Seekonk, MA – Les Hinckley, of Windsor Locks, CT., passed
race leader Dwight Jarvis, of Ascutney, VT., on lap 78, to go
on and win the Valenti Modified Racing Series “Seekonk 100”
Saturday night at Seekonk Speedway, Seekonk, MA
Hinckley started 14th in a 19 car field and methodically worked
his way to second to battle with Jarvis. The second generation
driver raced with the Vermont hot shoe for six laps before passing
him for the lead.
“We started deep in the field and it’s always gratifying passing a
lot of race cars. We had a little trouble in the heat race that put us
to the back for the feature but I knew we had a good piece.”
Early on in the race, very spirited battles took place between
several drivers. Hinckley feels you need to be aware of what is
happening toward the front of the field.
“You have to keep a balance between what’s going on in front of
you and beyond,” he said, “I saw some cars banging and you have
to be careful. Coming up through you have to be on your toes.”
Jarvis, who has run selected events this season, finished second.
“The boys (crew) did a helluva job getting the car set-up for
me,” he said. “Les did a good job, I didn’t realize he was that close.
I don’t have a lot of radio chatter on my radio, I like to drive the
car myself. He got by me, I thought at the end I would get
back by him, but he was good,” he said. “ He is a good clean
driver that you can run on the outside. It was fun.”
Chris Pasteryak, of Lisbon,CT., finished a solid third after starting outside front row and running in the top four throughout the 100- lap race. “We ended up a little tight and it really went away at the end
but it was a fun race,” he said, “Congratulations to Les and Dwight, they both had good cars tonight.”
The victory, Hinckley’s second this season, was his third win at
the famed 1/3 mile speedway and his 15th career VMRS win.
Hinckley joins Pasteryak as the only two-time winners this season.
Joey Jarvis, Ascutney, drove to a solid fourth place finish, with
Norman Wrenn, of Nashua, NH., rounding out the top five.
Sixth through tenth were; Mike Holdridge, Jimmy Kuhn, Joe
Doucette, Jack Bateman, and Rowan Pennink. The Pennink
team changed an engine prior to qualifying and started last in
the 19 -car field.
Hinckley entered the race only 6 points ahead of Chris Pasteryak,
of Lisbon, CT., as the two Connecticut drivers have emerged as the
two contenders that will battle it out for the series title. Hinckley
is vying for his first series championship. Pasteryak claimed that
honor in 2008.
20 cars entered the program with 19 starting the feature race.14
drivers finished the race on the lead lap.
5 caution flags slowed the race that took 38 minutes 53 seconds
to complete.
Race Summary
August 20,2011,
Seekonk Speedway Seekonk, MA
Distance: 100 laps
Time of Race: 38:53:737
Best Lap Time: 12:24 (Dwight Jarvis)
Best Speed: 97.941
Margin of Victory: 5.508
Lead Changes: 6
Lap Leaders: Mechalides (1-24) Pastertyak (25-34)
Annarummo (35-50) Pasteryak (51-52) Annarummo
(53-72) D. Jarvis (73-78) Hinckley (79-100)
Cautions: Laps; 21,22,36,49,87
Unofficial Order of Finish;
(1)Hinckley (2) D.Jarvis (3) Pasteryak (4) J. Jarvis
(5) Wrenn (6) Holdridge (7) Kuhn (8) Doucette (9) Bateman
(10) Pennink (11) Preece (12) Jordan (13) Mechalides
(14) Goodenough (15) T. Annarummo (16) V Annarummo
(17) Berghman (18) Malave (19) Zachem.