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Kyle Casper jumped out to the front of the 18 car
Pro Stock field and set the pace for the first 33 laps before the
first caution came out. Over those 33 laps, the Somerset native had
his hands full with 2 time former champion Dick Houlihan. Tom Scully
Sr ran third for the first 30 laps before spinning in turn two. Tom
was able to continue without losing any laps, but was out of the
hunt for a win.
Once back underway, Houlihan worked the outside and edged ahead of
Casper before the next caution came out. His lead however would be
short lived, as Astle nudged under Houly and took over the top of
the leaderboard for the final three laps. Houlihan held off a hard
charging Mike Brightman for second. Ryan Vanasse and Dave Darling
were fourth and fifth. With his fifth place finish, Dave Darling is
the 2012 Pro Stock Champion, his third with car owner Gary Johnson
and crew chief Ronnie Pond.
Bill Bernard of Holliston came into the night 20 points out of the
chase, and repeated his action from the previous week by winning his
second straight, and fourth overall win of the 2012 season. Mike
Marfeo took off from his pole position and led the race for the
first five circuits before Scott Dion moved underneath and set the
pace. For a while it appeared that Dion would be on his way to his
first win of the season before Bernard took over with 6 laps
remaining in the 25 lap feature.
While Bernard was working his way through the pack, the race for the
Late Model title was hanging in the balance. Bobby Pelland III came
into the feature with a 2 point advantage over Gerry DeGasparre Jr.
For most of the race, the pair raced with Gerry one position ahead
of Pelland, which would have brought the title down to a tie. As the
laps wore down, the handle on the #12 appeared to start to go away,
and Pelland fell back one more position to Gerry, which allowed
DeGasparre to pick up his sixth LM Title by a skim 2 points.
Rick Martin went out and did everything he could to close in the 13
point gap between he and Mike Cavallaro, and he picked up his fourth
win of the season in the Sport Trucks, but it was not enough to
catch the now five time champion. Nick Uhrig set the early pace in
the 25 lap feature, with a hard charging John Paiva glued to his
rear bumper. The pair ran nose to tail for eight laps before Martin
made his move on the outside. By lap ten, Martin was out front, and
took off from the rest of the field.
Uhrig continued his hold on second until Paiva squeezed underneath,
and the pair raced side by side for several laps, swapping the
second position back and forth. A restart on lap 16 gave Paiva an
opportunity to take the lead from Martin, but he was not up for the
challenge. Cavallaro started fourth on the restart, but made quick
work of Uhrig and Paiva, moving into the runner up position. From
there, he followed Martin across the line and clinched his fifth
title in the Sport Truck division. Uhrig got by Paiva on the final
laps to finish third, with Uhrig and Darryl Church fourth and fifth.
Rey Lovelace broke a winless streak going back to 2011 by picking up
the win in the 25 lap Street Stock main. Lovelace out dragged
polesitter Vinny Pangelinan to jump out front, and held off the
challenges through a handful of restarts. Patrick Delaney was the
first to pressure the North Providence native before Scott Bruneau
moved into second. Scott had his hands full as Charles Beal
pressured him for second late in the race, but was unable to
complete the pass. As the laps wore down, Ryan Lineham moved into
the top five, and found himself third in the final rundown. Bobby
Bettencourt and Beal rounded out the top five.
Paul Lallier came into the night holding onto a comfortable lead in
the championship chase, and he needed just about every one of those
points, as he was involved in an early race accident, knocking him
out of the race on the third lap, relegating him to a 23rd place
finish. But it was enough of a cushion to help him clinch his first
Street Stock Championship. |
