New Hampshire Pro Stock driver Derek Griffin made his trip to the DAV at Seekonk Speedway worth the effort by taking the Pro Stock 150 at Seekonk Speedway on Sunday(Credit: Erik LeFlech photo.)

 By Connor Sullivan, Speed51.com State Editor (CT, MA, Long Island)

Derek Griffith made his return to Seekonk Speedway (MA) Saturday for the first time since mid-July when he fell short of a $10,000 prize at the Pro Stock Nationals. This time around the prize was six-grand and the honor of winning Seekonk’s renowned 150-lap DAV Fall Classic. Griffith avoided big trouble in the opening laps and held off stout challengers en route to taking the win and finding some redemption.

 

“We started in the middle of the field and everyone got torn up quick, we stayed out of trouble and got out front quick. Made the outside work pretty early, after that it was fast, fast the whole time. I drove it hard and it paid off really well,” Griffith told Speed51.com powered by JEGS.

 

A huge multi-car crash on a Lap 5, eliminated a number of drivers including Joey Polewarczyk, Jr. Griffith did not inherit the lead, instead moving past DJ Shaw and taking advantage of circumstances when Seekonk Pro Stock regular Angelo Belsito spun after contact with another driver, handing the lead to Griffith.

 

But Belsito used yellow flags and a fast race car to storm through the field, getting all the way to Griffith’s back bumper in the final 30 laps. When Belsito made his move for the lead, it all went wrong as his car would break loose, sending him spinning a second time, this time just inches away from Griffith.

 

“He got me on the bottom so I left him some room, I was up as high as I could go. I tried to turn it and I felt him just barely get into me and he spun around,” explained Griffith. “It’s a bummer for him, I know how he feels, the same thing happened to me in July.”

 

Griffith was not out of the woods, as Shaw made one final attack on the No. 12D of Griffith, but did not have enough to finish the job.

 

“It was a great race, hard racing at the end. DJ was coming, I thought he had a little something for me at the end and I held him off to prevail,” said Griffith.

 

It is the second week that Shaw fell short of victory, cutting a tire one week earlier at Waterford (CT) late in the Granite State Pro Stock Series season finale, taking away his hopes of winning the series’ championship. Although unhappy with falling short again, Shaw concludes 2016 with the title in the PASS North series and owner’s title in Granite State.

 

“I almost got there,” Shaw said after the race. “I got there once but my car bottomed out into three, and there was going to be no gentle way by about it. So I just had to settle, we were close and almost out-waited him. Second is pretty good, better than what we deserved and it’s a good way to end the year.”

 

As for Griffith, Saturday marked the end of a spectacular end to 2016, following up a win six days earlier at Lee USA Speedway.

 

“The last few races we’ve done really well and I got to thank Louie (Mechalides), he set up a rocket ship. Every time we get to a race track, we’re one of the contenders. It’s huge for me, I haven’t been racing with these cars a long time, it’s a confidence booster to show up and do well. I got to thank my guys, they busted their butts all week while I was sick, still sick.”

The following is the courtesy of the Seekonk My Laps page

 

Late Models

 

Classification

Pos	No.	Name	Laps	Total time	Diff	Best time	In lap	Best speed
1	17RI	Ray Parent	50	39:34.390		00:13.350	5	89.798
2	17MA	Eddie Macdonald	50	39:35.168	00:00.778	00:13.525	8	88.636
3	7	Charlie Rose	50	39:36.090	00:01.700	00:13.457	8	89.084
4	71	Gerry Degasparre Jr	50	39:36.952	00:02.562	00:13.708	11	87.453
5	82	Mark Hudson	50	39:37.335	00:02.945	00:13.689	8	87.574
6	16	Austin Blais	50	39:37.478	00:03.088	00:13.544	5	88.512
7	12	Bobby Pelland III	50	39:37.863	00:03.473	00:13.600	5	88.147
8	72	Ryan Khun	50	39:37.875	00:03.485	00:13.709	12	87.446
9	3	Jarriah Roderick	50	39:38.095	00:03.705	00:13.680	7	87.632
10	50	Jeramme Lillie	50	39:38.253	00:03.863	00:13.509	7	88.741
11	19	Branden Dion	50	39:38.566	00:04.176	00:13.729	5	87.319
12	2	Ron Barboza Jr	50	39:38.810	00:04.420	00:13.787	7	86.951
13	11RI	Ryan Vanasse	50	39:38.906	00:04.516	00:13.714	12	87.414
14	00	TJ Moreshead	50	39:39.140	00:04.750	00:13.753	25	87.166
15	5	Vinnie Arrenegado	50	39:39.619	00:05.229	00:13.713	14	87.421
16	51	Mike Teague	50	39:40.833	00:06.443	00:13.704	14	87.478
17	11X	Corey Fanning	50	39:41.797	00:07.407	00:13.813	7	86.788
18	7MA	Richard Marrocco	50	39:44.378	00:09.988	00:13.943	7	85.979
19	11	Nick Uhrig	49	39:39.794	1 Lap	00:13.669	21	87.702
20	99	Fred Bonawelicz	43	39:42.073	7 Laps	00:13.991	14	85.684
21	6	Nick Johnson	30	25:28.127	20 Laps	00:13.497	4	88.820
22	4	Dan Johnson	23	23:58.047	27 Laps	00:13.622	5	88.005
23	26	Chris Curtis	21	00:00.000	00:00.000	–:–:–.—	0	0.000

 

 

 

