 17 laps. Ordway Jr. finishes the race season 2nd in points.
Ben Seitz finished the race 3rd, he started the race in 5th place. He had a good year in the ISMA series and finished the season 4th in the point standings. He stayed in the top 5 for the whole race and by lap 33 was in the top 3 in 3rd. He was in 3rd from lap 33 to lap 50.
Mike Lichty won the ISMA championship, this is his second ISMA championship. Lichty started the race in 4th and finished the race 6th. He had a good race and a good year, he had one win at Oswego Speedway.
Top 5 finishers:
1. Jonathan McKennedy
2. Mike Ordway Jr.
3. Ben Seitz
4. Timmy Jedrzejek
5. Kyle Edwards
Top 5 in points:
1. Mike Lichty
2. Mike Ordway Jr.
3. Kyle Edwards
4. Ben Seitz
5. Mark Sammut
ACT Race
Jonathan Bouvrette wins the ACT tour world series 75 race at Thompson Speedway. Bouvrette started the race 6th, he dominated in the race and had a very fast car. He led a lot of the 75 laps and just had to have a clean race and be dominate on restarts after cautions. This season Bouvrette had a 2nd place and 4th place, and a 5th place finish.
Rich Dubeau wins his first ACT championship in 2019. Dubeau had one 2nd, two 3rd, one 4th, and three fifth place finishes this season. He had 9 top 5’s this season. Dubeau started the world series 75 race 17th. Rich finished the race 11th, which is good enough to win the championship.
Woody Pitkat finished in 2nd place, he started the race 17th a little deeper in the field at the start of the race. By lap 10 was in the top 10 working this way up towards the top 5 and trying to get into the top 3 to make a run for the lead. At lap 33 Woody got into the top 5, passing a lot of cars through out the entire race, also with the help of cautions that took out cars in front of him.
Mark Jenison finished the race 3rd and started the race 7th and had a good race he stayed in the 2nd or most of the race from lap 2 to lap 73 and dropped to 3rd for the lap 2 laps. He had a good season and good races this season.
Top 5 finishers:
1. Jonathan Bouvrette
2. Woody Pitkat
3. Mark Jenison
4. Ryan Kuhn
5. Dylan Payea
Top 5 in points:
1. Rich Dubeau
2. Jimmy Herbert
3. Ryan Kuhn
4. Scott Payea
5. Dylan Payea
Late Models
Derek Gluchacki won the late model race on world series weekend at Thompson Speedway.
Gluchacki started the race in 6th place, he led 16 laps from lap 6 to 20. He had a very good race despite being so close to a championship but, couldn’t quite get it.
William Wall wins the 2019 late model championship at Thompson Speedway. Wall started the race 5th, he started to drop back a little to the back of the top 10 and just stayed there for the first half of the race because of all the cautions and just stayed conservative. In order to win the championship Wall had to finish 7th or better. On lap 18, there was a caution, before the caution Wall was 8th and then after the caution he was 6th. If there was no caution, Wall may not have won the championship if it wasn’t for the caution.
Things got dicey with in the first 4 laps where there was already a caution. Then things got a bit more dramatic for the championship battle, when on lap 5, Woody Pitkat had contact with another driver and hit the turn 3 wall hard, destroying the front end of his car. His championship run ended earlier than he would have wanted. It a very disappointed end to the good season Woody was having, for him and his crew.
Top 5 finishers:
1. Derek Gluchacki
2. Tom Carey III
3. Mark Jenison
4. Joey Parker
5. Matt Lowinski-Loh
Woody Pitkat finished the race 30th because of the wreck
Top 5 in points:
1. William Wall
2. Derek Gluchacki
3. Mark Jenison
4. Woody Pitkat
5. Matthew Lowinski-Loh
SK Lights
Bryan Narducci won the SK Light Modified race on World Series weekend at Thompson Speedway.
Bryan has won 7 out of 10 races this season at Thompson, he has been very successful in the Sk light modified division here and at Stafford. Bryan wins the first ever SK light modified championship at Thompson. Bryan also won the Division III national championship for the 2nd year in a row. He clinched the championship before coming to world series weekend.
Bryan started the race 6th. There was a bit of controversy in the race between Narducci and Albert Ouellette, who had battling since lap 5. They had a hard-fought battle and Ouellette had the lead from lap 1 to lap 19 and then on the last lap Bryan made a move on the outside and both Narducci and Ouellette had banged wheels and Ouellette got loose and spun around at the finished line.
Albert Ouellette finished 2nd and started the race 2nd. He had a dominant race where he led 19 out of 20 laps and didn’t lead the last lap getting it taken away by Narducci. He ended up finishing 2nd but, still a great race and season at Thompson. He finished the season 2nd in points.
Alexander Pearl finished the race 3rd and started the race 8th. Pearl had a good race today and worked hard to get up to he top 3. He got up to the top 5 very quickly by lap 5 he was 4th in the race. Pearl has had a very strong run at Thompson with 1 2nd, 2 3rd, 1 6th, and 1 14th place finishes. Alexander finishes the season off with 10th place in points.
Top 5 finishers:
1. Bryan Narducci
2. Albert Ouellette
3. Alexander Pearl
4. Brian Sullivan
5. Kyle Ellwood
Top 5 in points:
1. Bryan Narducci
2. Albert Ouellette
3. Wayne Burroughs Jr.
4. John O’Sullivan
5. Nathan Pytko
