By Lou Modestino

Richard Savary used a different approach Friday night breaking away from the norm. He charged to the front from his 11th starting position, challenged early front runners Tom Carey Jr., and Todd Szegedy to take the lead on lap 55 and go to win the Valenti Modified Racing Series sanctioned ‘Port City 100’ at Lee USA Speedway, Friday night, June 27.

The win was the Canton, Massachusetts driver’s second this season and his third career VMRS victory.

Instead of doing what most drivers do when competing at Lee, hang back and save their tires for the second half of the race, Savary changed his strategy and ran hard early on to put himself in contention for the lead.

“This is the first time here for all of us with this new right rear tire so nobody knew what it was really going to do. I took a page out of the Steve Masse book. He seems to get to the front and try to hang there. I thought I’d give that a try tonight. Late in the race we had good clean restarts. Hard racing. I think if the 21 (Bonsignore) was in front of me I would have had my hands full but I’m glad it was someone like him driving the car behind me.”

Savary continued, “We weren’t very good in practice so we made a lot of changes. We rode and then got to the front. I have to thank Justin (Bonsignore) for being a gentleman. I got a little aggressive with him for a couple of laps when we were racing for the lead. He gave it back to me going into three and four for the white (flag). That’s racing. I tried to give him as much room as I could on the outside but I wasn’t going to give up either.”

We were in the Savary pit area at Lee when Savary’s crew chief Joey Kourafas of Randolph, MA spotted a right rear going flat. “Right know I’m concerned about that flat tire,” said Joey.  Fixing that tire among other adjustments before the main event was key to Richard Savary’s performance during the 100 lap feature event.

Holtsville, NY  driver Bonsignore came on late in the race to pressure Savary for the win. Bonsignore showed frustration in victory lane.

“ I’m tired of finishing second, that’s four out of seven this year. We’ll just continue with consistency to get ourselves back in it. That’s the first time here with the MRS so I’m pretty happy”

Bonsignore also voiced frustration when talking about making a bid for the lead.

“Gotta find where the rules are here. I mean I was up there against the wall down there in (turn) one and had him beat. Can’t be upset with second but when your going for the lead you got to be a little more consistent. We’ll go to Monadnock (July 5) and try and get the win.”

Steve Masse, of Bellingham, MA., finished third. Not the kind of night he hoped based on his game plan.

“Usually here people save tires and go slow so I thought I’d switch it up a bit and pick the pace up..It really didn’t work out. We didn’t have the best car tonight. A third place finish is still good and we’ll take it.”

Dwight Jarvis, of Ascutney, VT, made another of his late race charges to finish fourth, with Rowan Pennink, of Huntingdon Valley, PA, rounding out the top five.

Sixth through tenth were, Chris Pasteryak, David Schneider, Carey, Donnie Lashua, and Max Zachem.

Qualifying heat winners were Lashua, and Szegedy. Lashua was substituting for Todd Owen.

18 cars entered the event. 15 finished on the lead lap.

The race was completed in 32 minutes, 35 seconds with only two caution flags needed for minor spins.

The series moves to the Monadnock Speedway, Winchester, NH, Saturday night, July 5, for the Firecracker 100.

Lee USA Speedway

June 27, 2014

Entrants (18)

Distance 100-laps

Time of Race: 32:48:405

Margin of Victory: 0.072

Best Speed: 90.995

Best Lap Time: 14.836

Best Lap By: Tom Carey Jr

Lap Leaders: Carey (1-54) Savary (55-83) Bonsignore (89)

Savary 85-100

Lead Changes (3)

Cautions: Laps- (72, 83)

Unofficial Finish: (1) Savary (2) Bonsignore (3) Masse (4) Jarvis (5) Pennink (6) Pasteryak (7) Schneider (8) Carey Jr (9) Lashua (10) Zachem (11) Mead (12) Szegedy (13) Willis (14) Wrenn (15) Smith (16) Medeiros (17) Nocella (18) Cyr.