Lee, NH – Lee USA Speedway opened up Friday night’s program with a tribute to first responders in remembrance of the events of 9/11, with Senator Kelly Ayotte joining representatives of police, fire, and rescue organizations for the pre-race ceremonies.
It was the final Friday night race of the season for the weekly competitors, with a wire-to-wire win in the Benson Limber and Hardware feature event as well as the 2011 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Small Block Supermodified title going to multi-time track champ Wayne Helliwell, Jr.
Helliwell was unbeatable in the Witkum Brother Racing entry to put an exclamation point on his championship season with another win. He’ll next be headed to the annual “Banquet of Champions” in November to collect his first open-wheel championship trophy.
“Super Dave” Sanborn threw everything he had at Helliwell, but he came up short and had to settle for runner-up, both for the night and the season. 2010 champion Tommy Tombarello, Jr. joined the pair on the podium after a third place finish.
Fourth spot went to Ben Tinker, followed by Mike Ordway, Jr., Tony Carroll, Matt Riley, Sparky MacIver, Mike Netishen, Leslie Keyser, Bryan Kruczek, Moe Lattime, Mike Spurling, Johnny Burke, and Jim Barker.
In the Prime Storage Late Model Sportsman portion of he program, J.R. Baril once again dominated the action to take down the win, his third in four starts aboard the former Grant Aither machine.
Bill Ahern grabbed a solid second place finish, but it was third place driver Ryan Green who got the post-race spotlight, celebrating his first career Late Model Sportsman championship with a crowd-pleasing display of burnouts after the checkered flag flew.
Tony Kawejsza returned from a hard crash the week before to post a fourth place tally in the main, with Brian Grantz, Michele Fushpanski, Todd Bregy, Mike Mitchell, Timmy Johnson, Larry Moloney, Ryan Gath, Josh Ball, Kayla Cazares, Peter Cook, and David Piper next in the rundown.
The David’s Race Cars and Components Hobby Stocks went into the main with just a single point separating Mike Williams and Mark Parenteau for the championship. Williams broke out to the early lead and quickly added lap leader bonus points to his lead, with Parenteau trailing him in the early going.
Williams was still out front 15 laps in, but not for long. Parenteau dug deep and went t work, moving past Williams to the lead on lap 18. Parenteau went on to pick up the win, which gave him the championship over Williams by the narrowest of margins.
Steve Douphinette moved up late in the race to finish second, followed by Williams, Eric Hoffman, Jim Piaseczny, Steve Dubois, Bobby Glass, Nick Maniatis, Sean Nordin, Brian Thompson, Brian DeStefano, Sam Peabody, Patrick Tanguay, Dave McCarthy, and Mike Anderson.
Kyle Roy won another battle in the RE/MAX Ironman feature event, picking up his eighth win of the season when the checkers fell to end the regular season. But Troy Washburn won the season-long war, taking down championship honors for 2011.
Washburn scored a second place finish in the main, while Kale Billings came across the stripe in the third spot, with Jake Rheaume and Rookie of the Year contender Danielle Simoneau rounding out the top five.
Preparations are already underway for the eleven-division Oktoberfest 2011, which will run October 21-23, with a test and tune session scheduled for Friday, and a full slate of qualifying and the Pro Stock/Super Late Model l00 Lap feature event racing filling the calendar on Saturday and then on Sunday the remainder 10 Division will run their features.
The Valenti Modified Racing Series will be among the featured attractions, with a feature event that is likely to determine the season championship. In addition, the Pro Stocks/Super Late Models and Small Block Supermodifieds will be among the headline divisions on hand.
Late Models, Hobby Stock/Strictly Stocks, 4-cylinders, Late Model Sportsman/Super Streets, Outlaw Mini Stocks, Ironman/6-cylinders, and the racers of the Allison Legacy Series and Northeast Classic Lites make up the rest of this year’s action-packed Oktoberfest lineup.
For more information, log on to www.leeusaspeedway.com.