Lee, NH – Wayne Helliwell, Jr. drove closer to the 2009 NASCAR Whelen
All-American Series Late Model championship at Lee USA Speedway on Friday
night, capturing his third consecutive win in the E Keys 4 Cars-sponsored
50-lap feature event.
Bobby Baillargeon jumped out to the lead at the start of the race, and he
led the first half of the event before losing out to Bryan Kruczek. The
pair entertained the crowd for some ten laps as they battled door handle to
door handle before Kruczek edged out to the lead.
Helliwell stayed right in Kruczek's tire tracks and moved past Baillargeon
to take over the second spot, and he quickly moved to the outside to
challenge Kruczek for the lead. Helliwell made it past, but Kruczek wasn't
giving up without a fight.
He returned the favor and moved to the outside of Helliwell, challenging
hard to regain the coveted top spot. After a few laps, Kruczek had to fall
in behind Helliwell, who then opened it up to lead by a couple of car
lengths with the laps winding down.
At the checkers, Helliwell picked up his third straight feature win, making
it five overall for the season. Kruczek settled for runner-up, with Tom
Fuller, J.R. Baril, Jeffrey Labrecque, Jr., Jeremy Harclerode, Pat Floyd,
Katrina Canney, and Moe Lattime the rest of the top ten.
The Planet Aid Hobby Stocks ran their biggest race of the season on Friday,
as the 50-lap Doug Ricker Memorial event hit the track. Veteran campaigner
Ron Washburn found himself on the pole when feature time came around, and he
made the most of it.
Washburn immediately jumped out to the lead when flagman Bryon Callen
unfurled the green, with heavy pressure coming his way from Bobby Glass, Jim
Shorey, and Jimmy Russell in the early going.
Glass had his hands full defending the second spot throughout the race, as
he stuck to Washburn's back bumper waiting for a mistake. But there was
none coming, as Washburn ran a flawless race from green to checker to score
the win.
The top ten finishers joined Washburn for the post-race awards ceremony with
the Ricker family, with Glass, Todd Bregy, Patrick Tanguay, Shorey, Keith
Walton, Hans Meier, George Helliwell, Dennis Dumas and Tom Harton receiving
hardware for their second through tenth place finishes.
The PB Chopper Shop and Rods Small Block Supers made up a pair of rained out
feature events from earlier in the season, and Dan Bowes grabbed the
spotlight by picking up wins in both ends of the doubleheader.
In the first feature, Bowes ran down early leader Tommy Tombarello, Jr. to
take the lead just after the halfway mark, and he went on to easily post the
win, his third of the 2009 campaign.
Tombarello picked up his best finish of the year in second, with P.J.
Stergios, Eddie Witkum, Jr., Billy Osborne, Mike Netishen, Mike Spurling,
Billy Buyck, Bob Millett, Jr., and Dave Sanborn credited with third through
tenth.
Two-time defending champ Witkum jumped out to the early lead in the
nightcap, but Bowes made an impressive pass on the outside on lap 18 and
went on to collect the win. Witkum, Stergios, Osborne, and Tombarello
closed out the top five.
Points leader Grant Aither put in another impressive run in the Prime
Storage Late Model Sportsman feature, grabbing the lead from Michele
Fushpanski on lap three to take command of the event.
From there, Aither was literally cruising, as he pulled away to lead the
field by a full straightaway. Bobby Melvin was the best of the rest in
second, with Peter Cook, "Piranha Pete" Evans, Fushpanski, Bill Ahern, Ryan
Green, Sparky MacIver, Chris Sullivan, and Jesse Bousquet the rest of the
top ten.
Niko Manyati took the lead from Ken Piaseczny, Jr. on the third lap of the
David's Race Cars and Components Roadrunner main, and he went the distance
to collect his third checker of the season.
Shaun Waites, Jr. scored runner-up honors, with Jim Piaseczny, Ben Brown,
Steve Nichols, Ken Piaseczny, Jr., Aaron Day, Torrey Kovaleski, James
Fitzgerald, and Justin King wrapping up the top ten finishers.
In American Auto Parts Ironman action, it was Kevin Emery running away to
pick up the win, with Crystal Brown, Warren Harvey, Matt Lambert, and Glen
Billings rounding out the top five.