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By Jeff Brown, for Granite State Pro Stock Series
PHOTO: Rob Branning/Granite State Pro Stock Series
WINCHESTER, N.H. – DJ Shaw did not plan on a trip to Monadnock Speedway. Monadnock Speedway did not plan on a rain delay. But Shaw made the most of both turns of fate.
The multi-time Super Late Model champion picked up the win in Sunday’s rain-delayed Doghouse 75, the fourth race of the Granite State Pro Stock Series 2022 season.
An early cancellation of an event in Maine opened the schedule for Shaw and a couple other drivers to make the trip to “Mad Dog” for Saturday’s racing. Under cloudy skies, Joey Doiron clocked in fastest in time trials, with Dylan Estrella drawing the pole position in the pre-race redraw.
But clouds quickly gave way to pop-up rainstorms that soaked the track beyond recovery, and with no break in the pattern, track officials were forced to call the night early, moving the evening’s feature racing to Sunday afternoon.
Estrella led the field to green under sunny skies, distancing himself from the pack as outside polesitter Garrett Hall fell back through traffic. Shaw, who started fourth, climbed to second and began chipping away at Estrella’s advantage.
As the race approached halfway, Shaw and the top-five cars quickly closed the gap to Estrella, with Shaw looking for a way around the race leader. On lap 42, Shaw found an opening at last, getting underneath the rookie and driving on past.
While Doiron and Jimmy Renfrew, Jr. worked on Estrella, Shaw drove away, setting a blistering pace. Doiron eventually cleared Estrella, but Shaw was already several car lengths ahead, and with the race running clean and green, Doiron would have to chase Shaw down the hard way.
A winner in his last visit to Monadnock Speedway in 2020, Shaw held on to park the HK Powersports/Renfrew Motorsports Chevrolet in victory lane for his ninth GSPSS win.
Doiron’s second-place finish, his fourth top-five run of 2022 in four starts, helped the 2019 GSPSS champion to pad his points lead.
Rookie Nick Cusack charged to third in the closing laps. The Beech Ridge Motor Speedway alumnus earned his first career podium finish under the GSPSS banner.
Renfrew held on for fourth, completing a top-four sweep for cars out of the Dale Shaw Race Cars stable. A late race scramble through lapped traffic helped Jeremy Sorel sneak into the top five for his own career best finish.
Early leader Estrella was sixth across the line. Maine’s Joe Pastore, another of the last-minute additions to the entry list, made his first-ever trip to Monadnock successful with a seventh-place run. Vermont’s Josh King was eighth, with Garrett Hall and Angelo Belsito rounding out the top ten.
Eighteen cars gridded Saturday evening for the feature. Five cars, including third-in-points Luke Hinkley, had other plans in place for Sunday and were unable to return for the feature.
The next race on the GSPSS calendar is at Riverside Speedway in Groveton, N.H. on July 2, where the series will return for the first time since 2019. Details on tickets and scheduling for the series’ visit to “Grovetona” will be released shortly.
For more information on the Granite State Pro Stock Series, visit www.gspss.net or find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
UNOFFICIAL RESULTS, Doghouse 75, June 19, 2022:
1. (60) DJ Shaw
2. (73) Joey Doiron
3. (2) Nick Cusack
4. (00) Jimmy Renfrew, Jr.
5. (77) Jeremy Sorel
6. (46) Dylan Estrella
7. (20P) Joe Pastore
8. (21) Josh King
9. (94) Garrett Hall
10. (48) Angelo Belsito
11. (01) Sammy Gooden
12. (29) Barry Gray
13. (90NH) Casey Call
DNS (31NH) Luke Hinkley
DNS (05) Jimmy Blewett
DNS (7CT) Cory Casagrande
DNS (N40) Dan McKeage, Jr.
DNS (99) Charlie Buxton
