Doiron Celebrates 4th of July in Lee Victory Lane
Joey Doiron celebrated the fourth of July in Lee USA Speedways Victory lane on Friday Night. The EKeyes4Cars 100 and fireworks display was a huge hit with the great crowd that came out to watch.
The night started out with series point’s leader Joey Doiron setting fast time in The Crazy Horse Racing race for the pole. Doiron’s lap of 15.094 seconds was less than a tenth of a second off Ray Christian’s track record, a remarkable feat considering the extreme heat during time trials.
Next up were heat races, both of which were won by familiar faces. The first heat was won by Doiron, who has been a qualifying machine in 2019 taking down four fast time awards and numerous heat races. Brandon Barker, winner of the last two events at the Lee NH Speed plant, won the second heat race with relative ease.
After the GSPSS redraw it was Ryan Green who was the pole sitter and had the option to take the NHSTRA back of the pack challenge. Even the offer of $1000.00 if he could win from the back couldn’t entice Green to give up his number one starting spot. “We are going to stay right here” said Green when asked what he would do. “Joey (Doiron) and Brandon (Barker) are way too fast to try going to the back”.
The first half of the EKeyes4Cars 100 went off uneventfully with only a few minor incidents. Just after halfway a bracket on the rear end of Todd Stones Ford failed, causing all of the fluid to spill out onto the race track going into turn one. Several cars got into it and spun around but it was race leader Green who suffered the most damage. He got into the fluid and slid up the track hitting the outside wall extremely hard. Greens badly damaged machine then came back down the race track and hit the driver’s side of Jake Matheson’s car ending his day as well.
Fortunately, Green was unhurt but his car not so much. When asked about the aftermath Green said “it’s real bad, it will need a front clip and every bolt on piece on the front end.” He then added “I’ll be sore in the morning but mostly my feelings are hurt”.
Josh King’s machine was also involved, suffering damage to both ends of his race car while Ben Rowe found himself out of the race as well.
The other car involved was the Brandon Barkers sixteen. Barker was trying to win his third straight GSPSS event at Lee but contact in the turn one incident left him with front end damage effectively ending his chances at the three peat. “It messed up the nose and hood a little which didn’t help but the biggest thing was it knocked the toe out which screwed up the handling” said barker.
After an extensive cleanup the field went back to racing and it was clear that Joey Doiron had the best car. As the laps wore down defending series champion Devin O’Connell and Jeremy Davis battled for the second spot in what turned out to be a thirty lap duel for the ages. Davis, time and time again, drove to the inside of the champ but just couldn’t get clear.
In the end it was Doiron running away with the victory while O’Connell was able to hold off Davis for third. Joe Squeglia pushed to the end for a fourth place finish while Mike Mitchell battled back from two spins to complete the top five. It was a case of mixed emotions for Doiron who in victory lane said “I feel really bad for Ryan and Brandon. It was going to be a really good race to the finish.” he then added “I just wanted a chance to race them heads up and beat them on the race track”.
Barker came up short in his bid to win his third in a row but came home in a solid sixth position. Jimmy Renfrew held on after a late race spin to finish seventh while Bobby Pelland had his best run of the season in eighth. Ray Christian III suffered overheating issues after an off track excursion but battled back for a ninth place run and Kevin Foland came back from a flat tire to complete the top ten.
Next up for the Granite State Pro Stock Series is a visit to Hudson Speedway in Hudson NH. The newly improved and renovated facility which has become a favorite of the series competitors will host the series for 100 laps of green flag action on Sunday July 14.
For more, follow the GSPSS on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as well as at www.gspss.net.
Granite State Pro Stock Series contingency awards:
ARB Hard Luck Award: 93 Ryan Green $100.00
O’Reilly Auto Parts last car on the lead lap: 12 Bobby Pelland $75.00
O’Reilly Auto Parts 7th place finisher: 00 Jimmy Renfrew Jr $75.00
American Racer N.E Hard Charger: 09 Jeremy Davis One Tire at the nest event
Sunoco Heat Race Winners :
#1 73 Joey Doiron 5 Gal Sunoco Race Fuel
#2 16 Brandon Barker 5Gal Sunoco Race Fuel
VDL 5th Place: 40 Mike Mitchell $100.00
Crazy Horse Racing Race for the Pole
1st 73 Joey Doiron $125.00
2nd 16 Brandon Barker $75.00
3rd 14 Matt Frahm $50.00
EKeyes4Cars Official Finish
1- 73 Joey Doiron
2- 43 Devin O’Connell
3- 09 Jeremy Davis
4- 03 Joe Squeglia
5- 40 Mike Mitchell
6- 26 Brandon Barker
7- 00 Jimmy Renfrew Jr
8- 12 Bobby Pelland
9- 93ct Ray Christian III
10- 17 kevin Folan
11- 46 Dennis Spencer Jr
12- 93 Ryan Green
13- 1x Todd Stone
14- 21 Josh King
15- 4 Ben Rowe
16- 53 Jake Matheson
17- 18 Jeff Fagan
18- 51 Jeremy Harcelrode
19- 29 Barry Gray20- 14 Matt Frahm