Riverside Racers beat Mother Nature
Bryan Mason worked his way through the field from his 12th place starting position and held off the stiff challenge from Russ Clark, capturing the 40 lap North Country Ford Late Model feature on Vaillancourt Electric night at Riverside Speedway Saturday.
Many of the other Saturday night race tracks were forced to close their doors due to in climate weather. However, the rain held off at the Groveton facility and 79 racers assembled to do battle at the ¼ mile oval.
The first feature of the night was the Sign Depot Daredevil rookies. Berlin’s Sierra Sanschagrin bolted to the front early and held off the hard charging Kristian Switser to take the victory. Switser went second and Gorham’s Kenneth Lavoie finished third. Sanschagrin also won the qualifier.
In the Caron Building Center Daredevil division, Aaron Poulin overcame some early racing issues and went on to defeat Dalton’s Randy Whittum and East Calais Vermont’s Tyler Austin to carry the checkered flag. It was Poulin’s second feature win of the season.
The Isaacson Structural Steel Angels went wire to wire in their 20 lap main event. When it was all said and done, rookie driver Lisa Hodgdon held off the division’s two top point racers in Lyndsey Christman and Allison Barney for the victory. Stark’s Shauna Randall was fourth and the # 17 of Desirae Sicard went fifth. Lyndon Center Vermont’s Shauna Whitcomb took the victory in the heat event.
The Twisted Tea Dwarf cars took to the speedway 13 strong and kept the crowd on the edge of their seats with some very tight open wheeled racing. After just one caution, West Burke’s Howard Switser held off the hard charging Eric Hall for his second straight win. Toby Merchant shook off some recent bad luck and battled his way to third place. The #16 of Dennis O’Brien was fourth and the consistent Dave Gyger was fifth. Anthony Leary and Eric Corum won the heat events.
The Budweiser Super Stocks saw the return of Groveton’s Jerrad Ledger to victory lane. Ledger had to chase down the very fast #66 of Bobby Taylor. North Troy Vermont’s David Allen raced home third with rookie Nick Gilcris fourth and the #3 of Ray Eames in fifth. Heat victories went to Taylor and Ledger.
The Town & Country Motor Inn Street Stocks had a wild finish that took a few minutes to sift through. The #04 of Shawn Swallow took the lead from Shauna Randall late in the race with the #99 of Luke Shannon, who was subbing for Ben Belanger, hot on his back bumper. With two laps to go, Shannon made the pass on the back stretch. Shannon took the white flag heading into turn one. The 04 of Swallow made contact with the 99 of Shannon, sending the two cars spinning wildly off of turn one and two, ending the feature race under a yellow flag. The 99 was put to the rear of the lead lap and the 04 was not credited with a finish. That gave the feature win to Randall, her first of the year and her third of her career. The #94 of Brett Rowell took the runner-up spot and Brownington Vermont’s Tom Sokolis went third. In the qualifying races, the wins went to Randall, Mike McGee, and Swallow.
That set up the final event of the evening, out of car introductions for the North Country Ford Late Models. The feature took off without a hitch rattling off the first 23 laps, before a caution bred several cautions. Jeremy Lacoss tried his best to make it to victory lane. However, the division’s top point man Mason took control of the race late, with the 02 of Russ Clark hot on his trail. WMMP regular Bob Ayles took full advantage of his four new Goodyear tires and battled his way into the third spot. Lacoss finished fourth and the #90 of Matt Pepin fifth. Heat wins went to youngsters Cody Hodge and and Dilyn Switser.
The action will continue at Riverside Speedway on Wednesday this week. The Speedway staff is trying a whacky Wednesday event that will include the Street Stocks, Daredevils, Angels, Cyclones/Enduro 100 lap event and a 6&8 cylinder enduro race. Race time is 7 p.m. and its just $4 to get into the grandstands.
Riverside Speedway is located off of Brown Road in Groveton, NH. You can go to the Speedway’s web site at www.riversidespeedway.org for all of your latest news.
