Lee, NH – 2011 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Small Block Supermodified champion Wayne Helliwell, Jr. couldn’t close out the season with a feature win on Oktoberfest weekend, but he won every other race he entered, taking down the checkers in both the Pro Stocks on Saturday night, and the Late Models on Sunday afternoon.
An impressive field of 34 Pro Stock/Super Late Models assembled for the final round of the Six-Pack Shootout, but several contenders, including ME veteran Mike Rowe and PASS race winner Gary Smith, were eliminated in a series of tangles that slowed the action repeatedly over the first half of the race.
Rich Eaton broke out to the early lead, but he eventually lost the top spot to Scott Dragon. Dragon and Derek Ramstrom battled hard for the lead over the next 20 laps, but Helliwell was on the move and headed to the front in a hurry.
Shortly after the halfway mark, he made what turned out to be the winning pass, and he stayed out front the rest of the way to collect his second Pro Stock win of the 2011 season. Barry Gray had a strong run to checker second, followed by J.R Baril, Ramstrom, Jake Vanada, Eaton, Dragon, Jay Sands, and Jeremy Davis.
Sunday afternoon’s Late Model main event featured a 24-car starting field, and Helliwell was the class of that one as well. K&N Pro Series regular Eddie MacDoanld contended early, but he was forced to pit and was only able to get back up as far as fifth.
Former track champion Larry Gelinas made a strong charge from deep in the field to finish in the second spot, with former Oktoberfest winner Gerry DeGasparre, Jr., rounding out the podium.
Justin Belfiore sat in for brother-in-law Tommy Tombarello, Jr. in the Small Block Supermodified main, and he disposed of early leader Mike Spurling less than ten laps in to take over the lead in the “Paul Brown Memorial” 35-lap feature event.
Belfiore was basically gone from there, leading them across the stripe to pick up the win. Sparky MacIver was best of the rest in the runner-up slot, with Helliwell, “Super Dave” Sanborn, Matt Riley, Spurling, Tony Carroll, Mike Ordway, Jr., George Perreault, Jr., and Mike Netishen the remainder of
the top ten.
The Valenti Modified Racing Series closed out its 2011 campaign with an impressive 100-lap feature event, with cautions flags few and far between, and long green flag runs the order of business. When polesitter Jon McKennedy dropped out with electrical problems on the pace lap, Les Hinckley stepped up and immediately took command of the event.
Rowan Pennink was the man of the hour however, hustling the Gary Casella entry from a ninth place start to the lead and eventually the win. Hinckley held on to collect runner-up honors, with former Lee Pro Stock regular “Stormin” Norman Wrenn rounding out the podium.
Multi-time track champ J.R. Baril was the top gun in the Late Model Sportsman/Super Street main event, racing the Brian House machine to an easy victory. Jimmy Ryder put in an impressive run a couple of car lengths back, as the 2009 Classic Lites Oktoberfest winner went home with his best career LMS finish in the runner-up spot. Tony Kawejsza, Boe Green, Tom Hough, Andy Field, Billy Ryder, Grant Aither, Todd Bregy, and Josh Ball were the rest of the top ten.
There was plenty of action in the Hobby Stock/Strictly Stock feature, with Seekonk Speedway regular “Flyin’ Ryan” Linehan staying away from all the trouble to collect the checkered flag, his first ever win at the Lee oval.
Boe Green picked up a strong second place finish aboard the Jeff Trask entry, with Bill Helliwell, Brian DeStefano, Connor McDougal, Crystal Scrydynolat, Jerry Lepage, Jim Shorey, Bobby Glass, Kenny Scott, and Patrick Tanguay rounding out the top ten.
After the feature, eighth place finisher Glass saluted the crowd in honor of his retirement from a racing career that spanned fifty years. The retired MA firefighter took a victory lap carrying a ceremonial checkered flag, and ended his tribute with a burnout that fans won’t soon forget.
Some of the Hobby Stock competitors joined the Sport Trucks for a combined feature event, with “Lightnin” Lew Fortin of Berwick, Me bouncing back from an incident during qualifying to take down the win in that one in the former Doug Ricker machine.
Emerson Cayer had an extremely successful Oktoberfest, taking down the wins in both the 4-cylinder and Outlaw mini Stock feature events. In the 4-cylinders, he won after a spirited race-long battle with Billy Osborne which saw the pair swap the lead several times along the way.
After doing a tremendous job of working the heavy lapped traffic, Osborne and former Roadrunner champion Ben Brown shared the podium with Cayer after the 4-cylinder win, with Kevin Douglas taking runner-up to Cayer in the Outlaw Mini Stocks over Ken McIlvaine.
2011 track champion Troy Washburn defended the home turf and took down the win over fellow regular Kyle Roy in the Ironman/6-cylinder feature, Rusty Bryant beat out brother Rob and Duane Skofield in the Classic Lites, and James Logan collected the win in the Allison Legacy Series main.