By Garry Dutton
SPECIAL TO THE EAGLE TIMES
CLAREMONT, N.H. – Brian Robie rocketed to victory Friday night at Claremont Motorsports Park, wiring the 30-lap NHSTRA Modified main event at the Thrasher Road speedplant where the Sunapee star holds one his many former track championships.
Outlaw hot shoe Guy Caron got the job done too, topping the full-fendered feature for the second time in a row, as he again outdueled former division champ Ben Poland. In the Pure Stocks, it was Vermont’s Chris Chambers, the division’s defending track champion, winning for the first time this summer.
Robert Shaw and Trevor Young split a pair of Six Shooter 20-lappers, each adding a third-place finish to his Friday night victory as all 40 laps flew into the record books caution-free.
Starting up front, Robie led all the way, with only Aaron Fellows able to challenge him over the later laps of the Modified main.
Fellows, who’d set fast time with an earlier lap of 13.924, moved up to third on lap five and then powered into second along the backchute six go-rounds later. The race’s only caution waved on lap 13, with super soph Nate Wenzel able to inch past Fellows briefly on the restart before the Croydon star reclaimed the deuce and then pulled away.
With Robie content to watch the battle behind him in his mirror, he cruised to a one-length victory ahead of Fellows. Wenzel came home third, with upstart Jeremy Zullo solid in fourth and former track champ Joey Jarvis rounding out the top five.
While, somewhere, Hulk Hogan spent Friday blowing out 70 candles, Lempster’s Guy Caron devoted his Friday night to blowing away all but one competitor in the night’s Brody Ladue State Farm Outlaw main event. The lone driver able to stay in the same time zone as Caron was, again, potent Ben Poland.
The pair was fortunate to race far ahead of the pack Friday as, behind them, it often looked like a war zone. Only three cars finished the race still on the track, and one of them was scored 13 laps in arrears.
With Poland and Caron both dominant in the feature after scoring earlier heat race victories, 15-year-old Tom Smithers, making his CMP debut from Gilmanton, N.H,. was third. Dallas Trombly and Steve Bly were scored fourth and fifth.
It took Chris Chambers all season to score a win during his LaValley Building Supply Pure Stock championship season a summer ago, getting the job done on 2023’s Championship Night event. This year, he’s turned the trick with more than a month to spare.
Chambers, hauling all the way from Chelsea, Vt., started up front in Friday’s Pure Stock 25 and never looked back .Speedway newcomer Keegan Tabor rode in Chambers’ shadow all the way to score an impressive runner-up finish.
Kodi Sabins, charging on a mission from row four, was third on the night, with Sunshine Towner Chris Conroy fourth and previous winner Colton Hull fifth.
Robert Shaw took the lead from Steve Miller Sr. on lap ten of the first Avery Insurance Six Shooter feature and never looked back. Miller, although no match for Shaw in this one, held strong to come home second, with Trevor Young, Steve Miller Jr., and Chooch Snide rounding out the top five.
In the 20-lap nightcap, Young and Miller Jr. started up front, with Young taking control on lap five and then speeding off to his first career feature win at the Thrasher Road speedplant. Miller Jr. held strong for second, with Shaw third this time around, followed by Miller Sr.and Snide.
Claremont Motorsports Park will return to action on Friday, August 25, when the storied third-mile will host a full card of oval track racing Post time at CMP is 7 p.m.
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