THOMPSON, Conn. — Night one of the 60th Sunoco World Series presented by Budweiser started off the iconic Thompson Speedway season-ender with a bang as two champions were crowned and another championship began.
Following a return to yesteryear with the Senior Tour Auto Racers (S.T.A.R.), the Thompson late models took to the field led by Mike Benevides and Brian Tagg. At the green flag, Derek Gluchacki held a narrow seven-point lead over defending champion Ryan Morgan as the 18-car field thundered to the starting line.
Benevides went on the defense early, squeezing Woody Pitkat into Nick Johnson coming three-wide out of turn two, sending Johnson careening into the wall while collecting Tagg and Donald Macrino.
On the restart, John Lowinksi-Low took over the lead from Gluchacki before the young-gun jumped back into the lead on lap three followed by a hard-charging Morgan and Tom Carey III. The second yellow would fly on lap 14 for the spinning No. 38MA of Seekonk Speedway regular Connor Souza.
The restart would pit Gluchacki against Morgan as the two came to the line dead-even before three-wide racing in turns one and two involving both Lowinski-Low and Carey. Morgan would sneak through the tangle and lead all the way to the end to claim the World Series victory over Gluchacki and Tom Carey III.
Both Morgan and Gluchacki were tied atop the late model standings.
After the championship was incorrectly given in victory lane, further investigation and multiple scoring re-checks found that both Gluchacki and Morgan had two wins and two second-place finishes, bringing the tie-breaker down to Morgan’s next highest finish of fifth on Icebreaker weekend over Gluchacki’s next-best of eighth on August 17th.
Morgan is officially the Thompson Speedway Late Model champion.
The special $1,000-to-win Open Mini Stock event on Sunoco World Series Friday presented by Budweiser brought 16 racers from across New England into the Thompson Speedway pit area for a chance at the end-of-the-year cash.
The mini stocks were en route to go flag-to-flag until a late hit into the turn two wall for former North East Mini Stock Tour champion Desmond Skillings brought out the lone caution. Seekonk’s Mike Viens would run down the $1,000 win over White Mountain Motorsports Park champion Nick Anderson and Emerson Cayer.
The R&R Race Parts NH Street Stock Open entered the speedway next 25 cars strong at the onset, all of them also in search of a $1,000 grand prize in victory lane. Open Street Stock regular Christopher Buffone would bring out the first caution early for a flat right front tire while young Tanner Woodard would also lose a tire on the restart.
After the successful return to green flag racing, Chad Baxter took off like a rocket ship followed by Rob Macrae and Chris Riendeau. Buffone would also bring out another caution on lap five after slamming hard into the frontstretch wall and ending his night.
Single file restarts were put into place by race control, giving Baxter full rein out front. Behind him, Ryan Waterman was a man on a mission. More than once, Waterman cut around his competitors pushing his limits out of turns two and four, often passing multiple cars on his march to the front. Similarly, Kris Watson also began a calculated climb up through the ranks.
Watson motored his way into second and began stalking Baxter.
Watson would get assistance on lap 41 with Tyler Poulin stopped broadside in the entrance to the frontstretch bringing out the final caution. The return to double file restart allowed Baxter to choose the inside lane with Watson to his outside. Watson would get the jump under the green flag and seemingly never took his foot off the gas.
Watson would claim the $1,000 R&R Race Parts NH grand prize followed by Chad Baxter and Shane Gendron.
The Modified Racing Series rounded out the Sunoco World Series Friday night program with their championship round of racing. There were 32 Tour-type modifieds that took the green flag, with Craig Lutz taking the early lead over Anthony Bello and Mike Christopher Jr.
Also starting early, Ronnie Williams quickly sliced his way up to third and then second early on.
The first caution would come out on lap 41 for the stopped Tommy Barrett ride in turn three with steering issues plaguing the No. 17 machine. The restart would pit Williams outside of Lutz before a big caution on the frontstretch sent Mike Collins up and over the hood of Tyler Berry at the start/finish line and Kevin Iannarelli making contact that ruined his night.
The second restart would see Williams power away with the lead, Max Zachem following him around Lutz before the final caution-flag flew on lap 52 for the spinning RJ Marcotte in turn four.
On the final restart, Ronnie Williams again pulled away on the outside lane over Max Zachem and never looked back, taking the win followed by Zachem and Eric Goodale at the line. With Jacob Perry’s massive finish over Kirk Alexander, the young Granite Stater would take down the Modified Racing Series championship with his 11th place finish.