PARRITT WIRES 95 LATE MODEL FEATURE AT SPEEDWAY 95
Brenton Parritt of Steuben took off from the outside pole position in the 35 lap Dysart’s Late Model feature at Speedway 95 Sunday afternoon and held the lead through two restarts to post his first win of the young season. Parritt was challenged by Duane Seekins of Stockton Springs in the early going and on the restarts, but Seekins eventually settled into the second spot, where he finished. It wasn’t an easy second place finish for Seekins, though, as he faced tough competition from both Josh St. Clair of Liberty and Dale Swoboda of Hermon. Both St. Clair and Swoboda were using the inside groove to move past traffic as they both started near the rear of the field due to their top three finishes last week. Swoboda and St. Clair had passed Seekins and were battling for the second spot , Swoboda on the outside and St. Clair on the inside, when they came together on the front stretch on lap 25, eliminating both cars for the remainder of the event. Seekins then regained the second spot and held it to the end. Bangor’s Doug Day finished the race in third, followed by John Kalel II of Orrington in fourth and Nick Kinney of Danforth in fifth. Seekins won the day’s 15 lap qualifier.
Sport-Four action saw race one of their 3 race Varney Agency Series, a 35 lap event that was won by Keith Ogden of Dedham, his second win of the year. Ogden took the lead on lap 8 and held it until lap 21 when Steve Heath of Milo powered past him on a restart. Heath held the lead until lap 29, when Ogden made the pass to the lead, which he held to the end. Heath and Ogden had battled side by side for several laps before Ogden put his car out front for good. Bradley Norris of Ellsworth worked his way up to a third place finish, followed by outside pole sitter Derek Terrell in fourth and Exeter’s Gary Richards in fifth. Another driver who was a factor in most of the race was 2009 division champion David Green of Hampden who, using a borrowed car, raced from tenth position on the start to the second spot before he spun out of contention. Green recovered to post a sixth place finish. Derek Terrel was the winner of the 10 lap qualifier for the division.
In Super Street action, Steve Moulton of Holden returned from a two week absence to post his first win of the season. Moulton started at the rear of the field, but by midway in the event had passed early leader Doug Sinclair of Hermon for the lead. Sinclair rode the remainder of the race on Moulton’s bumper, and made a last lap effort to pass Moulton for the win, but came up short by half a car-length. Mike Overlock of Frankiln, who finished third on the track, was disqualified in post race inspection for violation of the rear-end gear rule. Third place then went to Jeremy Glazier of Appleton, followed by Liberty’s Ryan St. Clair in fourth and Jeff Overlock Jr. of Hermon in fifth. Moulton also won the 10 lap qualifier for the day, but still had to start from the rear for having missed the previous race meet.
Duane Seekins of Stockton Springs finally made it through post race inspection following the Strictly Street feature and was allowed to keep the first place trophy. Seekins had won the previous two feature events, only to have his Camaro found in violation of the weight rules one week and the chassis height restrictions the next. Jim Carr Jr. of Clifton led the lion’s share of laps in the race, but nearing the end, he slipped high in oil spilled by Ren Dorr, and lost several positions. An unhappy Carr was able to recover to finish second. Third place went to Shawn Hamel II of Bangor after his father, Shawn Hamel, also of Bangor, was disqualified in post race inspection for too much left side weight. Benjamin Clark of Clinton, in his first appearance at Speedway 95 finished fourth with Ren Dorr finishing fifth.
Although it took three tries to get the race underway due to two first lap red flag incidents, Travis Beale of Winterport led from the green flag to the checkers to pick up his first win of the season and second in nine years of trying. Last week’s winner Donny Blanchard of Orrington came from the back of the pack, carefully picking his way through slower traffic to preserve his new paint job, to challenge Beale in the closing laps but was unable to make the pass before the checkered flag fell, and finished second without a scratch. Andrew Crosby of Hermon picked up his second top three finish of the season by finishing third, with Ken Ogden of Seal Cove and Waylon Shibles of Winterport rounding out the top five.
Speedway 95 switches to Saturday night racing on May 29, in a show that will begin at 7:00, and will be highlighted by a 95 lap Late Model feature paying $1500.00 to win. Another schedule change takes the Sunday, June 6 show off the schedule completely, as the Monster Trucks will be at the speedway June 3,4 and 5, and the track is usually rendered unuseable immediately following that show. Regular Saturday night racing will resume at Speedway 95 on Saturday, June 12. On June 2, the 11th season of the Varney GMC-Buick-Mazda Wacky Wednesday show will kick off at 7:00.