HOPKINS MAKES IT 5 FOR 5 AT SPEEDWAY 95
Hermon’s Mike Hopkins continued his domination of the Dysart’s Late Models at Speedway 95 Saturday night as he won his fifth feature in a row and is now 5 for 5 for the season. Hopkins started fifth in the 11 car field and by lap 10 was on the point and driving away. Hopkins passed outside pole sitter Deane Smart of Bradley on the 10th lap, and Smart was the only car that could keep close to Hopkins for the remainder of the 35 lap event. Smart finished in the runner up spot. Pole Sitter Duane Seekins of Stockton Springs finished a distant third with Winterport’s Shane Clark finishing fourth, ahead of Ryan Deane, also from Winterport, who finished fifth. The race was stopped only twice for single car incidents, one involving Dale Swoboda on lap 2 and the other one lap 4 when Alex Waltz of Damariscotta spun on the front stretch. Neither car returned to the race following their trip to the pit area. Hopkins and Smart each won a qualifier.
The Sportsman 25 lapper was a nail biter from start to finish as the cars stayed tightly bunched up from the drop of the green. D.J. Moody of Prospect led from the pole to the checkers, but his margin of victory was less than a car length as Kris Watson of Hermon stayed on the inside groove, passing both Steve Moulton of Holden and Doug Sinclair of Hermon on his way to challenge Moody for the win. Watson claimed the second spot on lap 13 and slowly ate away at Moody’s lead, finishing a very close second after spending the final 5 laps in a side by side duel to the finish with Moody. Moulton finished third, right behind the leaders with Sinclair holding on for a fourth place finish, followed by Mike Overlock of Franklin in fifth. Moulton won the evening’s qualifier.
Andrew McLaughlin took home another win in the Strictly Streets, taking the lead away from second place finisher Shawn Hamel II on the 16th lap. McLaughlin started fifth worked his way to the front in a race only stopped once by the yellow flag. Shelby Kimball of Cornville brought out that yellow when she spun coming out of turn four after being the loser in a three wide battle with Cody Brassbridge and Bob Seger for the third spot. Seger and Brassbridge, both from Frankfort, continued on to place third and fourth respectively while Kimball restarted on the rear of the pack and managed to salvage a fifth place finish when the checkered flag fell. McLaughlin also won the heat race for the division.
Bradley Norris of Ellsworth finally put the 99 out front on lap 18 of the hotly contested 20 lap Sport-Four feature, passing Steve Heath of Milo, who had led from lap 8. Heath took the lead from Keith Ogden of Dedham, who dogged Heath for the top spot from that point. Norris stayed on the inside and worked his way past Ogden, then Heath to post the win. Heath finished in second with Ogden a close third. Fourth went to Mike Heath of Brownville with Becky Elston of Carmel finishing in fifth after recovering from an early race trip through the infield that brought out the race’s only caution flag. Becky Elston was the winner of the qualifier.
Ryan Modery of Hermon won feature for the Bomber Division, taking the checkered flag ahead of Kevin Seekins of Frankfort, who finished second and third place finisher Dennis Burns of Carmel. Chris Carroll of Greenbush and Emma Libby of Hudson finished fourth and fifth in the event that was stopped only once when Libby stopped on the front stretch with a flat tire. Modery also won the Bomber qualifier.
The Maine Mods presented by Mission Trailers made their second appearance of the year at the Speeway and Tommy Stilphen of Kennebunk took home the top prize. Stilphen passed early leader Cameron Lovejoy of Kennebunk on lap 15 and went on to the win without a serious challenge. Dustin Bisson of Greene finished in second with Lovejoy falling to a distant third with mechanical issues that slowed his racer. Reid Lanpher of Manchester and Izaac Collins of Pittston rounded out the top five.