Hirschman Takes Modified High Honors on Sunoco World Series Saturday with the Race of Champions
Column By: Cale King / ACT MEDIA – THOMPSON, CT – The rolling thunder of the New England Supermodified Series kicked off the stacked feature racing Saturday afternoon with Jon McKennedy quickly taking over the lead from Ryan Battle by lap three. Big brother Jeffrey Battle officially sewed up his championship hopes after taking the green flag and found himself in the top three by lap 15. Facing McKennedy’s near straightaway lead, Battle went on the hunt against PJ Stergios until the final five laps but McKennedy was in another zip code, taking the win as smoke began to spirt out of the tailpipe ahead of Jeffrey Battle and Anthony Nocella.
By virtue of their ‘+5’ handicap earned through the heat races, Keith Rocco and Steven Chapman brought the Thompson Sunoco Modified Clash to green! Todd Owen methodically made his way up to second by lap five, fighting in tandem with Chapman and Danny Cates for the runner-up spot as all eyed Keith Rocco’s lead. Top runner Derek Ramstrom made hard contact with the turn three wall, ripping the right front wheel assembly off his #35 machine to call out the first caution. Back under green, it was a familiar sight with Rocco and Owen going at it out front, hopping lanes around each other in a 110mph game of chess. Keith Rocco would go on to round out the Thompson Sunoco Modified season with the CLASH win over Todd Owen and Danny Cates.
Ethan Williams continued his dominance of the Thunderstock Crown Vic division with the final win of the season, his sixth in a row ahead of invaders Traver and Jake Michaud. Once Rob Richardi Jr. took the lead he was lights out on the field for the Harry Kourafas Memorial win in the New England Pro-4 Modifieds.
New England’s Jon McKennedy and Ronnie Williams ahead of Northampton, Pennsylvania duo Austin Beers and Matt Hirschman brought the 75th annual Race of Champions 150 to green. Justin Bonsignore’s turn two spin on lap 64 brought the whole field down pit road for a single tire change with Ron Silk inheriting the restart lead. Silk’s lead soured quick, falling back through the field with a flattening right rear tire with ‘Big Money’ Matt Hirschman and Patrick Emerling leading the field prior to the mandatory lap 80 fuel stop.
Hirschman continued to show the way back under green as Ron Silk’s monumental recovery found him in third and chasing down Emerling by lap 90. The top three ran nose-to-tail less than half-a-second apart by lap 110. The lap 118 caution for Randall Richard’s lick with the turn one wall saw the field jump pitside once more for their final of three change tires with Emerling beating Hirschman and Silk off pit road. Contact with Silk and Emerling took both out of serious contention during the final circuits allowing Matt Hirschman to take his 10th Race of Champions over Jon McKennedy and Emerling across the line.
Following NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour practice, the Street Stocks took on the Thompson highbanks to round out their 2025 season. Ryan Lineham quickly found his way to the front but just as quickly faced a rearview mirror full of George Baldwin. Baldwin tried the crossover move to no avail as Ryan Lineham made a clean sweep of Street Stock shows on World Series weekend with Larry Barnett nailing down his 7th championship.
Scrapping their heats for time’s sake, Danny Gamache and Austin Goff led the SK Light Modifieds to green before Goff went broadside off turn two for the first caution. Meg Fuller, Nick Hovey and John O’Sullivan made it a three-wide race across the stripe as O’Sullivan returned to the line as the leader. After a pair of spin-induced cautions, Nick Hovey made his way into the lead underneath O’Sullivan on lap 10 and a slugfest ensued throughout the field to the very end of the shortened event. Hovey took down the win and the championship over O’Sullivan and Kevin Davis.
