DONNY
BLANCHARD WINS 95 LITTLE ENDURO 75 LAPPER
Bangor’s
Donny Blanchard used a desperation move to pass Newburgh’s Paul Higgins
in turn four on the last lap to win the 75 lap MAC Tools/New England
Transmission Little Enduro feature on Saturday night at Speedway 95.
Blanchard had started the event on the outside pole by winning the
second qualifier, and moved into the lead past Newburgh’s Darren
Durrell on lap 2. It wasn’t long before Blanchard and the rest of the
leaders started lapping slower cars, and Blanchard got caught behind a
pack of them, falling as far back as 10th spot before starting his
charge back to the front. At the halfway point, Higgins was leading,
followed by Derek Cook of Wilton, Darren Durrell, Hermon’s Andrew
Crosby, and Blanchard in fifth. Blanchard caught the break he needed on
lap 60, when Michael Shaw of Troy slammed into the front stretch tire
wall, bringing out the third and final red flag of the event. On the
restart, Blanchard started making his move to the front, with 15 laps
remaining. When the flagman signaled one to go, Blanchard was on
Higgin’s bumper, but had been unable to make the pass the lead. Going
into turn three on the last lap, Blanchard dove to the inside and,
using Higgin’s car to hold his own on the track, forced Higgins high
and made the pass for the lead coming out of turn four. Higgins
finished in second, with Darren Durrell in third. Derek Cook finished
fourth on the track, but was disqualified in the post race inspection,
giving the fourth spot finish to Hermon’s Andrew Crosby. Mike Ogden of
Bucksport was fifth. Durrell and Blanchard won the qualifying races,
putting them on the front row for the feature.
In
Sport-Four action, Rick Grant of LaGrange took the lead from Old Town’s
Brent Fletcher on the second lap and held it to the end of the caution
free event, picking up his first win of 2009. Fletcher held his ground
for the remainder of the race after losing the lead to Grant, and
finished in the second spot. Points leader David Green of Hampden ran
another strong race to finish in third. Roy Hathorne of Brownville had
his Dodge Neon running well enough for a fourth place finish while Gary
Richards of Stetson finished in fifth. Grant had recently returned
behind the wheel of his Mustang after having loaned the car to fellow
driver Jeff Overlock Jr. of Hermon for a couple of weeks while Overlock
tried to fix a nagging engine problem in his own car. Fletcher won the
lone qualifier for the Sport- Fours
Some
of the 95 Sport-Four drivers did double duty as they also competed in
the 50 lap New England Mini Stock Tour event held Saturday night as a
make up from an early season rain out. At the end of the day, former
Speedway 95 Sport-Four champion Justin Trembley of Winter Harbor won
the event after taking the lead from Derek Cook of Wilton on the 19th
lap and holding on for the win. Tremblay’s Mustang was easily the class
of the field as no one was able to seriously challenge him once he went
out front. Current Tour points leader Emerson Cayer of Contookcook N.H.
finished in second, with another former 95 Sport-Four drive,r Jason
Dorr of Milford finishing in third. Roger Ducharme, hometown unknown,
finished in fourth with 95 regular David Green of Hampden finishing
fifth. Tremblay and Cayer won the night’s qualifying heats.

The
largest Strictly Street field of the season to date raced 35 laps in a
series race postponed from last week’s rain out. Carl McAlpine from
Burnham was the leader as the checkered flag fell, picking up his first
Speedway 95 win of the season. Current points leader Bradley Norris of
Ellsworth finished the event in the second spot, And Doug Day of
Bangor, substituting for Jordan Pearson, who was given the week off for
unsportsmanlike conduct after a disagreement with scoring following a
truck race ion which he competed, finished in third. Fourth went
to Tim Hudson of Windsor and Shawn Hamel of Bangor finished fifth. The
race was stopped only once, on lap 28 when Holden’s Travis Poulin, who
was running third at the time, spun and rolled over on the backstretch.
McAlpine was also the winner of the Strictly Street qualifier.
In
the Super Streets, Kris Watson of Hermon survived a kind of crazy
feature event to post his second win of the day. Kris had raced at
Unity Raceway earlier in the afternoon, and posted a win there, as well
as a second place finish the night before. Watson started the event in
the fourth position, but was in first at the completion of lap 1 and
was never bested for the top spot. Steve Moulton of Holden finished a
lucky second after leaving the race on lap 14 with a damaged front ball
joint following contact with Ed Drake of Vasselboro as they were racing
for the second spot. Drake was assisted by the track wrecker crew and
never returned to the race while Moulton drove his damaged car to the
pit. While he was in the pits for repairs, the race was started and
stopped twice without a lap being completed, so when he returned to the
race, he was still on the lead lap. He came back through the field to
finish the event in second. Mike Overlock of Franklin finished third,
for his first podium finish of the year. Nick Kinney of Danforth and Al
Libby of Brooks rounded out the top five. Moulton was the heat race
winner, but started back in the field because of his top three finish
last race date.
The
Wicked Good Vintage Racing League was again on the track Saturday night
with cars from their various divisions competing together. Al Robinson
of Machias, driving a 65 Buick and Ken Robinson on E. Machias, driving
a 49 Plymouth raced side by side for the last half of the event, with
Al Robinson slightly ahead at the checkers. Ken Robinson finished
second with Bob Hills of Searsmont third n a 38 Chevy.Jim Sprague of
Morrill, driving a 32 Ford and Jeff Willette of Winslow, in a 46
Plymouth rounded out the top five. Al Robinson also won the qualifier
for the division.