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Epping, NH – Richard
Savary continued his hot streak in the 40-lap main event
for the E Keys 4 Cars Modifieds at Star Speedway on
Saturday night, collecting his fourth checkered flag of
the 2011 season in impressive fashion.
Second-generation racer
Mike Douglas, Jr. powered out to the lead when the
feature race went green, outrunning polesitter Gary
Grubisa to establish himself as the man to beat.
Douglas remained out front until a lap 14 restart, when
things quickly went awry.
Points leader Josh
Cantara and Savary were giving chase to the leader in
the early going, and the pressure was on when racing
resumed. With Savary making his move to the outside,
Douglas got out of shape and spun, sending him to the
rear for the next restart.
With Douglas spinning out
of contention in a cloud of tire smoke, Savary slipped
past into the lead. Despite repeated challenges from
Cantara, and then later in the race from Jacob Dore,
Savary led the rest of the way to score the win.
Dore collected yet
another runner-up finish, with Cantara, Mike Murphy,
Eric Hudson, George Baldwin, George Sherman, Grubisa,
Douglas, and Kevin Bolduc rounding out the top ten.
Another impressive field
of Outlaw Sportsman competitors lined up for their
feature event, with an even 20 cars taking the green
flag. Kevin Kephart broke out to the lead early, and he
stayed there from flag-to-flag to pick up his first
feature win of the season.
Kephart has been battling
through crash and mechanical issues for most of the 2011
campaign, but this time out he was clearly the class of
the field. Rob MacRae applied the pressure over the
second half of the race, but he couldn’t find a way to
get past Kephart.
A large crowd of family
and fans surrounded Kephart during the post-race victory
lane celebration, with MacRae and points leader Mitch
Wendell joining him for the photo session on the podium
after finishing second and third.
Fourth spot went to Lee
Weldy, followed by Chuck Dehney, Shaun Waites, Jimmy
Ryder, Billy Ryder, Joey “The Jet” Ventrillo, Ron
Bolduc, Sandy Lee, Rick Woodside, Jr., Steve “Pinball”
Wilmot, Shane Gendron, and Keith “Slika” Ennis.
The Rookie Stock feature
started out with a bang, with polesitter Andy Nichols
clobbering the frontstretch wall before a lap was
completed. Nichols collected Steve Dickey and Dave
“Hollywood” Helliwell as he rolled to a stop, but both
were able to pit for repairs and return to action.
Nichols’ machine stopped
several feet away from where his front-end body panels
littered the speedway, but he fired it up and limped
back to the pits under his own power. Surprisingly,
Nichols made it back out and somehow finished the race.
When the action picked up
again, Bill Fiske ran away and hid from the field,
opening up nearly a straightaway lead by the halfway
mark. The second half of the race was another story, as
Dean Wendell was on the move, and once he cleared the
pack, he started to slowly cut into Fiske’s lead.
When the leader
encountered some heavy lapped traffic, Wendell closed
more quickly, getting to Fiske’s bumper with five to
go. The traffic eventually got the best of Fiske, and
he went spinning as Wendell moved past to claim the
lead.
At the checkers, it was
Wendell in for the win, with Bret Culleton up late to
fill the runner-up slot. Steve Dickey rounded out the
podium in third, with Fiske, Chris Augevich, Helliwell,
Chris Kingsley, John Cashman, Scotty Duval, and Nichols
rounding out the top ten.
Ricky Porter finally
broke the ice in the Roadrunner feature, picking up his
first main event win of the season. Jack Victoria
finished second, with Billy Osborne, Anthony Nadeau, and
Torrey Kovalesky third through fifth.
Jason Hodgdon topped Steve Dubois in the final to win
the one-on-one spectator drags, and Jim Deveau closed
out the night with his second 4-cylinder Enduro win of
the season. |
