Bangor’s Donny Blanchard used a desperation move to pass Newburgh’s Paul Higgins in turn four on the last lap to win the 75 lap MAC Tools/New England Transmission Little Enduro feature on Saturday night at Speedway 95. Blanchard had started the event on the outside pole by winning the second qualifier, and moved into the lead past Newburgh’s Darren Durrell on lap 2. It wasn’t long before Blanchard and the rest of the leaders started lapping slower cars, and Blanchard got caught behind a pack of them, falling as far back as 10th spot before starting his charge back to the front. At the halfway point, Higgins was leading, followed by Derek Cook of Wilton, Darren Durrell, Hermon’s Andrew Crosby, and Blanchard in fifth. Blanchard caught the break he needed on lap 60, when Michael Shaw of Troy slammed into the front stretch tire wall, bringing out the third and final red flag of the event. On the restart, Blanchard started making his move to the front, with 15 laps remaining. When the flagman signaled one to go, Blanchard was on Higgin’s bumper, but had been unable to make the pass the lead. Going into turn three on the last lap, Blanchard dove to the inside and, using Higgin’s car to hold his own on the track, forced Higgins high and made the pass for the lead coming out of turn four. Higgins finished in second, with Darren Durrell in third. Derek Cook finished fourth on the track, but was disqualified in the post race inspection, giving the fourth spot finish to Hermon’s Andrew Crosby. Mike Ogden of Bucksport was fifth. Durrell and Blanchard won the qualifying races, putting them on the front row for the feature.
In Sport-Four action, Rick Grant of LaGrange took the lead from Old Town’s Brent Fletcher on the second lap and held it to the end of the caution free event, picking up his first win of 2009. Fletcher held his ground for the remainder of the race after losing the lead to Grant, and finished in the second spot. Points leader David Green of Hampden ran another strong race to finish in third. Roy Hathorne of Brownville had his Dodge Neon running well enough for a fourth place finish while Gary Richards of Stetson finished in fifth. Grant had recently returned behind the wheel of his Mustang after having loaned the car to fellow driver Jeff Overlock Jr. of Hermon for a couple of weeks while Overlock tried to fix a nagging engine problem in his own car. Fletcher won the lone qualifier for the Sport- Fours
Some of the 95 Sport-Four drivers did double duty as they also competed in the 50 lap New England Mini Stock Tour event held Saturday night as a make up from an early season rain out. At the end of the day, former Speedway 95 Sport-Four champion Justin Trembley of Winter Harbor won the event after taking the lead from Derek Cook of Wilton on the 19th lap and holding on for the win. Tremblay’s Mustang was easily the class of the field as no one was able to seriously challenge him once he went out front. Current Tour points leader Emerson Cayer of Contookcook N.H. finished in second, with another former 95 Sport-Four drive,r Jason Dorr of Milford finishing in third. Roger Ducharme, hometown unknown, finished in fourth with 95 regular David Green of Hampden finishing fifth. Tremblay and Cayer won the night’s qualifying heats.
The largest Strictly Street field of the season to date raced 35 laps in a series race postponed from last week’s rain out. Carl McAlpine from Burnham was the leader as the checkered flag fell, picking up his first Speedway 95 win of the season. Current points leader Bradley Norris of Ellsworth finished the event in the second spot, And Doug Day of Bangor, substituting for Jordan Pearson, who was given the week off for unsportsmanlike conduct after a disagreement with scoring following a truck race ion which he competed, finished in third. Fourth went to Tim Hudson of Windsor and Shawn Hamel of Bangor finished fifth. The race was stopped only once, on lap 28 when Holden’s Travis Poulin, who was running third at the time, spun and rolled over on the backstretch. McAlpine was also the winner of the Strictly Street qualifier.
In the Super Streets, Kris Watson of Hermon survived a kind of crazy feature event to post his second win of the day. Kris had raced at Unity Raceway earlier in the afternoon, and posted a win there, as well as a second place finish the night before. Watson started the event in the fourth position, but was in first at the completion of lap 1 and was never bested for the top spot. Steve Moulton of Holden finished a lucky second after leaving the race on lap 14 with a damaged front ball joint following contact with Ed Drake of Vasselboro as they were racing for the second spot. Drake was assisted by the track wrecker crew and never returned to the race while Moulton drove his damaged car to the pit. While he was in the pits for repairs, the race was started and stopped twice without a lap being completed, so when he returned to the race, he was still on the lead lap. He came back through the field to finish the event in second. Mike Overlock of Franklin finished third, for his first podium finish of the year. Nick Kinney of Danforth and Al Libby of Brooks rounded out the top five. Moulton was the heat race winner, but started back in the field because of his top three finish last race date.
The Wicked Good Vintage Racing League was again on the track Saturday night with cars from their various divisions competing together. Al Robinson of Machias, driving a 65 Buick and Ken Robinson on E. Machias, driving a 49 Plymouth raced side by side for the last half of the event, with Al Robinson slightly ahead at the checkers. Ken Robinson finished second with Bob Hills of Searsmont third n a 38 Chevy.Jim Sprague of Morrill, driving a 32 Ford and Jeff Willette of Winslow, in a 46 Plymouth rounded out the top five. Al Robinson also won the qualifier for the division.