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McKennedy cements Supermodified legacy with fifth Star Classic win

The Massachusetts open-wheel ace joins three other drivers with at least five wins in the iconic big block Supermodified showdown.

Big block Supermodifieds were conspicuously absent from last year’s Star Classic. Jon McKennedy was conspicuously absent for the last two years.

But Saturday night, McKennedy, his big block Supers, and Star Speedway’s victory lane were reunited at last.

The Chelmsford, Mass. open-wheel specialist dominated the Bob Webber, Sr. Memorial Star Classic 100, winning the iconic Supermodified showdown for the fifth time and the first under the sanctioning of the New England Supermodified Series.

Call it a homecoming.

McKennedy makes a three-wide move past slower traffic en route to his fifth Star Classic win, following victories in 2013, 2018, 2020 and 2021. (STS/Jeff Brown)

“This place has been like home,” said McKennedy of the Epping, N.H. oval where he cut his racing teeth. “I’ve got a lot of laps here, I started racing at a young age here, so, pretty neat deal.”

One of the oldest continuous events in New Hampshire motorsports, the Star Classic was staged for most of its existence as an International Supermodified Association event. In recent years, thinning fields and steep sanctioning costs had become a point of discussion, leading track owner Bobby Webber, Jr. to bring the ISMA era to a close. For 2023, Star’s own 350 Supermodified division took center stage as the main event of the Star Classic weekend.

But mended fences between Webber and Maine promoter Tom Mayberry opened the door for big block Supermodifieds, backed by Mayberry’s third-year NESS, to return to the track’s biggest weekend, now a four-day extravaganza featuring Mayberry’s Pro All Stars Series Super Late Models, the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series, and the Northeastern Midget Association, among others.

Headlining the 59th Star Classic Weekend, though, was the NESS-sanctioned Bob Webber, Sr. Memorial, named for the track patriarch who purchased Star in 1980 to keep Supermodified racing alive at the banked quarter-mile.

Matt Swanson started on the pole in Howie Lane’s #97 and led the first 34 laps of Saturday’s Star Classic. (STS/Jeff Brown)

Entered in his first Star Classic since 2021, McKennedy timed in second fastest behind 350 Supermodified whiz Jeffrey Battle, who earned his first NESS win in August. Fourth-place qualifier Matt Swanson, the highest qualifier without a feature win in 2024, took the pole with Mark “Sparky” MacIver alongside. Reigning NESS champion Dan Bowes clocked in third, but the local racer found engine issues after time trials that brought an early end to his night.

Swanson, racing for Supermodified stalwart Howie Lane, led the opening laps as McKennedy, Battle and NESS points leader Bobby Timmons worked their way forward. MacIver held steady in second, but on lap 22, the veteran racer tagged the slower car of Keith Morrill, spinning into an earthen berm in turn two. Jim Storace took second under caution, with Battle, McKennedy and Timmons rounding out the top five early on.

Ben Seitz passes Jim Storace early on, en route to a fourth-place finish for the Bourne, Mass. racer. (STS/Jeff Brown)

McKennedy leapfrogged Battle to take third on the restart as Swanson kept Storace at bay for the lead. Storace quickly came under fire from McKennedy, who made the pass and set off after Swanson. The charge was short-lived, as Russ Wood’s spin brought out another yellow on lap 34.

Swanson brought the field to green again, but he was no match for McKennedy, who powered to the point off the restart. Behind them, Timmons made a bold move to get past longtime rivals Battle and Storace, stealing third and chasing the two leaders as they dodged slower traffic.

Keith Morrill escapes as “Sparky” MacIver spins into a dirt berm to bring out the caution. (STS/Jeff Brown)

With forty laps left, Timmons was closing on Swanson when he came up on the slower car of Mike Netishen. Timmons got into Netishen, sliding up the banking. By the time he had gathered up his car, Timmons had fallen to fifth, with Ben Seitz wheeling the Vic Miller-owned #11 to third.

Only a couple laps later, MacIver and “Super Dave” Sanborn met with misfortune, spinning in turn four and collecting Vern Romanoski. McKennedy and Swanson lined up side by side for the lap-63 restart, but once again, McKennedy fired off and left the field in the dust.

Dave Sanborn goes around in turns three and four, with Vern Romanoski driving into the mess. (STS/Jeff Brown)

While McKennedy built his lead over Swanson, Timmons tried to regain what he had lost on track, driving past Battle and looking for an opportunity to clear Seitz.

Out front, though, it was all McKennedy, leading the final 66 laps to come home victorious in New England’s biggest Supermodified race once again.

And while the open-wheel ace made it look easy, the preparation to get there was anything but.

“For so long, we’ve been kind of spoiled in a way,” McKennedy said. “The car’s won like 15 out of the last 18 races, it’s absolutely dominant. But the last few races, I noticed it was slowing down a little bit, just wasn’t reacting how it normally does. I had a feeling we had some issues going on, maybe the chassis was starting to get a little fatigued, and that’s exactly what was going on. All the horsepower, they don’t last forever.

“So we stripped the car down to a bare frame last week, and put some new pieces of tubing in it, try to make it a little bit stiffer, and it pretty much came back to how it always was. All the hard work paid off. It was a tough last week.”

Victory lane was a more settled place in the big block Supermodifieds, with McKennedy front and center. (STS/Jeff Brown)

Swanson finished second, a strong night for the Massachusetts native whose background also includes a lot of laps around Star Speedway. Saturday night was Swanson’s second straight runner-up finish as he still seeks his first NESS win of the season.

