Lee, NH – Despite Mother Nature’s attempt to steal the show at Lee USA Speedway on Friday night, it was the thunder of the ISMA Supermodifieds was what the fans wanted to hear, and after waiting out a couple of rain delays, that’s exactly what they got.
A packed house was on hand for the event, and they were treated to some spectacular racing action when the ground-pounding Supermods hit the track. Chris Perley, Robbie Summers and Dave Shullick, Jr. pulled down the wins in three lightning-quick heat races, setting the field for the 75-lap Ollie Silva Memorial Summer Classic.
Shullick dominated the action in the feature event, blasting into the lead at the drop of the green from the outside pole, and leading from flag-to-flag to score the win in convincing fashion.
2006 Ollie Silva Memorial winner Bobby Santos III had an impressive run in the Soule Racing machine, clawing his way through the field to the runner-up spot after starting the race in the 21st position.
Robbie Summers challenged Shullick early in the race, but lost out to Santos around the 50-lap mark, slipping back to the third spot. Summers held the position to the checkers, with a tight battle behind him for the fourth spot.
ISMA points leader Chris Perley held off young Jeff Abold to grab the fourth place finish by a margin of just .013 seconds. Justin Belfiore checkered sixth, with Mark Sammut, Scott Martel, Mike Ordway, Sr., and Dave Trytek rounding out the top ten.
With the rain playing havoc with the night’s racing schedule, the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Late Models sponsored by One Stop Toy Shop managed to get their qualifying in, but the feature event was postponed to a later date.
The same fate befell the Mac Tools Small Block Supermodifieds, who were scheduled to run a 40-lap, $1,000-to-win feature event sponsored by Locke Crane Service.
The divisions that did manage to get their feature events in between the raindrops put on a great show, with the Hobby Stocks starting things off.
Bobby Glass led Eric Hoffman and Patrick Tanguay in the early going, but “Rooster” Washburn was on the move quickly, blasting his way past to grab second on lap eight, and Glass fell from the point a few circuits later.
Once out front, Washburn was off and running, moving out to a several car length lead with side-by-side battles throughout the field behind him.
At the checkers, it was Washburn making the trip to victory lane, with Jim Shorey, Alby Ovitt, Jim Russell, Wade Worster, Tanguay, A.J. Panessiti, Glass, Geoff Rollins and Hoffman finishing up the top ten.
The Roadrunners wowed the crowd with plenty of three wide action in their feature event, which saw Dana Faulkner break out of the pack to establish himself as the early leader.
Faulkner maintained the point until just past halfway, when contact sent him spinning to the infield and out of contention. Tim Boyle picked up the lead on the restart, and the race was his to lose from there.
With all the big guns in a pack at the head of the field, Boyle held on the rest of the way to pick up the win, with Lance Barthelemy, Chris Kingsley, Ricky Porter, Chris Jacobson, Timmy Johnson, Faulkner, Anthony Nadeau, and Billy Osborne second through tenth.
The Prime Storage Late Model Sportsmen followed Bill Ahern around to take the green flag from Bryon Callen, and Ahern immediately moved out to set the early pace. Jesse Bousquet was next to take a turn out front, but he lost out to Bobby Melvin on lap ten.
Melvin remained out front at the crossed flags, with “Piranha Pete” Evans hot on his heels in the second spot followed by Bousquet in third, a fast-closing Wayne Helliwell, Jr. in fourth, and Ahern in fifth.
Helliwell methodically picked his way to the front, and went on to add another trophy to his collection for the win. Evans grabbed runner-up honors, with Melvin, Grant Aither, Boe Green, Dan Eaton, Bousquet, Jimmy Renfrew, Jim Shorey, and Michele Fushpanski rounding out the top ten.