THOMPSON, Conn. — Matt Lowinski-Loh took top honors during Wednesday night’s Eden Rafferty Showdown at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park.
Following plus/minus qualifying handicap, Manny Dias and point leader Lowinski-Loh led the Late Model field to green for the 50-lap run.
Shawn Kekacs brought out the first caution coming to the green flag, loose off turn four and taking Justin Hall hard into the frontstretch wall across the line. Back under green it was all Matt Lowinski-Loh at the front of the pack as fans watched Woody Pitkat back behind the wheel of the Hartwell Motorsports #91CT.
Pikat was relegated to last in the lineup after mechanical issues parked his primary ride and the team turned to their backup mount and was battling for third against Dias by the halfway point. Sophomore campaigner Jarod Roy called out the second caution with 29 laps complete after spinning in turn four to re-rack the field. The restart had little effect on Lowinski-Loh’s hold on the field as he took down the $3,000 Eden Rafferty winner’s bonus ahead of Jacob ‘Rowdy’ Burns and Woody Pitkat.
The Crown Vics started Wednesday’s feature racing action with Ethan Williams quickly taking over the top spot from polesitter Ty Mello. Mello battled back on the outside of Alex Quarterly in his Crown Vic debut with Quarterly mastering the outside groove early. Quarterly took over the top spot on lap 8 as Williams grew looser on exit in turns two and four. Alex Quarterly would nail down the win in his first ever Crown Vic venture followed by Ethan Williams who held off Chase Curtis for second at the line.
Al Stone III and Mike Viens brought the Street Stocks down to the green flag for their 20-lap showdown on Eden Rafferty night. Stone put the power down on the outside groove to lead the way as Viens fell under attack by Ryan Lineham, Jarrod Soucy and Ryan Waterman. Lineham powered under Stone for the turn three crossover and took the lead on lap 8 as the field stretched to a single-file line to chase him down. With time running out, Ryan Lineham took down win number three on the season followed across the line by Al Stone III and Jarrod Soucy.
The Thompson Sunoco Modifieds were led to green by Rob Schultz and Nate Pytko under the initial green flag with 40-laps on the board. Danny Cates and point leader Keith Rocco quickly launched to the front with Todd Owen making his way under Pytko to take third. Rocco made the turn-three crossover under Cates to lead lap 6 with their intense battle only allowing Owen to join in the fight as the three ran nose-to-tail. Owen made his way under Cates in turn two to run second on lap 10 and followed Rocco for a chance at the top spot.
Paul Arcari brought out the lap 14 caution with his spin to the turn two grass, cooling the battle between Rocco and Owen just for a moment. Owen was next to use the turn three slide-job, taking the lead on lap 24 after contact with Rocco took away the momentum from the #09. Rocco settled back in and tried for the dive on lap 30 but stalled side-by-side back at the line. From then on the two veterans put on a master-class at the front with Rocco strong in turns one and two but Owen with the advantage in turns three and four. In the end it was Keith Rocco at the line ahead of Todd Owen with Danny Cates holding on for third ahead of Pytko.
Todd Douillard kept the early edge at the front of what would become a melee 20-lap feature for the SK Light Modifieds with Austin Goff and Leo Nunes following behind. Lap six brought contact between John O’Sullivan and point leader Kevin Davis with Davis piling into the turn one wall to end his day early after trying to fight through the pack. After another caution that ended the day for rookie Milania Shilosky, Austin Goff took control at the front and survived two green-white-checker restarts to take the win over Dylan Houghton and Douillard at the line.
