Jeffrey Battle sweeps Supermodified features in 60th Star Classic

Like so many legacy racers, Jeffrey Battle carries a weight: the weight of past success and present expectations. Saturday night, at his home track, the Supermodified ace carried that weight to victory lane.

Twice.

Battle blitzed rival Bobby Timmons III to win the Dennis McKennedy Memorial 79, then outlasted Mark “Sparky” MacIver to win his first Bob Webber, Sr. Memorial Star Classic 100, sweeping a night of Supermodified racing at Star Speedway.

And as if the Supermodified sweep weren’t enough, Battle added a top-five run in the evening’s Modified Racing Series feature.

“Today was a lot of fun,” said Battle, “but it was a lot of running around.”

Saturday was the third day of the Epping, N.H. speedway’s 60th Star Classic Weekend, the day reserved for the weekend’s undisputed crown jewel. For all but the 2023 edition, the Star Classic itself has been a big-block Supermodified race. In terms of legacy, it remains the most revered big-block Supermodified race in New England.

Battle, the open-wheel wunderkind from Dunstable, Mass., has been a dominant force in the small-block 350 Supermodifieds campaigned weekly at Star and at select venues around the Northeast. But he has improved markedly in his first two years with the New England Supermodified Series, leading the standings in the Maine-based big-block touring series with only a few races left to go.

Saturday night was an opportunity for the 24-year-old to win two of the region’s biggest Supermodified races in their respective classes.

First up for Battle was the Dennis McKennedy Memorial 79, one of the biggest races of the year for Star’s 350 Supermodifieds. Originally the Randy Witkum Memorial for its first 21 years, the race was rechristened in 2021 in honor of the late father of Star graduate and open-wheel ace Jon McKennedy. Battle won not only the final running of the Randy Witkum Memorial, but the first two Dennis McKennedy Memorials as well.

Battle time-trialed third in the 21-car starting field, but redrew fifth for the start of the 79-lap feature. Eddie Witkum, Jr. and James Witkum brought the field to green, but 350 SMAC regular Scott Watts pounced on the two to take the early lead. Timmons moved up to second early, but Battle slipped past his championship challenger to pressure Watts for the top spot.

A flurry of mid-race cautions allowed Battle to challenge Watts’ supremacy on restarts, but Watts was able to counter Battle’s charge. However, it was a lap-45 restart that turned the tides. Jim Storace exited the pits as the field took the green, putting the veteran racer perilously close to falling a lap down early in the run. As Watts and Battle came up to lap Storace, he pulled high, then low, indecisive as to how to yield to the leaders. Battle used Storace’s car as a pick to slip past Watts for the lead on lap 51.

Battle was solidly in control when a red flag flew on lap 61, allowing medical personnel to tend to a pit paddock emergency that prevented the race from continuing. After the unexpected break, Battle was back in command, with Timmons working over Watts for second.

On the white flag lap, Timmons made his move on Watts for second, but the two made contact. As they came off turn four, Watts’ tire gave way, sending him spinning just shy of the start-finish line. Battle crossed the line 0.972 seconds ahead of a contrite Timmons, who acknowledged the contact after the race.

Eddie Witkum, Jr. finished third despite an early-race pit stop. Ryan Battle was fourth at the line with Robby Gordon Douglas finishing fifth. Watts was scored ninth after failing to complete the last lap.

Battle acknowledged the role traffic played in setting up the winning pass. “It was almost like a little game of Chess, in a way, right?” he said.

He laughed. “I’ve never played Chess.”

In five runnings of the Dennis McKennedy Memorial, Battle has won three. Brother Ryan won the 2023 race, which served as the Star Classic main event in the absence of big-block cars. Timmons, who holds the Star weekly points lead with one race left, won last year’s event.

Three competitors from the 350 Supermodified feature had to regroup for the NESS-sanctioned Bob Webber, Sr. Memorial Star Classic that wrapped up the evening. Battle, saddled with a feature winner’s handicap, would roll out seventh while his key rival, Jon McKennedy, started two spots ahead in fifth.

McKennedy, making his first Supermodified start since losing an engine in July, entered the weekend as the defending race winner with a shot to tie the legendary Bentley Warren with six Star Classic victories.

Keith Morrill and veteran “Sparky” MacIver led the field to the green flag, but while Morrill sank through the field on the start, MacIver asserted himself out front, taking control early. Dan Bowes moved to second, but the 2023 NESS champion settled into a rhythm with MacIver showing the way.

Anthony Nocella, who took the reins of Vic Miller’s iconic No. 11 midway through the season, ran third in the opening stint. Battle and McKennedy were fourth and fifth, but neither were gaining on MacIver.

Bowes, however, was closing in on MacIver when the Maine veteran came up on the slower car of Dave Sanborn. Bowes hoped to use Sanborn to slow MacIver out front, but as the leaders split Sanborn, Bowes made contact with the slower car, sending the pair up the banking and into the dirt off turn two. A lengthy yellow flag at lap 38 ensued to separate the two cars and return them to the pits.

