Claremont Speedway in NH is under new management after long time onwership under the Fluery family.
Two first time winners highlighted the action at Claremont Speedway on Friday night Unfortunately there were a couple of low lights that dampened the mood slightly. While Mark McClay and “king” Kenny Thompson were picking up their first wins of the season, two drivers would end their nights on negative notes.
In the Sanel Auto Parts Wildcats, Alexis Aiken was able to get her Honda to the front early and hold off numerous threats from her competition, the strongest being from Hayden Scott. Scott, after taking two weeks off for family reasons, returned to competition and started deep in the field but was able to slice his way to the front. Late in the going he was able to pull right up on the rear bumper of Aiken and mount a challenge but to no avail. Aiken would take the win saying in victory lane “I didn’t even know he was there, I just tried to go as hard as I could.”
Scott would settle for second with Craig Smith in third, Cole Littlewood and Alex Poisson would round out the top five. In post race technical inspection, Scott was found to have a part on his car that did not meet the divisions specifications and as a result was disqualified from the event moving Smith, Littlewood, and Poisson up one spot and Kyle Currier to fifth. Littlewood and Scott were victorious in heat race competition.
The Claremont Speedway Limited Sportsmen may have been light on cars but certainly not excitement. Kenny Thompson had come close to his first win of the season a couple of times only to see it slip away, but not this time. Thompson would open up a sizeable lead and then hold off multi event winner Gary Colburn. Colburn came from a long way back to challenge Thompson but Thompsons machine was “on a stroll” according to Thompson in victory lane, and would not be beat. Colburn was happy with his finish stating afterwards “consistency wins championships”. Third would go to young gun Tyler Janovsky. Scott Vien and Trevor Rocke would round out the top five while Thompson was the heat race winner.
The R.E. Hinckley Super Street main event was a barnburner. As with the aforementioned divisions, the eventual winner was able to get out front early but the racing behind him was wild and crazy. Jack McClay and his team came into the season with High expectations but until tonight had struggled to find the sweet spot with their car. Those struggles ended Friday night as McClays Mike Richardson owned and tuned mount was the class of the field. Craig Smith started in the seventh position and was able to work his way to second while John Lavoie started ninth and was able to move forward eventually winding up third maintaining his point lead. Joe Tetreault would finish fourth after racing most of the night in the outside groove and Russ Davis would quietly come home in fifth. Heat races were won by Davis and McClay.
The heat race for the North American Infrared Late Models was as rough and tumble as they come, as there seemed to be a sense of urgency amongst the competitors. After ten laps of beating and banging among several drivers Chris Riendeau avoided trouble and came out on top. Following the checkered flag, as the drivers headed for the pit area, Robert Hagar chose to stop his machine, get out and confront another competitor. Track officials deemed this a safety issue as well as poor sportsmanship and disqualified him from the rest of the nights events. When the green flag dropped for the feature the rough racing continued bringing out several cautions.
When the dust settled and the checkered flag flew Bucky Demers picked up his second win of the season. In victory lane Demers complimented the direction of the track and its new ownership group. “These guys are headed in the right direction folks” said Demers, “all we need is a few more cars and this will be a fantastic show to watch”. Rookie Jeff Morse finished second crediting patience in the cockpit for another solid run for the first year late model team. Jeremy Zullo backed up his first win a week ago with a solid third place run. Riendeau and Art Heino rounded out the top five.
Also on the card Friday night were Legends cars as well as the entry level Bandolero division. Shaun Buffington won the feature for the 1250 cc motorcycle engine powered legends cars. While he dominated the night Thomas Gray and Noah Korner had a spirited battle for the second spot with Gray coming out on top. The Bandolero cars are a division for kids to learn to race and are usually used as a stepping stone between go karts and legends cars. Eleven year old Casey Call took home the winners trophy while twelve year old Jake Matheson wound up second. Robby Douglas was running a solid third and battling for second on the last lap when he spun coming to the checkered flag handing third to Ethan Durocher who turned twelve just two days later.
Friday May 29 will see all four divisions of the Twin State Property Maintenance racing series in action. The Late models will compete in the final tune up for their big money extra distance race to be run Friday June 5. Also in action this week will be the cars and stars of yesteryear as the STAR tour takes to the Thrasher Rd. speed plant.
Source: Claremont Speedway PR