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Photo by TK Race Photos
WATERFORD – The Waterford Team Race kicked off with time trials for all divisions to seed the drivers into their teams. During the race against the clock, Tyler Chapman clicked off the pole time for the Trucks on his first lap, but the second lap broke the track record for the division that was set back in 2009. Nine different drivers beat the Street Stock track record, but the stopwatch showed Al Stone III as the fastest. This would be his third time breaking the record in division history.
Adam Gada and Rob Janovic Jr. led the SK Modified® field to green and controlled much of the race. Kyle James tried to make the bottom work by Janovic but found himself sliding backwards. With Gada out front, Janovic had a mirror full of Andrew Molleur and Anthony Flannery who could also not make any forward progress. The field strung out with Gada comfortably out front, until a caution with 3 to go put their machines to the test. Gada aced the restart and was able to clear Janovic with Eric Berndt hard on his bumper earning his first career win in 18 years of trying. He becomes the ninth different Gada family member to win at the shoreline oval.
With an off week from racing in the south, Brody Monahan came back again with a pole starting spot in the Late Models. He shot off the corner from Ryan Lineham and Jason Palmer seemingly with ease, as he was on a mission. Palmer put the heat on Lineham trying both inside and out to get by, eventually clearing him. After the pass was completed, Palmer began noticeably reeling in Monahan as time ticked down. A caution turned up in Monahans favor, as he was quoted as saying he had the short run speed.
Sami Anderson and Tyler Barry ran for cover off the SK Light starting grid, shuffling outside polesitter Evan Bourgeois back a few positions. Anderson led the field nose to tail holding off attacks from Barry, until a shakeup put Zack Sangermano and Bourgeois back into the mix. Sangermano was able to clear Anderson on the outside with Bourgeois trying the low groove, eventually moving into the second spot. The two took off until a couple of minor incidents racked the field up to give Bourgeois a chance to strike. In the end, we got to see our sixth different winner in as many races this year, with Bourgeois parking it in victory lane.
Jon Porter was first off the line in the Street Stocks clearing Ed Gertsch Jr with ease. It wouldn’t take long for Shawn Gaedeke to put the pressure on Porter, but that’s when things got interesting. The two would hook up exiting turn 4 opening the door for Gertsch to force a 3 wide scenario and subsequently take over the lead. A quick caution set up Gaedeke to Gertsch’s outside, but he couldn’t hang on, quickly slipping into line. Mechanical trouble for Porter racked the field up once again, now with Norm Root III and Al Stone III breathing down the necks of the front row. Gertsch, second on the Street Stock win list, held off the divisions winningest driver to score his 30th career win, and his first since 2016.
Troy Prentice launched from his pole position to take the early lead in the Trucks. Charles Beal and Tyler Chapman quickly slipped their way into the top 3 and put the heat on Prentice. It only took two laps for Chapmans’ speed earlier in the day to come to light as he ran for cover ahead of the field, winning his fifth race of the season.
After a few weeks of fighting gremlins in his Mustang, Bill Sylvia was able to show some speed off the line in the Mini Stocks holding off John Bavolacco and running for cover. The hornets nest behind him were sorting it out for position, with David Lee moving forward and Bavolacco moving back. Charles Canfield and Chris Garside would jockey for position with David Dorr also progressing forward. A caution allowed Dorr to make a swipe at Sylvia for the top spot with Lee falling back into third, but another quick caution put Lee in the low groove where he was able to take down both Dorr and Sylvia. Lee took his Volkswagen to victory lane for the second time this season, but the first since changing his number from 72 to 50.
The top 7 Legend Cars could be laid under a blanket for the first portion of the race, jockeying for position led by Dylan Freeman and Riley Paul. Once they sorted themselves out, it was PJ Evans in his secondary car leading multi-time winner Jase Mongeon. Throughout the race the top spot would swap back and forth with cross-over moves from both drivers, while Kyle Caissie, Zack Martinez, and Paul laid in wait. Contact between Evans and Mongeon with 9 to go collected Caissie sending the latter two, pitside. Martinez strategically took over the lead and ran away from Paul, with Evans restarting deep in the field. After the dust settled it was Martinez landing in victory lane, and Evans rebounding to second place.
Next up at the Speedbowl, double Super X-Car races and the Guardians of the Purple Heart 50 for X-Cars highlight our Wild ‘n Wacky Wednesday Program. Then for Speedbowl Saturday Nights the NEMA Lites drop in for their second visit of the season, and we will host the Open Street Stocks. Keep up with the us at www.SpeedbowlCT.com, The New London-Waterford Speedbowl on Facebook, or @SpeedbowlCT on Instagram and X.
