The North East Mini Stock Tour opened its season Saturday under gloomy skies and uncertain weather conditions at Canaan Fair Speedway. There was a small shower as the pit gates opened but it quickly dispersed and led for some good practice for all of the NEMST teams. Jeff Prindall was the winner of the Tater’s NASCAR Merchandise $100 bonus for registered drivers.
The heat line up was set by random draw and featured last years champion Emerson Cayer starting on the pole for heat 1 as well as capturing the heat win. Heat 2 was led by Jeff Prindall and local hot shoe Tyler Lescord took the heat win. The heat finishes were inverted to achieve the feature line up which featured Jeff Prindall again leading the field alongside Roger Ducharme of Foster, RI.
The feature rolled out onto the track and got off to a shaky start as the fourth place car of Bruce Knowles spun his tires on fuel spilling out of Ducharme’s #43 and clipped Prindall spinning him across the field in turn 1. The start was reset and the field was let go for the 50 lap feature.
Prindall never made it back into the race as the battery in the car wore out. Another early race mechanical problem removed Larry Melcher from competition on lap 2.
In the opening laps many cars were jockeying for position multiple times per lap, including a three wide battle for the lead between Loren Smith, Justin Trombley, and Emerson Cayer. Trombley became the leader on lap 3 and continued for the next 18 laps in dominating fashion. Slowly closing in and using a different line was Vermont’s Chris McKinstry who used lapped traffic and made a move to the bottom of Trombley coming out of turn 4 on lap 21. Cayer was now in the third spot behind Trombley and made a move for second, but he could never complete the pass.
Coming out of turn 4 on lap 36 Ducharme spun out but made a nice save and the caution was never thrown. A few laps later Trombley made on hard run on leader McKinstry and closed onto his rear bumper. Trombley could never mount the challenge for the lead but stayed a very close second through the finish. Along with the win, the rookie Chris McKinstry also took home the most laps lead award as well as the Hard Charger Bonus.
Canaan Finishing Order
1. (8) 8 Chris McKinstry
2. (7) 34 Justin Trombley
3. (9) 88 Emerson Cayer
4. (5) 15 Tyler Lescord
5. (3) 41 Loren Smith
6. (4) 95 Bruce Knowles
7. (2) 43 Roger Ducharme
8. (6)41M Larry Melcher
9. (1) 5 Jeff Prindall