9/2/2024
Claremont Motorsports Park
MATT KIMBALL SCORES $7,600 MODIFIED WIN SUNDAY AT CLAREMONT Claremont Motorsports Park Sunday
MATT KIMBALL SCORES $7,600 MODIFIED WIN SUNDAY AT CLAREMONT
Claremont Motorsports Park Sunday,
CLAREMONT, N.H. – Matt Kimball led the final 58 laps of Sunday’s Racers Honoring Racers 76 Open Modified main event at Claremont Motorsports Park, pocketing more than $7,600 with his victory in the speedplant’s Labor Day weekend main event.
Dave Greenslit, who for years has been one of New England’s premier Super Street drivers, put his 2024 season of misery behind him Sunday, topping the 73-lap annual Richard Tetreault Memorial Race, and Newport’s Chris Conroy was the winner of the night’s Pure Stock feature.
Veteran oval-tracker Alby Ovitt made easy work of topping the nightcap 50-lap Four Cylinder Enduro, while Jase Mongeon outran a deep field of NELCAR Legends competitors to win his Sunday feature.
Levi Lashua earned top honors in the Claremont Karting Series Tiger C event, and Bryson Robideauz was victorious in the NELCAR Bandaleros 15-lapper.
Brian Robie set fast time in qualifying for the MDP Motorsports Promotions presents Racers Honoring Racers 76-lapper, with a top-six redraw then placing Todd Patnode and Jon McKennedy on row one. Wasting no time Patnode immediately took charge.
Kimball, firing from row two, took second from McKennedy on lap two. Then pulling up on Patnode’s bumper, he rode in his shadow until rocketing to the point on a lap-18 restart.
With Patnode fading backwards, Anthony Nocella got up for second on lap 32, with McKennedy blasting back into third a lap later. Neither, though, had anything to prevent Kimball from winning. The second-generation Bennington, N.H. ace would score the big payday a dozen lengths ahead of Nocella.
McKennedy didn’t have the strongest ride in the field on Sunday, but ran a flawless line to come home third, just ahead of Jacob Perry and Matt Swanson. Fan favorite Brian Robie, who’d set fast time in qualifying, struggled throughout the Racng Guys sponsored 76-lapper, quietly finishing sixth.
Brandon Gray took the lead from Matt Sonnhalter on lap two of the Richard Tetreault Memorial 73-lap Super Street main event. Sonnhalter, though, was far from done.
Pulling alongside Gray on a lap-35 restart, Sonnhalter went to work from the top of the track. Over the next seven laps, the pair put on the show of the night, with first one leading by a wheel at the stripe, and then the other by the same slim margin the next time around. And while they were wowing the crowd, David Greenslit, coming from row five at the start, was charging forward.
Greenslit bolted into second on lap 45, then rocketed into the lead a lap later and, when Gray went pitside two go-rounds later, had only Sonnhalter to hold off en route to victory. Cody Schoolcraft, who’d started the summer aboard a Sportsman Modified, held strong in third the final 27 go-rounds, joining Greenslit and Sonnhalter in trophy row at race’s end.
Greenslit, a multi-time CMP track champion, who has also titled atop both Granite State and national competition, had struggled mightily over the first four months of the 2024 campaign. That now behind him, he sent a strong message Sunday that he’ll be a force to be reckoned with over the season’s final three events.
Pure Stock hot shoe Chris Conroy will have to wait until Friday to take his first victory lap of the season. Conroy, strong in the top three for all 25 caution-free laps of the LaValley Building Supply Pure Stock feature Sunday, picked up the win after the apparent first and second-place cars bombed out in the tech line.
Andrea St. Amour, second on the night, closed to within 14 makers of top points man Keegan Tabor, fifth in Sunday’s event, a race that he’d won a year ago to score his first career CMP victory. Gage Dillingham came home third Sunday.
Jace Mongeon, from the pole led all the way to win the NELCAR Legends feature. PJ Evans was second, and series points leader Cole Robie third. Mongeon and Evans also won their heats.
Claremont Motorsports Park will roar back into action this Friday, September 6, when the storied Thrasher Road oval will host the NASCAR Weekly Racing Series Sportsman Modifieds, Super Streets, Pure Stocks and Six Shooters, along with the exciting New England Dwarf Car Series. Post time at CMP is 7 p.m.
CLAREMONT MOTORSPORTS PARK SEPTEMBER 1 TOP PERFORMERS
OPEN MODIFIED 76: Matt Kimball, Anthony Nocella, Jon McKennedy, Jacob Perry, Matt Swanson, Brian Robie, Joey Jarviz, Kirk Alexander, Todd Owen, Ryan Doucette.
SUPER STREET TETREAULT MEMORIAL 73: Dave Greenslit, Matt Sonnhalter, Cody Schoolcraft, Robbie Streeter, Joe Tetreault, Jimmy Zullo, Robert Hagar, Trevor Rocke, Dylan Zullo, David Thibodeau.
PURE STOCK 25: Chris Conroy, Andrea St. Amour, Gage Dillingham, Kyle Kenny, Keegan Tabor, Chris Davis, Chris Chambers, Amy Jaycox, Carter Conroy, Jordan Gonyea.
NELCAR LEGENDS: Jase Mongeon, PJ Evans, Cole Robie, Kevin Davis, Darren Galiant, Kevin Norwak, Reagan Parent, Riley Paul, Jack Walker, Kyle Caissie.
FOUR CYLINDER ENDURO 50: Albie Ovitt, Christy Rizzoto, Freddy Rogers, Matt Boucher, Bre Nelson.
Submitted By: Mike Parks