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It was a weekend Andrew Molleur won’t soon forget in Connecticut SK Modified® competition. From his second place starting spot, he was able to get the advantage off the line clearing Adam Gada almost immediately. The battle for second picked up with Gada and Todd Owen, while Eric Berndt hung out in fourth. As the laps clicked down, Molleur kept his pace out front but the battle for second was heated. Owen had a hard time trying get a nerf bar on Gada and the two rode around, until Owen go the run and was able to clear for second. Berndt definitely wasn’t content with his position, and as the laps wound down with lapped traffic he re-entered the battle. Gada kept the pressure on Owen but that opened the door for Berndt to move into third. He made quick work of Owen to land himself second on the podium. Molleur drove a flawless race to win his second of the season, chipping away at the point lead he once had.
The Late Models clicked off thirty consecutive green flag laps for their event. Off the line a returning Ray Christian III made a power move going three-wide under the front row of Kyle Gero and Mike Benevides. Brody Monahan slipped in behind Christian and didn’t take long to throw his nose underneath engaging in a side-by-side battle. Corey Fanning returned to Late Model competition tracking the leaders down with Jason Palmer, and the four ran off. Christian held the high line and was able to maintain the lead until Fanning stuck his nose in. As soon as Fanning cleared Christian, Palmer dove in and engaged in a battle. Fanning attempted the cross-over and tried to hang in there, but couldn’t keep up. Palmer cruised to his 107th career win, tying him in 2nd on the all time win list with Phil Rondeau.
It almost seemed like it was Tyler Barry’s time to shine in the SK Lights, after a brief battle with Eddie Gomarlo the race was under his control. The two left the pack battling for third in their dust when the caution flew just around the halfway point. Barry and Gomarlo went at it again briefly, but Barry had the race covered once again. Evan Bourgeois attempted a three-wide move for the lead but it didn’t pan out, and Johnny O’Sullivan was the benefactor moving into second. Barry survived another restart, this time from the low groove. Gomarlo worked his way back into second under O’Sullivan until a caution with 2 to go changed the complexion of the whole race. On the white flag lap, contact between Gomarlo and Barry caused a major pile up shaking up the field. Evan Bourgeois was in the right place at the right time, and was able to beat Riverhead regular Girard Giordano off the line to win with Zack Sangermano rebounding for third.
The Street Stocks feature kicked off with Ike Chima taking over the lead after a major car rebuild and Jon Porter moving into second. Porter opened the door for Al Stone III to fill early, and Shawn Gaedeke to follow. Stone took Chima out of the lead just 3 laps in and it was all over from there. The pack sorting it out for the field were trading paint and positions for much of the race. Jordan Hadley was making a rare appearance hold his own on the podium until Norm Root III engaged in a battle for position. Contact between the two allowed Aaron Plemons to catch them and dive into a three wide situation. The caution flew, just past halfway setting Stone up against Gaedeke on the restart. Gaedeke put up a fight in the outside groove but Stone still had the race in his pocket. Ed Gertsch Jr was able to take Gaedeke down as well, until the caution flew once again with just 6 to go after an incident removing Root and Plemons from contention. Stone aced the restart and went on to win, while Gaedeke was able to slip back in for second.
The tires spun under Jake Coutu when the Trucks went green, handing the lead to Austin Long. It was Jaysin Beals turn behind the wheel of the 55 and he slipped into second with Charles Beal on his bumper and Tyler Chapman working to his outside. Fireworks between the three resulted in the point leader backed into the wall, and Charles Beal sent pitside. Jaysin gave Long a battle on the restart with Coutu and Brad Strickland doing the same behind them. As Long cleared Beal, so did Strickland, and the two ran away from the field engaging in their own battles. Coutu was able to take Beal down on the final circuits to land on the podium, and Long took down his second win in his rookie year keeping a safe gap ahead of Strickland.
A turn 1 melee sent polesitter John Curry Jr to the infield shaking up the front of the field before the Mini Stocks really got going. Tim Dorr took the lead but couldn’t do much to hold back Corey Caddick’s charge to the front. Charles Canfield and Chris Garside were also quick to move forward, and that’s where the drivers would settle in as John Bavolacco started to ascend from the back of the field. What was the battle for second would become the battle for the lead with 10 to go, as Caddick lost power and headed for the infield. Garside stuck his nose under Canfield with 6 to go in what was the first real duel between the two, thwarted by lapped traffic. A caution would fly setting up a green-white-checkered finish, where Canfield would nose ahead to win by .007 seconds at the line.
Wade Oemcke shot off the line in the Legend Cars with a hornets nest in his rear view mirror. Kyle Caissie quickly got to his outside and cleared Oemcke as Jacob Burns in a rare Saturday appearance slipped towards the front. A self spin brought out the yellow on lap 4 but in a separate incident, Oemcke got taken out of the mix. Burns beat Caissie off the line to take over the lead, with PJ Evans now working on Caissie for second. A cross-over move put the two in a drag race that Evans came out on top of, setting his sights on Burns. A couple cautions bunched the field up setting up an instant classic between Burns and Evans. Burns held tough in the outside groove over the last half of the race with Caissie reminding the drivers he was there. Burns tried to cross Evans over on the final lap but didn’t have the run to complete a pass giving Evans his sixth win of the season.
