0
0
With the influx of visitors expected this weekend at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl when the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series comes to town, lets get to know the weekly stars and where they’re at in the 2024 season.
The competition in the SK Modifieds® have been fierce this season with the top 5 in points separated by only 11. Anthony Flannery currently sits atop the standings by 2 over Timmy Jordan, who has won the most races of any driver so far with 3. The only other driver to double up so far was our latest winner Eric Berndt, who first won at Blast Off.
Todd Owen is currently in third, four points out of the lead with a win to his credit. But sitting in fourth is Andrew Molleur who has yet to see victory lane, but only missed the top 5 once so far.
Jon Puleo and Adam Gada have also shown up weekly sitting 33 and 43 points out respectively, both scoring a win but both faced with adversity having to rebound from trouble earlier in the year.
There’s still two big races left in the season for the headline division. The first being the Bill Greco/Terry Baribeault SK43 on Nostalgia Night, September 7th. The rescheduled SK 100 will now be held as apart of Finale Weekend October 18th-20th.
– – – –
Three stars lead the way in the Late Models at this point in the season. Jason Palmer has exceeded 100 career Speedbowl wins and continues to rack them up, as he holds a 14 point lead over Doug Curry who has really broken out this year. Curry has not only been able to pick up his first career win, but he followed it up with another two weeks ago. A win in the Late Models marks his third different division at the Speedbowl.
Sitting in third 18 points out, Ryan Lineham has also been a powerful force week in and week out. He picked up a win earlier in the season and just last week put on a thrilling side-by-side battle for the lead for much of the race.
40 points out and looking to string together some solid finishes, Mike Benevides has cracked the top five 3 times. Brody Monahan has fit the Speedbowl into his busy race schedule for all but 2 races. The team has picked up a win in their newly acquired ride formerly ran by Glen Thomas. Behind Brody, Emma Monahan sits 83 points out after being sidelined from a hard crash in practice two weeks ago.
The division has a 100 lap main event scheduled on August 31st for our annual Full Fendered Throwdown, which will also play host to our next Open Street Stock race.
– – – –
Arguably, some of the most compelling races this season have come out of the Mini Stock division.
Point leader John Bavolacco has yet to see victory lane in 2024, but stringing together consistent finishes even while dealing with some in-car gremlins has worked to his advantage. He was in the position in both features last week to win, until a late race caution stalled his attempt.
Breathing down his neck and 5 points out, three-time champion Charles Canfield has also had his fair share of gremlins to deal with. He has been able to pick up a win this season while never missing the top 10.
2023 Champ Chris Garside was going to work with a part time schedule going into the season, but with his 3 wins on the year and even while missing one race, he currently sits in third place just 19 points out from the top spot.
David Dorr, Erica Canfield, and Bill Sylvia follow Garside and they’re only separated by 6 points, with Dorr holding two wins and Sylvia being our latest winner. David Lee with his Volkswagen Sirrocco sits in seventh, and while he has two wins there’s been some bugs in his car too that the team has been diligently trying to solve.
Brad Caddick, Stacey Zentek, and John Curry Jr. round out the top 10, with all the aforementioned drivers competing in every event so far.
– – – –
If you’ve been paying attention to the Speedbowl History weekly videos, you’ll know that the battle in the Trucks between Tyler Chapman and Charles Beal has stolen the show. Chapman came out the gate strong being undefeated for the first 3 weeks and breaking the 15 year old track record on Teams Night. He currently sits 20 points ahead of Beal, only missing victory lane 3 times in 9 races.
Beal who has been in a newly acquired truck this year has been trying to get it dialed in. He broke through two weeks ago scoring his first win in the division, making it his fourth different division he has won in. The others being Street Stocks, Super X-Cars, and Mini Stocks. Both drivers have yet to miss the top 5 even with those thrilling battles that have taken place.
Brad Strickland has been just behind those two drivers on track, and in the standings. After an off-season rebuild, the team has hit on something and have been in the mix the past two races out especially. Rookie driver Austin Long sits just behind him, also showing some speed out the gate. Jacob Coutu picked up his first career win a few weeks back in a feel good moment at the track. All three drivers are separated by only 5 points.
Even Milania Shilosky’s move from the Bandoleros has been an overall smooth one. Rebounding from a massive wreck a few weeks back, she’s just 10 points behind Strickland.
Former dirt car turned asphalt competitor Troy Prentice sits in seventh. He bring two Trucks to the track weekly, with rookie Kassy Prentice in ninth place. David Venice has picked up a lot of straightaway speed in his sophomore season while working on the cornering. He sits in eighth.
Duane Noll is the only other driver to score a win this season, and he did it in his first race back this season.
– – – –
After dabbling with some Late Model racing, PJ Evans has come back to the bowl in the Legend Cars with a vengeance. He has picked up 3 wins this season including last weeks 40 lap INEX National Qualifier. Even with those stats, Riley Paul is lurking 5 points out in second. Week in and week out, Paul is almost consistently in a podium position.
Hanging out in third and 20 points out is Dylan Freeman. Early in the season he had been a constant threat poised to win, but couldn’t seal the deal. After a lull, the team rebounded this past week with his first career win in the 25 lap race.
Week after week, it’s almost guaranteed to see a battle between Evans, Zack Martinez, and Jase Mongeon. Martinez has picked up 2 wins in his part time schedule, and Mongeon has four. Even missing a race, Mongeon sits in fourth 21 points out of the lead.
Sydney Cook has been learning a new car, but she sits fifth one point ahead of Wade Oemcke and seven points ahead of Pat Smith who has also shown much improvement this season.
They have the Legend Car Fall Classic coming up on Saturday September 14th.
– – – –
You can catch all five divisions this Saturday August 10th when the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series comes to town for the Belltown Motors/Fowlers Auto Wrecking 100. Dana DiMatteo won the series’ return to the track in 2022, and Matt Hirschman swept both races held in 2023. So far in 2024 Teddy Hodgdon, Jake Johnson, and Stephen Kopcik have picked up wins with the series. All three of those competitors have scored wins at the Speedbowl in the Legend Cars, with only Kopcik scoring a Modified win.
The grandstands open at 2:30pm with opening ceremonies slated for 5:15pm. Rain date if needed will be August 24th. To keep up to date with the Speedbowl or the Monaco Modifieds, check out www.SpeedbowlCT.com or www.MonacoModifieds.com
Image of Monaco Modifieds in 2023 by TK Race Photos.
