Swallow Builds Point Lead With Consecutive Wins
Point leader and Texas Roadhouse North East Mini Stock Tour rookie Shawn Swallow extended his point lead in a thrilling photo finish victory at Waterford Speedbowl in Waterford, CT Saturday night. As the pit gates opened at 2 P.M. NEMST and weekly Speedbowl competitors began to line the pit area and descend on the NEMST sign in table, By 5:30 when the heat races began for the nights events thrity-one tour style mini stocks had registered for the nights 50 lap feature event.
Heading up lap times in practice was the former track champion and NEMST rookie contender Danny Field. Fellow NEMST top contenders Shawn Swallow, Emerson Cayer, and Mark Panaroni were also pacing the track with lightning quick <17.5 second lap times. Cayer, Field, and J. Lee drew the pole position starting spots for their respective heats. Heat winners were Chris Williams, Danny Field, and Glenn Thomas took down the checkered flag in their heats as well. Williams drew the inversion resulting in 5 rows of the feature lineup being shuffled.
Tater’s NASCAR Merchandise prize winners were Matt Sonnhalter for $20 and Nick Maniatis for $60 due the the draw not being done at our last event at NHMS. After the heat races Speedbowl weekly features were started, NEMST competitors were patient as the races wound down to the final event of the night. Mark Panaroni and Emerson Cayer were forced to start at the rear f the feature for failing to report to NEMST tech after their heat race podium finishes.
The rear starting spot proved to be beneficial for Panaroni as he diced through traffic early on his way to winning the Sunoco Race Fuels Hard Charger Award and 2nd place in the finishing order. Roger Ducharme and Ian Brew shared the front row and led the field to the green flag for the NEMST’s fifth event of the season.
The Brewmaster broke out to a quick lead. Point leader Shawn Swallow started in the second row and waited for his car to come in before breaking out to chase down the early leader. Danny Field also started to pick of positions slowly moving to 4th within the first 20 laps. Pole sitter Ducharme was spun by Garrett Denton in the first half of the event which resulted in him losing a lap and Denton being black flagged for aggressive contact. Field continued to pursue last years winner John Kelly for third place as the hot shoe from Stark, NH carried momentum around Brew taking the lead.
On lap 35 Mitchell Bombard got a flat right front tire and a caution was thrown as he was unable to cross into the infield while avoiding traffic. The top 5 remained Swallow, Brew, Field, Kelly, and Panaroni from his afore mentioned shotgun starting spot. As the restart ensued Swallow pulled ahead with multiple time track champion Danny Field directly on his back bumper. The experience of 55 year old Field challenged the newly 19 year old Swallow as the laps ran down into the single digits. Panaroni chased the leaders pulling to the outside to begin a charge to the front as Field struggled to battle his car that lost power steering early in the event.
Panaroni made a strong charge on the outside pulling ahead of Swallow in coming out of the corners but the Honda horsepower was to much to match as Swallow took home the checkered flag for the second time in as many races by merely inches over Panaroni with Danny Field, Louis Maher, and Ian Brew rounding out the top 5. The NEMST is back in action Saturday August 11th at Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, NH Please visit www.northeastministocktour.com or www.monadnockspeedway.com for additional information and be sure to like us on facebook facebook.com/northeastministocktour and follow us on twitter @neministocktour
NEMST Bonus Awards:
Texas Roadhouse Pole Award: Roger Ducharme
Sunoco Race Fuels Hard Charger: Mark Panaroni
Sunoco Race Fuels Winners Circle: Shawn Swallow
Texas Roadhouse Gas Card: Glenn Thomas
Racecar Engineering Gift Certificates:
Shawn Swallow
Ian Brew
Matt Sonnhalter
Chris Thomas
North East Mini Stock Tour - Feature
Point Standings
North East Mini Stock Tour
Pos Driver Car # City, State Points Behind
1 Shawn Swallow 04 Stark NH 407.00 Leader
2 Danny Field 18 Deep River CT 337.00 -70
3 Roger Ducharme 34 Foster RI 317.00 -90
4 John Kelly 60 New London CT 291.00 -116
5 Louis Maher 69 North Brookfield MA 276.00 -131
6 Cristofer King 38 Derry NH 275.00 -132
7 Cory Dentino 61 Lancaster MA 271.00 -136
8 Emerson Cayer 88NH Contoocook NH 270.00 -137
9 Mark Panaroni 51CT Ivoryton CT 246.00 -161
10 Nick Maniatis 74 Hooksett NH 243.00 -164
11 Desmond Skillings 90 Antrim NH 209.00 -198
12 Nic Skillings 25 Warner NH 197.00 -210
13 Matt Sonnhalter 33 E. Thetford VT 185.00 -222
14 Loren Smith 41 Allenstown NH 158.00 -249
15 Chris Williams 91CT Waterford CT 143.00 -264
16 Alicia Thatcher 22 Pascoag RI 142.00 -265
17 Mike Mason 51 Skowhegan ME 133.00 -274
18 Scott Michalski 51M South Killingly CT 109.00 -298
19 Chad Baxter 21 Pascoag RI 105.00 -302
20 Pete Zalarite 07 Niantic CT 103.00 -304
21 Glenn Colvin 39 Clinton CT 101.00 -306
22 Mike Parker 28 Bradford VT 95.00 -312
23 Billy Osborne
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