Jon McKennedy outduels Christopher Jr. to cap off a thrilling 52nd Annual Icebreaker Saturday at Thompson
RPW Exclusive Column By: Steven Brien – RACEPROWEEKLY – THOMPSON, CT – Jon McKennedy survived a late restart with four laps remaining and outdueled Michael Christopher Jr. throughout the latter part of the race to win the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series Propane and Heating and Cooling 75 at Thompson Speedway.
The defending Monaco Modified champ started ninth but quickly worked his way through the field, moving into second early in the race. McKennedy was very pleased all weekend with his car.
“It was an overall great day, car had awesome speed. This one feels good” a very pleased McKennedy said in victory lane.
The first caution came on Lap 37, when Chase Grennan’s No. 38 car spun and hit the Turn 2 wall. The incident opened up pit-road where the entire field elected to come down and take advantage of the one-tire change. Leader Eric Berndt lost the top spot after a slow pit stop, leaving it to Ronnie Williams to take over the lead once more.
At the time of this caution, McKennedy was already hunting down Berndt and Williams running first and second. McKennedy was very appreciative of his pit-crew on the stop, but also knew it become a gamble on lane choice for the restart.
“I told the guys for the pit-stop, ‘do your thing, nice, smooth, do nothing crazy’, they were awesome,” a grateful McKennedy explains, “with the restart, outside here is the preferred groove, obviously, but sometimes when you have someone on the inside, they could wash up into you, and you fall back to like 10th. I felt like I was a leader, and I could help control the restarts.”
Williams had led the opening 15 laps from the pole before Berndt passed him on Lap 16. However, Williams did not retain the lead for long after the restart. On Lap 39, Christopher Jr. made a daring three-wide move on the inside in Turn 3, passing Williams and Trevor Catalano to take the lead.
McKennedy ran second for much of the race before making his move on Lap 57. He dove to the inside of Christopher in Turn 4, cleared him entering Turn 1 and pulled away.
The final caution came with four laps to go after Joey Cipriano was tagged by Woody Pitkat and spun in Turn 4. On the restart, McKennedy got the jump on Christopher and never looked back, driving away to secure his first victory with the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series since Thompson World Series weekend in 2024.
Mike Christopher Jr. finished second, after rolling off from the 10th starting position. Christopher Jr. thought it was a slow start to the day, but enjoyed getting to battle the modified veteran of McKennedy for the win.
“That was a lot of fun. I knew he(McKennedy) was fast. He just had a better car, better pace there. Jon’s really good at what he does. He works on that thing full time and knows what he wants,” Christopher Jr. explains, “I’m really thankful to Jimmy Page and all of his guys to put it back together and give me back out here after this car was destroyed last year.”
Finishing off the podium in 3rd was Patrick Emerling, he rolled off 11th, but was able to pick his way through the field.
“We had a pretty good car all day. We definitely made gains and we felt we were pretty solid. We learned a little bit and yeah, we’re working on trying to get our open show package. better here. I think if we could do it again, we’d probably just show up with a different motor package and we’d be good to go,” a satisfied Emerling explained.
Coming home in fourth place after starting deep in the field in 21st was Jake Johnson. johnson
Jake Johnson in fourth and Williams rounding out the top five. Johnson felt like it was overall a pretty good learning weekend, and at the end successful.
“Having yesterday for practice we got real creative with the setup, and it didn’t exactly have the short run speed, but I felt good about our long run piece, and I guess for today summed it up perfectly. We start 21st and we slowly picked them off one by one and the boys killed it on pit road and we ended up 4th at the end of the day and I think if it was a little bit longer, maybe top three, but I don’t think I have enough for the 1st and second, but definitely a good day overall,” a pleased Johnson explained.
Rounding out the top 5 was 2025 championship runner-up Ronnie Williams. Williams lead early on in the Propane Plus Heating & Cooling 75, but would finish up the day in 5th.
“Overall was a good day. We expect to run well here every time we come to Thompson. So, yeah, maybe I didn’t have the best car, but still good enough for a top five,” Ronnie Williams says.
Austin Beers, the defending NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion, finished sixth. Tyler Chapman was seventh, Eric Goodale eighth, Berndt ninth and Kyle Bonsignore completed the top 10.
Several drivers encountered issues during the race. On Lap 4, 16-year-old Paulie Hartwig III slowed and pitted after a sticker became lodged in his air cleaner. Dana DiMatteo went to pit road off the pace on Lap 25, followed by Dylan Izzo on Lap 44.
Ron Silk and Stephen Kopcik both pitted with mechanical issues on consecutive laps, 52 and 53. On the final lap, George Bessette Jr. was spun into the frontstretch grass as the field took the checkered flag.
Next up for the Monaco Modifieds Tri-Track Series is New London-Waterford Speedbown later on May 23rd for 100 laps of action. Catch it live on the North East Short Track Network(NESTN).
