{"id":13285,"date":"2014-06-09T14:04:33","date_gmt":"2014-06-09T18:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.maineracing.com\/wp\/?p=13285"},"modified":"2014-06-09T14:04:33","modified_gmt":"2014-06-09T18:04:33","slug":"masse-dominates-seekonk-impressive-showing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/2014\/06\/masse-dominates-seekonk-impressive-showing\/","title":{"rendered":"Masse Dominates At Seekonk With Impressive Showing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-13180\" src=\"http:\/\/www.maineracing.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/vmod.jpg\" alt=\"vmod\" width=\"300\" height=\"143\" \/>Seekonk, MA. \u2013 Steven Masse, of Bellingham, Massachusetts passed race leader Anthony Nocella, of Woburn, Massachusetts, on lap 9, and went on to win the Valenti Modified Racing Series sanctioned 100-lap feature race Saturday night at Seekonk Speedway, Seekonk, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Masse\u2019s win, his first of 2014, his first at the famed Seekonk oval,<br \/>\nand his eighth career VMRS victory, moves him to fifth on the all-time Series win list.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>From the pole position Nocella held the lead for the first eight laps when Masse slipped by on the 9th circuit. From that point on, Masse was the class of the field leading the way to the finish in his Ell Gee Restaurant Supply sponsored Chevrolet.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Masse\u2019s last win was in August of 2013. He got off to a slow start in the new year with bad breaks, a damaged race car, and tough luck, but the<br \/>\nSeekonk win might be just what Masse needs to turn things around. \u201cThis win feels real nice. We drew a good number we started second (outside front row) and we had the best car tonight so we are in victory lane and I couldn\u2019t be happier.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>At times Masse looked like he was in cruise mode. His spotter made sure he was in tune with the pack of cars trying to hunt him down. \u201cThey were telling me how many cars I had behind me. I just tried to keep it about five car lengths ahead of everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Masse becomes the fifth different winner in five races this season.<\/p>\n<p>Justin Bonsignore, of Islip, NY, for the second consecutive race at Seekonk put the \u2018Monster Marine\u2019 #21 Chevrolet in the runner-up position after spending laps 50 through 95 chasing Nocella. Bonsignore slipped by when Nocella slipped up on a lap-95 restart.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had a good car. It\u2019s tough to pass here,\u201d said Bonsignore post race.<br \/>\n\u201cWe came from ninth and obviously Steve had a great car. We probably used ours up a little bit too much to have any shot at him on the last restart. Anthony (Nocella) really made it tough on us. I really had to<br \/>\nwork. Good hard clean racing. We\u2019ll take it,\u201d said Bonsignore.<\/p>\n<p>Nashua New Hampshire veteran Norm Wrenn drove to a solid third place finish in the \u2018Advanced Gas Distributors\u2019 #53 Chevrolet.<br \/>\nWrenn was beaming after his best finish of the year. A season that has not been too good until Saturday night.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have been horrible so far. We picked a good number today in the draw and it paid off. We qualified without going into the consi. Last week we didn\u2019t even qualify. I\u2019m ecstatic.\u201d Wrenn explained.<br \/>\n\u201cI have to thank my crew. They\u2019ve stuck with me. If it weren\u2019t for the crew we wouldn\u2019t be racing. I\u2019m happy for them,\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Max Zachem, of Preston Connecticut, finished an impressive fourth with Dave Schneider, of Northport, New York, rounding out the top five.<br \/>\nSchneider&#8217;s consolation win put him in the 19th starting spot.<\/p>\n<p>Todd Szegedy, Chris Pasteryak, Geoff Gernhard making his first start this season, Mr. Rooter Rookie of the Year contender Mike Willis Jr, and Florida entry Jonny Kay, rounded out the top 10.<\/p>\n<p>30 drivers entered Saturday\u2019s race. Masse, Dana Smith, and Wrenn won heat races. Schneider won the 15-lap consolation race.<\/p>\n<p>20 of the 24 starters finished the race on the lead lap. It took 42 minutes 8 seconds to complete the 100-laps event. Seven caution flags slowed the race.<\/p>\n<p>The series heads back to Connecticut Friday night, June 20, for the 2nd annual Town Fair Tire 80.<\/p>\n<p>Seekonk Speedway<br \/>\nJune 7,2014<br \/>\nEntrants (30)<br \/>\nDistance 100-laps<br \/>\nTime of Race: 42:08:239<br \/>\nMargin of Victory: 0.612<br \/>\nBest Speed: 97.226<br \/>\nBest Lap Time: 12.325<br \/>\nLead Changes: Nocella (1-8) Masse 9-100<br \/>\nCautions: Laps- (7) 26,26,31,49,56,65,95<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Seekonk, MA. \u2013 Steven Masse, of Bellingham, Massachusetts passed race leader Anthony Nocella, of Woburn, Massachusetts, on lap 9, and went on to win the Valenti Modified Racing Series sanctioned 100-lap feature race Saturday night at Seekonk Speedway, Seekonk, Massachusetts. &nbsp; Masse\u2019s win, his first of 2014, his first at the famed Seekonk oval, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1161],"tags":[54],"class_list":["post-13285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-touring-news","category-valenti-modified-series-latest-touring-news","tag-valenti-modified-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13285\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}