Timmons, fresh off a win in the Dennis McKennedy Memorial 75 350 Supermodified feature, slipped past Seitz with one lap to go, finishing third. The pass on Seitz was pedestrian compared to his bold mid-race move. “I’ve raced with both those guys a long time and kind of knew what was going to happen,” he said. “Dangerous, but confident in everyone’s ability that we could do it safely. And even in these big block cars, track position is so big that you seize the opportunity. And it worked out.”

Then he slipped up, leaving him to battle from behind. “I knew we were much better than the 14, as good as the 97,” he said. “I wasn’t really sure with the 11, and once again, track position. Once the 11 stayed in front of me, I wasn’t going to pass him until he got hung up in lapped traffic at the end. We lacked forward drive the whole race, so I was just trying my best not to spin the tires…I think we had the second best car, and we finished third.”

But for the third-generation Supermodified racer, merely taking the green flag felt like a win. Timmons was the fastest car on the track in last week’s NESS feature at Thunder Road when his engine failed in catastrophic fashion, leaving him without a powerplant and likely done for the season. Longtime sponsor and supporter Scott Martel came to the rescue, finding an engine that Timmons and his father could get into the car just in time.

An engine failure a week ago nearly ended Timmons’ championship dreams and his Supermodified season, but he spent all week getting a replacement engine pieced together to make Saturday’s show. (STS/Jeff Brown)

“I can’t thank Scott [Martel] and Jamie Timmons enough, I really can’t,” Timmons said. “We were done. We were all done. I couldn’t afford to fix it, didn’t have time to fix it, barely had time to get down. I mean, we were all week long, every night, 7, 8, 9 o’clock, 10 o’clock, whatever, we rolled this thing in the trailer at 10 o’clock last night and I didn’t even load the crate car last night. I was too tired, I mean, we’ll do it in the morning. A long week, a lot of effort. I can’t thank those guys enough. I can’t thank everybody else enough.”

Seitz and Battle rounded out the top five. Storace, 2022 NESS champ Rob Summers, Dave Duggan, Bobby Chartier and veteran Wood completed the top ten.

Jeffrey Battle ran out front early, but settled for a fifth-place finish in his big block entry. (STS/Jeff Brown)

Sixteen cars were on hand for the first NESS-sanctioned Star Classic, the strongest entry list for a NESS event thus far. And with ISMA’s own championship finale weekend held in central New York Friday and Saturday evening, many of the traveling teams that have traditionally supported the Star Classic were unable to do so.

“Man, if the two were ever together, there’d be 35 cars here tonight,” said McKennedy. “It’d be pretty amazing. But hey, we’ll see what happens down the road, right? Overall, it was a good field of cars, sixteen, which wasn’t bad, and you had a handful of good ones.”

McKennedy’s right front tire shows the rubber accumulation from a hundred laps of tough competition. (STS/Jeff Brown)

McKennedy’s car, of course, is one of the best. Originally fielded by owners Lee and Pam Vinal, McKennedy brought the car along to a new deal with Tim Lepine, maintaining its regional reign of terror. When McKennedy’s deal with Lepine came to an early end, the car was sold to John Nicotra, who fields ISMA cars for multi-time ISMA champ Otto Sitterly.

And then this summer, there was a reunion.

“Otto had bought the car, and Nicotra, and they ran it a few races, and they ran so-so,” McKennedy explained. “And I think they had too much going on with the other cars they have, they have the Bodnar car and they run the Hawk car at Oswego, with no wing. So they called me out of the clear blue and pretty much said, y’know, Otto and himself had talked, and they thought it’d be best maybe if I got the car back, and I could run it in New England.”

McKennedy makes the outside pass to take the lead on a lap-34 restart. (STS/Jeff Brown)

McKennedy reeled off two wins right away in July, including NESS’ $10,000-to-win show at Oxford Plains Speedway. In a pair of ISMA races in August on back-to-back evenings, McKennedy won at Claremont Motorsports Park and finished second in the revived Ollie Silva Mid-Summer Classic at Lee USA Speedway.

“It’s a great deal,” he said. “I get the car back in my garage, I get to work on it. Ultimately, I race for John. So it’s a neat deal. It’s a car I’ve always had a lot of success with, and a car I know very well. It’s good to have it back.”

Most importantly, it reunites McKennedy with a discipline he loves and has mastered. Despite winning the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour crown in 2022, despite wins in New England’s major Modified touring series, it all comes back to the winged methanol-fueled Supermodifieds.

“It’s awesome. I’m glad we were able to come back,” he said. “It’s been a couple years since the big blocks have been here. Everyone loves the big blocks. They’re very unique cars. Everyone loves to come out when they’re in this area and I think overall, they they did very well, got a very good crowd, a lot of people.”

McKennedy’s fifth Star Classic win puts him in truly elite company, joining Russ Wood, Christopher Perley and Bentley Warren as the only drivers to win the signature event at least five times.

And with NESS at the helm, a new era in the history of the Star Classic is just beginning.

Unofficial Results
New England Supermodified Series | Bob Webber, Sr. Memorial Star Classic 100
Star Speedway, Epping, N.H.

1. (79) Jon McKennedy
2. (97) Matt Swanson
3. (13) Bobby Timmons III
4. (11) Ben Seitz
5. (14) Jeffrey Battle
6. (47) Jim Storace
7. (5) Rob Summers
8. (51) Dave Duggan
9. (29) Bobby Chartier
10. (41) Russ Wood
11. (81) Keith Morrill
12. (52) Vern Romanoski
13. (24) Dave Sanborn
14. (55) Mike Netishen
15. (22) Mark “Sparky” MacIver
DNS (25) Dan Bowes

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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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