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Northeast Late Model Roundup (6/22)

Derek Griffith vs. Travis Benjamin, Thompson Speedway 4/9/2017

Weather in the Northeast has not been kind to local racing fans thus far, with a long list of rescheduled dates and delayed track openings across the region. At long last, though, dry skies have prevailed in the last couple weeks, allowing the local fendered tours to hit their summer stride. And while some winners never change, a number of drivers were able to shake off the early-season rust this past weekend en route to their first victories of 2017.

AMERICAN-CANADIAN TOUR: Fans in the stands at White Mountain Motorsports Park in North Woodstock, NH witnessed a first for the season: an ACT Late Model Tour race went off as scheduled. Saturday night’s White Mountain 150 was the first Tour race of 2017 not to face some kind of weather delay.

With the 150-lap event paying out local late-model points as well as ACT Tour points, most of the White Mountain regulars were on hand to take part. Thirty-four teams packed the pits; thirty-one would make the grid (though B-feature winner Bryan Mason was unable to take the green flag).

Scott Payea #37VT, Lee USA Speedway 4/23/2017

Scott Payea is on a roll with three straight victories in ACT Tour competition. (File Photo)

After 150 green-flag laps, it was Milton, Vermont’s Scott Payea taking his third straight win of 2017. Payea took the lead from Dillon Moltz, who held on to finish second over Josh Masterson. WMMP veteran and track points leader Quinny Welch was best among the weekly regulars with a fourth-place finish, with Corey Mason rounding out the top five.

Payea is the fourth driver in ACT Late Model Tour history to score three consecutive wins, and the first since Joey Polewarczyk, Jr. in 2013. Payea’s win should also move him to the top of the Tour points standings over Dillon Moltz.

A surprising no-show was “Bad Boy” Bobby Therrien. Third in points with three races down, Therrien wrecked hard while leading last week’s Community Bank 150 at Thunder Road. Therrien was back Thursday for weekly action at Thunder Road, but he finished 21st in the second 50-lap feature, and it appears he and the Fast One Motorsports team were unable to get a car together in time for the Tour event.

Of note, this is the first ACT Tour event in 2017 in which none of the Série ACT competitors have competed. (Jonathan Bouvrette had competed in all three races thus far, scoring an apparent win at Devil’s Bowl Speedway before his engine failed post-race tech.)

With the ACT Tour idle for a month until its next scheduled race, teams will have ample time to rebuild and refresh for the rest of the schedule.

PASS NORTH: The PASS Super Late Models returned to Hermon, Maine’s Speedway 95 on Sunday afternoon for the Hight Chevrolet-Buick-GMC 150. The eighth event of the season presented an opportunity for a number of title contenders to get into the winner’s circle for the first time in 2017.

Defending race winner Garrett Hall, fresh off a Saturday-night feature win at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, looked like a favorite to repeat, setting fast laps in practice and leading early. However, it was another 2016 winner who emerged from the pack late in the race. Derek Griffith, driving the black and red #12G for car owner Louie Mechalides, set aside some early-season struggles and cruised to his second career PASS victory and his first win of 2017.

Travis Benjamin finished second, with Hall finishing third. DJ Shaw raced through the pack to come home fourth. Hermon native Mike Hopkins, running a reduced schedule in 2017 after an impressive 2016 campaign, rounded out the top five. Eighteen teams made the trek to the track just outside Bangor, including track late-model regular Andrew McLaughlin, who finished sixteenth in his hastily-converted weekly car.

After eight races, journeyman Glen Luce holds a narrow lead over DJ Shaw in the point standings. Travis Benjamin, who started last season deep in the hole after a heat-race crash in the season opener, is third overall. Ben Rowe, who has struggled the last two races, hangs onto fourth over Dave Farrington, Jr. With early-season wins going to part-time challengers Eddie MacDonald, Reid Lanpher and Joey Doiron, a number of title contenders have yet to visit victory lane halfway through the season.

IN BRIEF: Thunder Road International Speedbowl finally got its weekly Late Model competition off and running. The quarter-mile oval hosted twin 50-lap features Thursday night, with Matt White and Kyle Pembroke each claiming a feature win.

PASS part-timer Garrett Hall, running for season points at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough, ME, won his first weekly feature Saturday night before heading to Sunday’s PASS race at Speedway 95. Up the road at Oxford Plains Speedway, TJ Brackett won Saturday night’s SLM feature. TJ and his father Tim tend to focus on the PASS races at Oxford and Beech Ridge, and they will surely be among the entries for the upcoming Oxford 250.

Joey Polewarczyk, Jr. passed on local SLM action and towed west. Joey Pole was the only New England racer to compete in the Money In The Bank 150, a $20,000-to-win Monday-night SLM show at Berlin Raceway in Marne, MI. The event featured a star-studded entry list including NASCAR regulars Kyle Busch and Erik Jones and eventual winner Bubba Pollard. Pole ran in the top ten midway through the race, but a rear-end issue relegated the #97 team to 23rd in the running order.

COMING UP: The ACT Late Model Tour is off until July 15 for their annual event at Seekonk (MA) Speedway. PASS North teams will make their first of two visits to Lee (NH) USA Speedway on Friday night, June 23. The Granite State Pro Stock Series will be at Seekonk for their own 100-lap feature on Saturday evening. North of the border, the Série ACT will host their second race of the season Saturday at Autodrome Montmagny outside Québec City.

Jeff Brown is a contributor to Short Track Scene. A native of New Hampshire and a long-time fan of New England racing, Brown provides a fan's perspective as he follows New England's regional Late Model touring series.

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