Mini Stock Racing

Mid Week IMCA Empire Series Race Held at Dunn Hill 2 Speedway

Nineteen cars were on hand to take part in the 25 lap Empire Series event this past Wednesday. Many of the Dunn Hill 2 regulars were there hoping to keep the win here at the track. Kevan Cook, Josh Sawyer, Chris Fleming and Jerry Lobdell Jr., were just a few of the outsiders hoping to record the win.

The qualifying races were held with the wins going to Shawn Bruce, Eddie Sites and Chris Fleming. The top twelve drivers redrew for starting position. The front row was made up of Eddie Sites and Kevan Cook. When the green flag fell Eddie Sites found the fast way around the oval. Looking to take the top spot away were Kevan Cook and Chris Fleming. Both drivers are not unfamiliar with victory lane in this series. Cook and Fleming battled for many of the 25 laps for second and third. As the laps wound down in the feature event. It was evident that the No. 10 of Chris Fleming was closing in on the Sites machine. Chris liked the high side at the Dunn Hill 2 oval, but could not make the pass for the lead. With one lap left in the event the lap traffic was definitely holding up the other teams. Coming off the fourth turn for the checkers one of the lap cars got crossed up in front of the Eddie Sites and Chris Fleming. Sites made a move to hold off Fleming, but the move gave Chris the opportunity to get ahead of the Eddie. Coming to the line it was Chris Fleming capturing the win by only 1/2 of a car length. Rounding out the top five were Eddie Sites, Kevan Cook, Mike Wilmot, and Eddie McKernan.

The Empire Sport Trucks were scheduled to make an appearance for a series race. Brandon Clapperton stated he had four of the teams scheduled to come. Unfortunately two of the teams backed out at the last minute. They allowed Dan Wood to race with the Front Wheel Drive teams in the enduro race. If you would like more information on how to become part of this series event, go to the website www.empiresporttrucks.com.

The final event of the evening was an enduro style race for the Front Wheel Drive class. Only seven teams came to support the 40 lap event. There were no qualifying events as the drivers drew for their starting position for the feature event. Gregg Turner driving for Clay Weaver paced the field and opened up a good lead. Chris Conrad who made his way to second was looking to take away the top spot from the Turner No. 00. The red flag only came out twice to stop the event. First time was for Tyler Belcher who's car caught fire. Thankfully only the car had minor damage, but it was unable to continue. The second red flag came out for the No. 1 of Jamie Brinks who developed a flat left front. His car was unable to make it to the pit area and was sitting in a bad spot on the track. On the final restart of the feature, Turner opened up a lead over the No. 6 of Chris Conrad. It appeared that the Conrad machine was closing in on Turner. Behind the top two Mike Ely and Kenny Benjamin Jr., were fighting it out for third. Just before the half way point the Conrad machine developed a mechanical problem sending him to the infield. Mike Ely now up to second position set his sights on the double zero of Gregg Turner. In the closing laps, Mike caught Gregg and challenged him for the lead. Turner would not have any of that as he fought back and held off Mike Ely to record the win. Coming home in third was Kenny Benjamin Jr., fourth went to John Widrig Jr., with Chris Conrad able to hold on to the fifth place finish.

2011 Texas Roadhouse North East Mini Stock Tour - Twin State Recap

After a very intense and fast moving thundershower roared over the pit area in Claremont, New Hampshire the Texas Roadhouse North East Mini Stock Tour took to the tight 1/3 speedway for the first of two practice sessions.

With a large group of the field being separated by only 2-3 tenths of a second a lap the large field was sure to put on an impressive show under the lights. 17 tour style minis packed into the pit area for the NEMST’s second visit to Twin State Speedway. In the heat races point leader Calvin Rose held off a fast moving Emerson Cayer to lengthen his point lead. Louis Maher pulled a very impressive switch over move on early leader Rob Greenleaf in the second heat race ultimately winning ahead of Loren Smith.

As the line-up for the feature was determined excitement in the garage area began to build. Many cars were making last minute tweaks and touches before rolling into the staging lanes for the nights 50 lap main event.

Kirsten Sands from Texas Roadhouse waved the green flag over a 16 car field with drivers from 6 different states entered. The field thundered into turn 1 as NEMST rookie Cristofer King took command of the race early on. It wasn’t long before the Rhode Island native and Tater’s NASCAR Merchandise Bonus Award winner Roger Ducharme showed some steam as he passed the young rookie King.

Monadnock competitor Mike Metcalf made well in his first tour start of the season by improving upon his mid pack starting position and following Ducharme closely throughout the first half of the event. First competitor John Ross Jr. also made the tour cars step up their game as his high revving Volkswagen drove easily into the top 5 from deep in the pack early on.

While beating and banging was going on throughout the pack the field set a blistering pace until the 4 car of Rob Gioia spun coming out of turn 4 and collected the top 5 machines of King and Smith on lap 27. On the restart Metcalf held off former tour champion Cayer through turn 1 and began to set the pace once again.

Metcalf’s old friend and former competitor Cayer made the high move and showed the little Volkswagen what a Mustang could do out front for the first time of the night. While a few cautions came in the latter part of the event Cayer never looked back and took advantage of the 4 car battle for 2nd to pull away and take home his 2nd victory of the season and 5th tour checkered since its beginning in 2008.

The huge battle for second raged on for the final 10 circuits with many two and three-wide battles amongst Rose, Metcalf, Maher, and Michalski. Rose finally showed the rest his tour experience by gaining advantage and hanging on for the mid-size trophy down the front straight. Metcalf narrowly beat out Michalski for third and Maher was right on their bumper for fifth.

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