Up next is The Finale. Three fully packed days of racing with a little of everything for everyone. Friday night we showcase our Wild ‘n Wacky divisions the Bandoleros, X-Cars, Super X-Cars and American Vintage Modifieds. Saturday the Modified Racing Series, NEMA, and the American Three-Quarter Midget Association crown their champions. There’s also a Seekonk Sport Truck exhibition and one last Open Street Stock race before the Northeast Street Stock Championship. Then on Sunday after a Pit Party to kick off the day, all 7 of our weekly divisions headlined by a 100 lap, $5,500 to win SK Modified® race. 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. 35-Andrew Molleur[2]; 2. 11CT-Eric Berndt[4]; 3. 81-Todd Owen[3]; 4. 72-Adam Gada[1]; 5. 25-Anthony Flannery[5]; 6. 09-Keith Rocco[6]; 7. 6CT-Dana DiMatteo[9]; 8. 8CT-Ryan Morgan[12]; 9. 25Z-Zachery Sangermano[8]; 10. 9-Paul Buzel[14]; 11. 94-Justin Gaydosh[7]; 12. 15-Jeff Fialkovich[16]; 13. 52-Anthony Forino[11]; 14. 22RI-Carl Kivisto[13]; 15. 84-Eric LeClair[18]; 16. 81X-Joshua Zentek[10]; 17. 49-John Bercham[15]; 18. 43WH-Chuck McDonald[17]
Late Models (30 Laps): 1. 17-Jason Palmer[9]; 2. 1CT-Corey Fanning[7]; 3. 93CT-Ray Christian III[3]; 4. 31-Brody Monahan[5]; 5. 31CT-Ryan Morgan[6]; 6. 2DJ-Douglas Curry[4]; 7. 6-Cory DiMatteo[13]; 8. Jason Williams; 9. Derryck Anderson Jr.; 10. Mike Benevides; 11. Kyle Gero; 12. Joey Lemay; 13. 78-Emma Monahan
SK Lights (25 Laps): 1. 78-Evan Bourgeois[6]; 2. 15-Gerard Giordano Jr[10]; 3. 47-Zachery Sangermano[5]; 4. 14-Kali Trapp[11]; 5. 76-Edward Gomarlo[2]; 6. 44CT-Bob Charland[8]; 7. 51-John O’Sullivan III[3]; 8. 28-Eddie Schutze[13]; 9. 24H-Frank Hirt[14]; 10. 79-Adrianna Kimmer[15]; 11. 07-Tyler Barry[1]; 12. 35-Josh Morrison[9]; 13. 19-John Brunelle[12]; 14. 12X-Amanda Slater[16]; 15. 21-Sami Anderson[4]; 16. 16-Nickolas Hovey[7]
Street Stocks (25 Laps): 1. 12-Al Stone III[5]; 2. 9-Shawn Gaedeke[4]; 3. 81-Jordan Hadley[9]; 4. 38-Jon Porter[3]; 5. 56-Ike Chima[1]; 6. 14-Steve Barrett[13]; 7. 58-David Ciastko[2]; 8. 21-Tom Musante[15]; 9. 43-William Rheaume[11]; 10. 31-Michael Smolinski[10]; 11. 80-Norm Root III[8]; 12. 67-Aaron Plemons[7]; 13. (DNS) 3-Adam Coutu; 14. (DNS) 10X-Charlie Guardino; 15. (DQ) 83-Ed Gertsch Jr[6]
Trucks (25 Laps): 1. 07-Austin Long[2]; 2. 84JR-Brad Strickland[3]; 3. 33-Jake Coutu[1]; 4. 55-Jaysin Beal[6]; 5. 99-Milania Shilosky[8]; 6. 98-Shawn Passero[7]; 7. 12-Tyler Dickey[9]; 8. 30CT-Ryan Bannister[10]; 9. 7-Kassy Prentice[12]; 10. 25-David Venice[11]; 11. (DQ) 30-Charles Beal[4]; 12. (DQ) 81-Tyler Chapman[5]
Mini Stocks (25 Laps): 1. 25-Charles Canfield[6]; 2. 83-Christopher Garside[7]; 3. 42-John Bavolacco[3]; 4. 50-David Lee[4]; 5. 16-Tim Dorr[2]; 6. 6-Nicholas Pappacoda[13]; 7. 9-Rick LaFlesh[10]; 8. 19-David Dorr[5]; 9. 97-Dave Trudeau[16]; 10. 05-Randy Churchill Jr[9]; 11. 28-Erica Canfield[15]; 12. 46-John Curry Jr[1]; 13. 24-Brad Caddick[19]; 14. 81-Stacey Zentek[12]; 15. 19RI-Dylan Cabral[11]; 16. 22-Hailey Beal[14]; 17. 27X-Corey Caddick[8]; 18. (DNS) 73-Eric Julian; 19. (DNS) 7-Kyle Wing
Legend Cars (25 Laps): 1. 12X-PJ Evans[5]; 2. 34-Kyle Caissie[6]; 3. 05-Dylan Freeman[3]; 4. 91-Riley Paul[4]; 5. 95J-Jack Walker[8]; 6. 7X-Patrick Smith[1]; 7. 14-Leo Rossi[10]; 8. 78-Collin Vanesse[12]; 9. 79-Adrianna Kimmer[11]; 10. 15-Scott Kinsman[16]; 11. 12-Leilani Daniels[13]; 12. 26-Sydney Cook[15]; 13. 14X-Bill Andreozzi[17]; 14. 18CT-Brian Strong[14]; 15. 77-Dennis Pantani[9]; 16. 65-Wade Oemcke[2]; 17. (DQ) 21X-Jacob Burns[7]
