130830 lee-13Lee, NH – It was “Back to School” Night at Lee USA Speedway on Friday, with dozens of school kids getting to ride with their favorite race drivers around “New Hampshire’s Center of Speed” prior to the beginning of the night’s racing action. 

 

With the championship season quickly winding down, all of Lee’s weekly divisions were in action, with second place points man Mike Netishen scoring his third win of the 2013 campaign in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Small Block Supermodified 30-lap Benson Lumber and hardware-sponsored main event.

 

Veteran Sparky MacIver looked to be well on his way to victory over the first half of the race, pulling away to a huge lead after starting the event on the front row.  Sparky was putting down laps in the low 14.0 second range, but his dominant early race effort was slowed by a lap 19 caution flag when defending champ Tommy Tombarello, Jr. spun.

 

Netishen lined up to the outside of MacIver for the restart, and he powered past in the high groove to take over the lead on lap 20.  Netishen was in control the rest of the way, leading them across the stripe to score the victory by a comfortable 1.040 margin of victory.

 

MacIver was the best of the rest to collect runner-up honors, with Jake Stergios rounding out the post-race podium in third.  Fourth spot went to Ryan Gath, followed by Leslie Keyser, Moe Lattime, Mike Spurling, Ricky Wolf, Jr., Tombarello, and Bill Kimball.

 

Prime Storage and Warehouse Late Model Sportsman action saw Alby Ovitt moving out to the early lead, with Ryan Green and Michele Fushpanski giving chase for several laps before Fushpanski eventually found trouble and went for a spin that ended her chances at victory.

 

Point leader Grant Aither had methodically made his way into position to challenge for the lead, and he made it pay off on lap 28, when he pulled off the winning pass.  Jimmy Russell followed Aither to the front, but he couldn’t get past the points leader, and Aither once again rolled into victory lane at the end of the 35-lapper.

 

Russell scored a solid runner-up finish, with defending champ J.R. Baril taking down third in the Brian House entry.  Ovitt faded in the late laps and wound up fourth, with Boe Green, Niko Maniatis, Bobby Melvin, Larry Moloney, Patrick Stewart, and David “Doc” Piper closing out the top ten.

 

Billy Clement, Jr. has been having a rough time in the second half of the season, with dnf’s listed next to his name after the past four races in a row.  But that all changed on Friday, when he blasted out to grab the lead at the start of the David’s Race Cars and Components 30-lapper, and stayed there all the way to post his second win of the 2013 campaign.

 

Veteran Ron Washburn put in a strong run to move up through the field and collect second place honors, with Brian DeStefano having another solid effort to finish third.  Fourth went to Patrick Tanguay, with Jim Piaseczny, Paul Palen, Dennis Dumas, Wade Worster, Kyle Sawyer, and David MacDonald finishing sixth through tenth.

 

The action was pretty wild in the American Used Auto Parts Ironman main event, with several drivers sent to the rear for either causing or being involved in incidents along the way.  Newcomer Austin Elliott led most of the race and was still out front at the five-to-go mark, but he was among those caught up in the trouble.

 

Shane Horvath steered clear of all the action and brought his newest entry, dubbed the “Silver Bullet”, into the winner’s circle at the end of the night, with his fellow Red Cup Racing team member Wayne Osborne chasing him across the line to make it a one-two sweep.

 

The Senior Tour Auto Racers were also on hand as part of Back to School Night, and even they weren’t immune to the crashing bug, as a few of the restored racers wound up getting tangled up with each other during the Sportsman feature event.

 

Rick Calantonio took home the checkered flag in the Sportsman portion of the STAR event in his 1971 Ford Pinto Ollie Silva machine, with Rich Mosher grabbing the win in the Modified race with his sharp-looking 1937 Chevy coupe-bodied Mod.

 

Next Friday, September 6th, Pepsi presents Championship Night for all of the NASCAR All-American Whelen Series Divisions. Championship night will be a regular weekly racing series handicapping event for ALL divisions. Gates will open at 4PM and racing will begin at 7:15PM.  Adult prices are $12, children are $10 and 12 and under is FREE.

photo by Rich Hayes