Nocella moved to second on the restart, but MacIver held his own on the restart, continuing to lead laps. As Battle worked over Nocella for the runner-up spot, MacIver was in position to pull off a massive upset.

But just past halfway, inevitability settled in as Battle began closing the gap to MacIver. With forty laps left on the board, Battle zipped past MacIver and took command.

Out front at last, Battle gapped the field by half a lap with ten circuits remaining.

In only his third big-block Star Classic, Battle took the checkered flag 8.022 seconds ahead of the rest of the field.

From falling off the lead lap early in his first NESS starts last year to scoring five wins and only one finish worse than second in 2025, Battle has come a long way in a short time.

“I’m getting a little more experience,” he said of his progression with a car his team purchased from racer Ryan Locke. “This car never had a wing on it when we bought it, so we kind of had to start from scratch, in a way, as far as the setup goes. They ran it at Oswego with a tail wing. They never had a top wing on it.

“We’ve gained a lot in the car. Sometimes you’ve got to do the three wrongs to learn the one right. But with my uncle’s experience, we can kind of skip the third one, we can do two wrongs. You know what I mean? That helps out a lot, having 20, 30 years of experience doing this.”

MacIver, who had yet to record a lead-lap finish in a NESS-sanctioned event, wheeled longtime car owner Bob Chabot’s entry to a career-best second-place finish.

“I give (MacIver) so much credit,” said Battle of his mid-race adversary. “I can remember watching him when I was a young, young kid. I’ve always admired him. In my head, I was actually rooting for him. If I had to lose to somebody, I mean, Jon…you don’t mind losing to Jon, Jon’s good. But I would have been psyched to see Sparky win that. I give him a lot of credit.

“I hope I’m in as good a shape as him at his age.”

McKennedy was never a threat to lead, but drove to third at the end, making a late pass on Nocella to secure his podium position. New Hampshire’s P.J. Stergios, in his first Star Classic and his third NESS start, came home fifth.

McKennedy did earn a consolation prize, turning in a dominant performance in the 75-lap Modified Racing Series feature that kicked off the evening. Brian Robie challenged for the lead early, but McKennedy went to the front and stayed there, holding off Brett Meservey and Nocella to take the win. Robie finished fourth, then retreated to a waiting helicopter to transport him across the state to Monadnock Speedway, where he was in contention for a track championship.

Battle finished fifth in his third race of the evening. While he has taken more time to adapt to the Tour-type cars, he relishes the challenge.

“I enjoy how much I struggle with it, as crazy as it sounds,” he said. “I’m not afraid to say I need to spend more time on it. I try my hardest to get there as much as I can, working in the shop. But actually I just bought a house, and we’ve got a lot more going on back at home. This stuff is a lot of fun, but come Monday morning, we all got other priorities, and come five or six o’clock at night after work…you know what I mean?”

Still, he recognized what could have been.

“Would have been cool to win the Modified race,” he said, “but you’ve got to crawl before you walk, right? We’re getting the hang of it.”

Battle is a scion of the Witkum family that was instrumental in the development of the 350 Supermodified in the late 1990s. Supermodifieds are his heritage. And Battle recognizes the role he plays in representing the family in today’s racing world.

“It’s definitely very, very special,” he said. “Growing up as a kid…I lost an uncle, my uncle Randy. He was very, very good from what I heard. I’ve never said this, but I almost feel like I’m doing what he would have done. He was very, very good. It’s probably hard for a lot of my family members, especially my grandparents, to watch us family members race. So to win this race is very special. Randy was the only one in the family that ever won with a big block, I believe. My grandfather, he and my uncle Eddie started in the V6 Super days, and they decided to put a V8 in it.”

Randy Witkum, for whom the Dennis McKennedy Memorial was previously named, was only 25 when he passed away following a Supermodified crash at Jennerstown Speedway in 1999.

“I feel like lately, for some reason, Randy’s been sticking in the back of my head,” Battle said, choosing his words thoughtfully. “Both my uncles were very talented, but he was very talented. I don’t know how to explain it, I don’t ever like to say I’m doing good. I’m not a cocky person. I don’t like to pat myself on the back. But I’m doing what he would have done.”

Battle’s longtime partner Jaime is the daughter of Star owner Bobby Webber, Jr., who fields Battle’s Tour-type Modified entries. Through the Webber family, Battle is further bound to the heritage of Supermodified racing in the Northeast, especially at Star.

“I’m 24 now, I’ve been doing this side by side with my grandfather since I was literally 12,” he said. “Every summer vacation during school, every winter vacation during school, I was side by side with him.

“To be honest, now I’m enjoying it, but it becomes a lot.”

Battle is a young racer in a veteran’s discipline. And at only 24, he has four track championships at Star, multiple wins in the track’s biggest 350 Supermodified events, and six wins in Oswego Speedway’s Classic 50, including the last four straight. In his brief big-block career, he has a ninth-place finish in this year’s Oswego International Classic at the birthplace of Supermodified racing. In another month, he will likely clinch the NESS championship, joining Rob Summers, Bowes, and Timmons as regional big-block champions.

Battle carries a big weight in Supermodified racing.

But he bears it well.

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