Sport Trucks

Pos	No.	Name	Laps	Total time	Diff	Best time	In lap	Best speed
1	81	Chase Belcher	30	16:26.235		00:14.651	4	81.824
2	38	Josh Hedges	30	16:26.995	00:00.760	00:14.828	10	80.847
3	21	John Paiva	30	16:27.035	00:00.800	00:14.779	19	81.115
4	77	Lenny Guy	30	16:27.734	00:01.499	00:14.845	4	80.754
5	18	Eddie Gannon	30	16:28.043	00:01.808	00:14.933	26	80.279
6	12	Joseph Fortin II	30	16:28.425	00:02.190	00:14.961	16	80.128
7	82	Adam Murphy	30	16:27.744	00:01.509	00:14.829	4	80.842
8	37	Shawn DeMello	30	16:29.506	00:03.271	00:15.154	5	79.108
9	13	Rick Albernez	30	16:29.742	00:03.507	00:15.106	4	79.359
10	33	Robert Rainville	30	16:30.508	00:04.273	00:15.059	8	79.607
11	72	Mike Lopes	30	16:30.864	00:04.629	00:14.959	7	80.139
12	22	David Lougee	30	16:31.203	00:04.968	00:14.997	3	79.936
13	4	Darryl Church	30	16:31.420	00:05.185	00:14.771	6	81.159
14	00	Ed Perry	30	16:31.812	00:05.577	00:15.208	4	78.827
15	5	Cole Jackson	30	16:32.635	00:06.400	00:15.363	3	78.032
16	84	Bill Schoeler	15	16:32.944	15 Laps	00:15.196	1	78.889
17	14	Russ Bourges	0	00:00.000	00:00.000	–:–:–.—	0	0.000
Not classified
DNS	6	Darryl Dutch	0	00:00.000	00:00.000	–:–:–.—	0	0.000

Pro Stocks

 

ClassificationPosNo.NameLapsTotal timeDiffBest timeIn lapBest speed112DDereck Griffith1501:37:27.20700:12.6722594.602260DJ Shaw1501:37:27.49500:00.28800:12.6752094.580330Fred Astle1501:37:29.45900:02.25200:12.7353094.134452David Darling1501:37:29.74500:02.53800:12.7755893.84057Dave Farrington Jr1501:37:30.47600:03.26900:12.6902594.468649Matt Swanson1501:37:31.16700:03.96000:12.8172793.53272Tom Scully Jr1501:37:31.48200:04.27500:12.8712793.140873Joey Doiron1501:37:31.90500:04.69800:12.9201192.786912Bobby Pelland III1501:37:35.63500:08.42800:12.9251092.7501041Dick Houlihan1501:37:36.86200:09.65500:12.8662093.1761114Rick Martin1491:37:36.7541 Lap00:12.7062694.3491227Mike Brightman1481:37:32.2972 Laps00:12.8132793.5611340Mike Mitchell1481:37:37.92300:05.62600:12.9931892.2651466Mike Parks1471:37:40.5863 Laps00:13.074591.6931599Billy Joerres1421:37:29.1368 Laps00:13.198390.832168Angelo Belsito1301:27:53.25320 Laps00:12.6923194.4531711Ryan Vanasse1131:15:02.92737 Laps00:12.8382693.3791840MEDan McKeage4251:57.825108 Laps00:12.8502393.292197GCurtis Gerry2243:58.455128 Laps00:13.2621090.3942035Cassius Clark1338:45.709137 Laps00:12.8641193.190215MAPhil Meany707:33.160143 Laps00:13.194390.8592257Dean Petty506:18.624145 Laps00:13.260590.4072397Joey Pole507:21.12701:02.50300:13.211590.7432417MAEddie MacDonald300:47.060147 Laps00:13.238390.557

Street Stocks

 

ClassificationPosNo.NameLapsTotal timeDiffBest timeIn lapBest speed196Sparky Arsenault3034:48.86800:14.7091181.50122Robert Murphy3034:50.33400:01.46600:14.8711480.613310Mike Mitchel3034:50.50400:01.63600:14.782681.099456Thomas Adams3034:50.18200:01.31400:14.8491680.73353Anthony Kohler3034:51.10100:02.23300:14.848880.738674Scott Brunneau3034:51.30700:02.43900:14.823880.874722Scott Serydynski Sr3034:51.37200:02.50400:14.944880.219870Paul Lallier3034:51.62100:02.75300:14.926880.316953Vinny Pangelinan3034:51.94200:03.07400:14.9931779.9571032Jesse Melberg3034:52.20600:03.33800:14.9571980.1501198Ryan Flood3034:52.62600:03.75800:15.005979.893124Rob Kohler3034:52.69400:03.82600:15.1382779.191139Dane Saritelli3034:53.28400:04.41600:15.069779.5541433Corey Medeiros3034:55.29300:06.42500:15.3422078.1381527David Smith3034:56.29200:07.42400:15.5081977.3021613Paul Williams2634:55.7574 Laps00:15.6112676.7921746Tim Watson2529:48.4325 Laps00:15.3192078.2561804Steve Axon1826:02.94712 Laps00:14.943880.2251954Kyle Casper921:27.62121 Laps00:15.057779.6172019Ryan Lineham921:31.06300:03.44200:15.313378.2862144Craig Pianka307:32.54527 Laps00:15.420377.7432251Brenden Nutter307:33.93800:01.39300:15.591376.8912326Miles Bonalewics307:35.51700:02.97200:15.729376.216245Ed Flanagan Jr100:26.52729 Laps00:16.087174.520

 

Note: If your track, tour or event is not posted on this blog send your press releases to lmodestino.com