N. WOODSTOCK, N.H. – Following heat race qualifying and the all-important Late Model Semi Feature, the Strictly Stock Minis started off an early schedule Saturday at White Mountain Motorsports Park. Led to green by former first-time winner on the year, Connor Rueda paced the early circuits with Donnie Baumgardner keeping watch on the outside groove. The best on-track battle saw tied championship hopefuls Todd Derrington and Patrick Switser duke it out midpack for a top-five finish before last-lap fireworks up front.
Entering turn one on the final lap, Rueda found himself across the nose of Baumgardner and into the infield, prompting race control to dock the #18 to last on the lead lap finish and young McKenna Merchant found herself the winner in victory lane. Derrington and Switser joined Merchant on the podium to keep the championship battle at a continued close call leading into the final weeks of the season.
The Flying Tiger 35-lap trophy dash was led to green by Jim Paquette and Austin Sicard with championship leader Brandon Gray starting shotgun on the field after a heat-race mechanical mishap took him out of contention early on. Mike Clark and Tyler Pepin quickly found themselves at the head of the pack and holding strong but Gray was coming on strong. The division phenom took over the lead on lap 19 and never looked back to claim his eleventh-straight win of the season ahead of Clark and Pepin at the line.
Stacy Cahoon and Oren Remick took the green flag for the Late Models on Saturday afternoon before the two went sour just 12 laps later with Remick getting the spin and Cahoon taking the penalty. On the restart between Quinny Welch and Jimmy Renfrew, Jr., Renfrew and Welch made contact in turn three with Welch going agricultural racing in the infield but held on to keep the field green. Renfrew was shown the black flag for a pass-through penalty and parked his ride for the night. The feature remained green to the end with Bobby Therrien picking up the checkers in his one-off invasion of White Mountain followed by Tyler Cahoon and Tanner Woodard in the top-three.
The lightning-fast Supermodified Series went green to checkered in their 40-lap main event in just seven minutes and 34 seconds. Ben Tinker showed the way out front and never faltered in his drive to the checkered flags with Ryan Battle and Jim Storace in tow.
The Stock Open 100 wrapped up Saturday’s program with Vermont’s Brandon Gray and Adam Gray hauling up from Massachusetts bringing the field to green. The Grays put on a great side-by-side battle at the front and quickly split from the rest of the pack with Luke Peters and Ryan Lineham in tow. The foursome soon added another member as a hard-charging Jimmy Renfrew Jr. entered the top-five picture by lap-27, quickly making his way under Lineham and around Peters to put pressure on the Grays.
A pair of single-car spin cautions made the pressure between the front runners grow to a boiling point with the two making contact on lap 81 in turn one, sending both to the rear and gifting Renfrew the lead. Renfrew kept his foot to the floor and powered all the way up to the $5,000 win with former 100-lap open winner Kris Watson taking second and Luke Peters making the hometown crowd proud with a strong third-place run to cap off the afternoon.
UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
(local competitors)
Late Models – (50 Laps)
10. 92VT Jaden Perry Hardwick, VT
Flying Tigers – (35 Laps)
6. 23VT Matt Potter Marshfield, VT
