photo by Rich Hayes
Lee, NH – The Pro All Stars Series Super Late Models made their first appearance since 2011 at Lee USA Speedway on Friday night, with second-generation racer D.J. Shaw of Center Conway taking home the 150-lap win and returning to victory lane at “New Hampshire‘s Center of Speed“.
Shaw, the defending series champion, moved past polesitter Derek Ramstrom of West Boylston, MA and pulled away to a comfortable lead, but had to battle heavy lapped traffic during the middle stages of the race, which featured a 120-lap green flag run that knocked several contenders off the lead lap, including such notables as Ben Rowe and Johnny Clark.
A late-race restart brought Shaw back to the field, but he motored away once again on the restart and went on the post the win. Ramstrom checkered second, with Jeremy Davis of Tamworth rounding out the podium with a strong third place finish, his third straight top five finish on the PASS tour.
Joey Doiron of Berwick, ME came home in the fourth spot, followed by longtime Lee USA regular Bryan Kruczek of Newmarket. Kruczek recovered nicely from an early-race spin to collect the hard-earned top five finish.
Sixth through tenth were Mike Rowe of Turner, ME, Derry’s Joe Squeglia, Derek Griffith of Hudson, Cassius Clark of Farmington, ME, and David Oliver of Standish, ME.
Lee’s weekly NASCAR Whelen All-American Series regulars continued the 2015 season points battles, with Haverhill, MA hotshoe Tommy Tombarello, Jr. once again coming out on top in the 30-lap Ekeys4cars Supermodified main event for his third win of the 2015 campaign.
A first-lap skirmish sent hard-luck Artie Rousseau to the sidelines for the second straight week, with Lance Barthelemy of Fremont taking the point when the action resumed. Barthelemy ran strong in the early laps, but Tombarello eventually ran him down and got past for the win.
After a couple of tough outings in a row, Barthelemy picked up a solid runner-up finish, with Mike Murphy of Groveland, MA scoring third. Fourth spot went to Mike Ordway, Jr. of Fremont, followed by Kingston drivers Moe Lattime and Kyle Sawyer, Mike Spurling of Rochester, Leslie Keyser of Northwood, rookie Mike Keddy, and Jim Barker.
Frankie Eldridge picked up his second win of the season in the R&R Public Wholesale Late Model Sportsman feature event, holding off a pair of tough contenders to score the victory. Ricky Porter of Epping and Nate Leavitt were first to battle for the lead, but Porter eventually dropped out with mechanical issues.
Eldridge immediately stepped up to challenge for the top spot, running side by side with Leavitt holding him off in the high groove for the next several laps. Leavitt held tough on the outside, with last year’s winningest LMS driver, Jimmy Russell of Brentwood moving in late in the race to make it a three-way battle for the lead.
Eldridge finally got the better of Leavitt, beating him to the checkers to pick up the win by a mere .112 seconds. Russell took the third spot just .047 behind Leavitt, with two-time winner Jay Sands of Hampton, Geoff Rollins of Groton, MA, George Helliwell of Pelham, Tom Carey III, Ray Dinsmore of Alfred, ME, Mark Parenteau of Groveland, MA, and Crystal Serydynski finishing up the top ten.
Second-generation racer Zac Fraser of Nottingham picked up his first career win in the David’s Race Cars and Components Hobby Stock main, outrunning veterans Paul Palen of Pelham and Dennis Dumas of Nashua to collect the checkers.
Jay Avery of Berwick, ME moved out to the lead at the drop of the green flag, with Fraser settling into the second spot in the early going of the 25-lap main event. A lap four tangle collected opening night winner and defending two-time champ Patrick Tanguay, with Avery continuing to set the pace when racing resumed.
Fraser eventually made his way past the determined Avery to the front of the field, and he went the distance to collect a crowd-pleasing win. Palen was second across the stripe .805 seconds behind, with two-time winner Dumas rounding out the podium in the third spot.
Fourth went to Berwick, ME’s Chris Harding, followed by Billy Clement, Jr. of Manchester, Avery, Anthony Belfiore of Haverhill, MA, rookie contender Trevor Randlett, Tanguay, and MacDonald.
Nottingham’s Shane Horvath finally shook the monkey off his back and found victory lane in the Tri-City Line-X Ironman main event, jumping out to the lead past polesitter Hannah Shaw of Epping, and running away to score the win by a comfortable 5-second margin in the Red Cup Racing entry.
Cousins Zach and Troy Washburn, both feature winners earlier this season, finished out the podium in the second and third spots, with Christin DeStefano of Tewksbury, MA, Shaw, 2014 champ Wayne Osborne of Kingston, Tyler Mitchell of Dracut, MA, Travis Hollins of Milford, Seabrook’s Adam Knowles, and Luke Grammont the rest of the top ten.
2014 champion Jesse Tellier of Pelham once again scored the Pure Stock 4-cylinder victory, with Rob Carlton second and Danielle Evans third.