|
 Matt
Wentz and Jon McKennedy brought the 25 car field down to the green
flag, and it was Wentz who jumped out front. Matt led the first few
laps before VMRS Champion Chris Pasteryak took over and started to
pull away. Matt Hirschman, who started sixth, quickly moved behind
Pasteryak, and put on the chase. Wentz followed in third until the
defending Open Wheel Wednesday winner Doug Coby moved past. At the
lap 25 mark, McKennedy had moved back into fourth with Louis
Mechalidas was fifth.
By lap 40, Todd Annarummo and Ryan Preece had moved into fourth and
fifth. While battling for the lead, Pasteryak and Hirschman got
together, and both were taken out of the lead pack. Coby was
involved as well, as he and Hirschman locked bumpers. This handed
the lead over to Annarummo, with Preece, Todd Patnode, Austin
Kochenash and Dave Berghman the top five. Kochenash had already
pitted earlier in the event, and had worked his way back through the
field.
Preece took over the lead, and survived several restarts with
Annarummo and Kochenash in pursuit. Pasteryak and Hirschman were
working their way through the pack, and by lap 70, they sat sixth
and seventh. Pasteryak spun shortly after, and the field was bunched
up once again. Steve Masse started making his moved, and took over
the third spot by lap 78, with Hirschman in tow. Hirschman moved
past Masse for third, and used a late race restart to take over
second from Annarummo. Over the final eleven laps, the pressure was
on, and through several late starts, Hirschman showed he could hang
with Preece, even taking over on lap 93 as he raced the outside, but
Preece took over on the next lap.
With a three lap shootout for the win, Preece took over and set the
pace, but with a crossover move, Hirschman moved to the bottom, and
squeezed under Preece for the lead. The pair ran side by side for
the next lap, but Matt took over, and went on to become the first
driver to repeat in this High Dollar event. Preece held on for
second, with Masse third, Annarummo and Pasteryak the top five.
Berghman, Eric Berndt, Wentz, Coby and Mechalidas rounding out the
top ten.
Seth Carlson took off from his pole position in the NEMA 25 lap main
event, and never looked back. At one point, Carlson held over a
straightaway lead on the field. Jim Santamaria and Joey Payne tried
to put some pressure on him, but both fell in the field, as Adam
Cantor and Greg Stoehr moved through and took over second and third.
By the tenth lap, Anthony Nocella and Todd Bertrand were fourth and
fifth. Only Russ Stoehr would make and changed to the rundown,
moving into fifth with less than 10 laps remaining. Jeff Horn
finished sixth, with Randy Cabral, Bertrand, Paul Scally and Doug
Cleveland rounding out the top ten.
Shaun Buffington picked up his second win of the season at Seekonk,
in the INEX Legend Cars main event. Shaun started on the pole, and
led every lap of the 35 lap feature, but it wasn’t without
competition, as Tom Gray pushed his teammate hard around the 1/3
mile oval. Gray held onto second until lap 12, when Nick Lascoula
moved past for second, and hunted the leader down. At one point, it
appeared that Lascoula was the faster of the two, but a handful of
cautions slowed the field up, and Nick did not have the power on the
restarts to beat Buffington. While the Nick’s Pit Stop Legends
Series point leader pulled away, Lascoula had his own battle to be
had, with Gray and Nick Ladyga pressuring him for the second spot.
In the end, Buffington held on for a comfortable win, with Lascoula,
Ladyga, Gray and Justin Travis finishing in the top five. Joey
Parker overcame a couple of mishaps to finish sixth, with Jordan
LaMothe, Matt Carpenter, Taylor Martin and Branden Dion rounding out
the top ten. |
