night at Lee USA Speedway, and the 2009 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series
Late Model champion opened up his title defense with a feature win.
Jeremy Harclerode led the E Keys 4 Cars 50-lap main event to green, but he
only stayed out front for a few laps before Helliwell motored past. Once in
the lead, Helliwell was never seriously challenged, but there was plenty of
good racing back in the pack.
By the ten-lap mark, Pat Floyd had worked past Harclerode for second, with
Bobby Baillargeon holding fourth in front of a tight battle between J.R
Baril and Tom Fuller, with Miles Chipman right behind the pair looking for
room.
Chipman got tired of waiting on lap 20, and made it three wide coming off
turn two to get past both Baril and Fuller in one straightaway to take
fifth. By lap 30, Chipman was past Baillargeon for fourth, and he quickly
made his way past Harclerode for third.
Up front meanwhile, it was all Helliwell, and the defending champ went on
the score his first of the year in the Bruce Bernhardt machine. Floyd got a
solid runner-up finish for his efforts, with Chipman, Harclerode, and Fuller
next across the stripe.
Former champ J.R. Baril wound up in the sixth spot, with Baillargeon, Moe
Lattime, and rookies Travis Canney and A.J. Panessiti rounding out the top
ten in the first feature event of the 2010 season.
Grant Aither picked right up where he left off in the Prime Storage Late
Model Sportsman feature event, dominating the action to pick up his first
win of the season. Aither was the class of the field all night, and he
picked up a heat win during qualifying as well.
Jesse Bousquet jumped out front early in the main, but Tony Kawejsza quickly
made his way past to take over the top spot. On lap seven, Aither took his
shot coming off two, ducking under Kawejsza for the lead.
Aither was on cruise control the rest of the way, leading them to the
checkers to pick up the win. Kawejsza held on for second, with Ron Bolduc,
Bobby Gahan, Ryan Green, Steve Wilmot, Michele Fushpanski, Patrick Stewart,
rookie Josh Ball, and Bousquet the rest of the top ten.
ISMA veteran Justin Belfiore is filling in for the injured Dan Bowes in
Small Block Super competition, and he put the defending champion’s car in
victory lane the first time out. Belfiore slipped past leader Mike Spurling
in the early going, and he went to distance to post the win.
Billy Osborne had a great run after starting toward the back of the field,
picking them off one by one to get to second at the checkers. “Super Dave”
Sanborn, Tony Carroll, Mike Netishen, Bob Millett, Jr. Tommy Tombarello,
Jr., and Spurling followed.
A strong field of Picnic Table Factory Hobby Stocks was on hand for the
first race of the new season, and it was Patrick Tanguay moving out to the
early lead when starter Bryon Callen unfurled the green flag for the feature
event.
Veteran Bobby Glass started fifth, but he moved up quickly to challenge
Tanguay on the high side, and he made his way past after a few laps to take
his turn out front. Todd Bregy quickly followed Glass past Tanguay, as the
trio opened up a bit of a lead.
Bregy gave it a shot, but the 69-year old Glass held on to pick up a popular
win. Bregy, Tanguay, Eric Hoffman, Jim Piaseczny, Stephen Dubois, Chris
Waites, Randy Carmichael, Niko Manyati, and Joseph Fernandez closed out the
top ten.
In the David’s Race Cars and Components Roadrunners, second year driver
Shaun Waites, Jr. broke out to the early lead, and the youngster set the
pace for the first eight laps before giving up the top spot to Tim Boyle.
Cris King was patiently working his way though traffic throughout the race,
and he took over second with five laps remaining. But time ran out before
he could get to the leader, and Boyle rolled into victory lane when the
checkers waved.
King scored his career-best in the runner-up slot, with veteran Lloyd Chapin
returning to action with a third place finish in the Full Throttle Racing
entry, followed by Troy Washburn, Waites, Steve Nichols, Justin King, Dana
Faulkner, and Torrey Kovalesky.
An early race wreck sent Kale Billings and Matt Lambert to the pits in the
American Auto Parts Ironman main, with Raymie Fowler leading the way when
the caution waved to slow the action.
Kevin Emery quickly made his way to the front after the restart, and he
moved Fowler back a spot with a strong move. Emery was in command he rest
of the way, leading the field under the checkers to score the win.
Fowler scored a solid runner-up finish, with Jack Victoria, Sean Martin, Don
Fortin, Kyle Roy, Chris Martel, Matt Bakutis, Shane Horvath, and P.J. Murphy
third through tenth.