Unofficial Results
SK Modifieds® (35 Laps): 1. 72-Adam Gada[1]; 2. 11CT-Eric Berndt[5]; 3. 51-Rob Janovic Jr[2]; 4. 47-Timmy Jordan[7]; 5. 35-Andrew Molleur[4]; 6. 25-Anthony Flannery[6]; 7. 21-Kyle James[3]; 8. 6CT-Cory DiMatteo[10]; 9. 81-Todd Owen[9]; 10. 7-Jonathan Puleo[8]; 11. 27-Chase Cook[13]; 12. 09-Brian Norman[12]; 13. 22RI-Carl Kivisto[14]; 14. 94-Justin Gaydosh[11]; 15. 66-Wendell Dailey[16]; 16. 81X-Joshua Zentek[15]
Late Models (30 Laps): 1. 31-Brody Monahan[1]; 2. 17-Jason Palmer[4]; 3. 10-Ryan Lineham[2]; 4. 2DJ-Douglas Curry[3]; 5. 64-Devin Deshaies[6]; 6. 5RI-Rich Staskowski[5]; 7. 50RI-Michael Benevides[7]; 8. 32-Paul Heard[11]; 9. 67-John C Silva III[9]; 10. 78-Emma Monahan[8]; 11. 0-Joey LeMay[10]
SK Lights (25 Laps): 1. 78-Evan Bourgeois[2]; 2. 47-Zachery Sangermano[4]; 3. 21-Sami Anderson[1]; 4. 07-Tyler Barry[3]; 5. 91-Jake Hines[10]; 6. 51-John O’Sullivan III[5]; 7. 44CT-Bob Charland[9]; 8. 76-Edward Gomarlo[6]; 9. 16-Nickolas Hovey[7]; 10. 19-John Brunelle[8]; 11. 33-Hailey Desaulniers[12]; 12. 21X-Bill Anderson[11]; 13. 12X-Amanda Slater[13]
Street Stocks (25 Laps): 1. 83-Ed Gertsch Jr[2]; 2. 12-Al Stone III[7]; 3. 80-Norm Root III[6]; 4. 67-Aaron Plemons[8]; 5. 9-Shawn Gaedeke[3]; 6. 74-Joseph Arena[4]; 7. 10-Chad Baxter[5]; 8. 52-Charles Canfield[9]; 9. 21-Tom Musante[10]; 10. 56-Ike Chima[11]; 11. 3-Adam Coutu[12]; 12. 58-David Ciastko[13]; 13. 38-Jon Porter[1]
Trucks (25 Laps): 1. 81-Tyler Chapman[5]; 2. 30-Charles Beal[3]; 3. 77-Troy Prentice[1]; 4. 07-Austin Long[2]; 5. 33-Jake Coutu[4]; 6. 52-Chris Palamar[6]; 7. 84JR-Brad Strickland[10]; 8. 99-Milania Shilosky[7]; 9. 7-Kassy Prentice[9]; 10. 25-David Venice[8]
Mini Stocks (25 Laps): 1. 50-David Lee[3]; 2. 19-David Dorr[5]; 3. 88-Bill Sylvia[1]; 4. 83-Christopher Garside[6]; 5. 42-John Bavolacco[2]; 6. 25-Charles Canfield[4]; 7. 28-Erica Canfield[7]; 8. 54-Dylan Cabral[8]; 9. 24-Brad Caddick[9]; 10. 81-Stacey Zentek[11]; 11. 23-Matt Pinson[10]; 12. 46-John Curry Jr[12]
Legend Cars (25 Laps): 1. 14Z-Zachary Martinez[3]; 2. 12X-PJ Evans[4]; 3. 91-Riley Paul[2]; 4. 08-Brandon Martinez[6]; 5. 56-Richard Regan Jr[7]; 6. 7X-Patrick Smith[10]; 7. 24MA-Matt Carpenter[12]; 8. 26-Sydney Cook[11]; 9. 12-Leilani Daniels[14]; 10. 19MA-Jase Mongeon[5]; 11. 34-Kyle Caissie[8]; 12. 15WY-Adam Forster[13]; 13. 05-Dylan Freeman[1]; 14. 65-Wade Oemcke[9]
Team Race Results: 1. Team 1; 2. Team 2; 3. Team 3; 4. Team 4; 5. Team 6; 6. Team 5; 7. Team 7; 8. Team 9; 9. Team 10; 10. Team 8
