Lee, NH – With the 2014 championship season rapidly winding down, the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series weekly divisions put another night of racing in the record books at Lee USA Speedway on Friday, with the Prime Storage and Warehouse Late Model Sportsmen taking center stage with the running of the 50-lap Lance Davis Memorial.
Running in memory of the longtime Lee racer, the LMS turned out in full force for the night‘s racing action. When flagman Don Horvath let them loose, it was Alfred, ME’s Ray Dinsmore leading the way, but he quickly gave up the point to Jesse Bousquet of Pittsfield, who led the way thought lap eight.
Rookie contender and former Hobby Stock champion Mark Parenteau of Groveland, MA was next to take a shot at the lead, moving the Brian House, A Family Cab entry to the point on lap nine. Parenteau stayed out front through lap 16, when Groton, MA racer Geoff Rollins took over.
Epping’s Ricky Porter, who is locked in a tight battle with Rollins for the 2014 Late Model Sportsman championship, moved to second on lap 19, but he was soon displaced by Newmarket’s Bryan Kruczek, who was headed to the front for the second week in a row.
Kruczek’s 2014 maiden voyage a week earlier had come up just short with a runner-up finish behind Porter, but his time there was no stopping him, as he moved past Rollins on lap 30, and went on to easily post the win aboard the Joe Delisle-owned, Traditional Mortgage-sponsored machine, taking the checkers some 3 seconds ahead of second place finisher Rollins.
Porter kept the championship battle tight when he was scored third at the finish, with Stratham‘s Frankie Eldridge, Hooksett‘s Niko Maniatis, Patrick Stewart of Beverly, MA, P.J. Murphy of Groveland, MA, Parenteau, Dinsmore, and Barrington‘s Tom Harton the remainder of the top ten.
Defending and three-time champion Tommy Tombarello, Jr. of Haverhill, MA returned to his winning ways in the EKeys 4cars Supermodified 30-lapper, taking the lead from Rochester’s Mike Spurling on lap three and going the distance to collect the win in yet another caution-free main event that ran green-to-checker in just over seven minutes.
Tombarello was more than pleased to back in victory lane after a several week drought, and car owners Ed and Bobby Witkum of the famed Witkum Brothers Racing team echoed his sentiment. A simple statement from 50-year racing veteran Ed Witkum, Sr. said it all when he commented “It never gets old” as he headed to meet the team‘s driver in victory lane.
Spurling held off a tough challenge from rookie Kyle Sawyer of Kingston to collect runner-up honors, with Jake Stergios of Candia, Lance Barthelemy of Fremont, Sparky MacIver of Sandown, Leslie Keyser of Northfield, Bobby Webber of Topsfield, MA, Moe Lattime of Kingston, and Ricky Wolf of Northwood fourth through tenth.
Dennis Dumas of Nashua was once again the man to beat in the David’s Race Cars and Components Hobby Stock main event, coming from deep in the field to become the winningest driver in the division when he scored his fourth feature win of the 2014 campaign.
Veteran Brian Thompson of Sandown lead early and often before losing the top spot to Dumas, but he held on to collect a strong second place finish aboard the Dennis Soares entry. Defending champion and current point leader Patrick Tanguay was next across the stripe to fill out the podium in the third spot.
Fourth went to Tewksbury, MA driver Dave MacDonald, with his Midnight Motorsports teammate Brian DeStefano taking down fifth. Sixth through tenth were Jay Avery of Berwick, ME, Kevin Bowman of N. Grafton, MA, Zac Fraser of Nottingham, Paul Palen of Pelham, and Chris Harding of Lebanon, ME.
After winning her heat race earlier in the night, Christin DeStefano of Tewksbury, led the Benson Lumber and Hardware Ironman main to the green, but she was quickly knocked off the point by Epping’s Jeff Nadeau, who like DeStefano, was still looking for career win number one.
Unlike DeStefano however, Nadeau can now cross his first Lee USA win off the bucket list, as he led the remainder of the race to score his first-ever feature win. Christin held off the rest of the field to collect second place honors, with Chester’s Hannah Shaw third followed by Adam Knowles of Seabrook, Jeff Bennett of Epping, Travis Hollins of Milford, Wayne Osborne of Raymond, Ryan Pitkin, and Lindy Lambert.