Story By: GARY DUTTON / MONADNOCK SPEEDWAY – WINCHESTER, NH – Modified top gun Brian Robie had a huge night Saturday, September 5, at Monadnock Speedway.
The Sunapee, N.H. hot shoe scored both a win and a runner-up finish in a pair of NHSTRA Battle for The Cup 35-lappers, to open a huge lead in the weekly racing series Modified point standings while, at the same time gaining breathing room over number two Cup points man Matt Kimball in the Battler for the Cup Standings. .
Kimball also had a good night, leading 55 laps of the combined events, and topping the nightcap for his second Modified victory in the last two weeks. If not for being spun out of the lead in the first go-round, the second-generation Bennington, N.H. star might easily have swept Saturday’s twinbill.
In other feature racing Saturday, Superman Aaron Fellows (Croydon, NH) stormed to his track-high tenth victory of the summer, while Pure Stocker Matt Lambert (Ashuelot, NH) earned his first 2020 victory lap. Mini Stock mighty man Gordon Farnum (Fitzwilliam, NH) rocketed to win number six. The Street Stock division was not active Saturday.
In the first NHSTRA Modified feature, Kimball and Robie sat on row one, the fastest pair of the 20 starters aligned by time trial results. Kimball, with Todd Patnode rocketing to his back bumper, took immediate control.
Kimball set a fast pace the first 21 laps, with Robie then using the low groove to take the lead. Two laps later, with plenty of help from behind, Kimball spun out of second.
Trevor Bleau then briefly moved up to the deuce, but that was as good as things would get for the Troy, N.H. speedster when he was slowed by mechanical failure. When the checkers waved, it was steady Brian Chapin following Robie across the finish line, with Scott MacMichael coming from row four to finish third.
The Modified nightcap was an often brutal event, slowed by no fewer than seven caution and one red-flag delays. What was certain at the end was that Matt Kimball, from row two, had led all but the first lap, brining his refuse-to-lose attitude to this one and scoring his second win of the year. Robie, from 14th, was second.
Modified rookie Solomon Brow walked away from a bone-crunching crash into the backchute wall on lap 18. Trevor Bleau, who’d grenaded to 18th in the first go-round, sat out the nightcap, falling from third in the late-season point standings deep into the top ten.
Aaron Fellows went low under lappers on the ninth circuit of the Late Model Sportsman feature and then checked out on the 13-car field to win for the tenth time in eleven outings.
At 41, Fellows has been winning races for a quarter century. Saturday’s runner-up, teen Camdyn Curtis, doesn’t even have a driver’s license yet. Still, though, the Baltimore, VT. young gun had everyone but Fellows covered, outrunning cagey veteran Robert Hagar to earn the second-place trophy.
Mini Stock points leader Gordon Farnum made easy work of scoring his sixth win of 2020. Taking the lead on lap eight, the Fitzwilliam Flyer outran Kevin Cormier to the checkers, with number two points man Nathan Wenzel third.
The Pure Stock feature was a battle of two up-and-coming drivers each bidding for his first win of the season. Bruce Clark led the first 21 go-rounds, with Matt Lambert, who’d ridden in his shadow all the way, then taking over from the top groove and dashing away to victory.
Chris Davis, looking for his fourth win of the season, got up for second, with Jimmy Zellman third, Clark fourth, and points leader Mike Douglas fifth, ending the night’s action 36 points ahead of Davis, the defending Pure Stock champion.
Doug Meservey Jr. led all the way in the Pro-4 Modified 30-lapper. Randy Cabral was second under the checkers, with Al Reiser topping the Pro-4 Lites class.
In Senior Tour Auto Racing events, Richard Eastman of Merrick, Mass. topped the STAR Sportsman 15-lapper aboard a Pinto. Curt Snow, of West Warren, Mass., got the job done in the STAR Modifieds with his 1936 Chevy Coupe.
With only three scheduled racing events remaining in its exciting 2020 season, Monadnock Speedway will return to action next Saturday, September 12.
MONADNOCK SPEEDWAY SEPTEMBER 5 TOP TENS:
NHSTRA Modified Feature 1 Results: Brian Robie, Brian Chapin, Scott MacMichael, Stewart McCormack, Ben Byrne, Alyssa Rivera, Russ Hersey, Kim Rivet, Jason Houle, Chris Riendeau, Matt Kimball, Todd Patnode, Solomon Brow, Cory Plummer, Cameron Houle, Brad Zahensky, Jerry Gomarlo, Trevor Bleau, Eric Leclair, Brian Crunden, Kevin Pittsinger
NHSTRA Modified #2 Results (Unofficial): Matt Kimball, Brian Robie, Ben Byrne, Brian Chapin, Chris Riendeau, Cory Plummer, Kim Rivet, Eric Leclair, Jerry Gomarlo, Jason Houle, Kevin Pittsinger, Todd Patnode, Brad Zahensky, Stewart McCormack, Alyssa Rivera, Cameron Houle, Solomon Brow, Russ Hersey, Scott MacMichael
Late Model Sportsman: Aaron Fellows, Camdyn Curtis, Robert Hagar, Cole Littlewood, Justin Littlewood, Will Kuhn, Dan Comeau, Ronald Laperche, Scott Beck, Nancy Muni-Ruot, Chris Ballas, Matt Winter, Chris Jackson
Mini Stock Results: Gordon Farnum, Kevin Cormier, Nathan Wenzel, Kevin Clayton, Jeff Asselin, Kevin McKnight Jr, Tim Leblanc, Joshua Hubbard, Kevin Russell, Erin Aiken, Jake Puchalski, Jeff Heath, Dave Pratt, Adam Sprague, Shelby Avery, Louis Maher , Eric Banks, DNQ – Nadine Coates, DNQ – Tyson Payne
Pure Stock Results: Matt Lambert, Chris Davis, Jimmy Zellman, Bruce Clark, Mike Douglas, Damon Roy, Randy Phillips, Nick Houle, Jason Leray, CJ Johnson, Doug Nelson, Cory Lofland, JD Stockwell, Reagan Buffum, Ben Sylvester, Steve Zebrowski, Brandon Lavoie
