|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
| NEMA LITES 20 LAP
FEATURE - SAT. NIGHT |
 |
| LITES WINNER - DANNY
CUGINI #51 |
|
|
Last to First: Cugini Takes
Thompson
ICEBREAKER Win |
The Northeastern Midget Association has long
considered Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park (TSMP) the
ultimate "separate the men from the boys" facility. With
times in the mid 19 second range, Saturday's NEMA Lites
appearance at the facility, taking place on a beautiful
Spring day - left no doubts on the table. Dan Cugini in his
#51 family owned Ford Focus powered entry, was victorious
when it was all said and done, besting the fifteen NEMA
Lites competitors in the pits.
The action started
fast & furious right out of the gate. In the first heat,
Ryan Bigelow in his SMG Motoring Chevy Ecotec powered entry
jumped out into the lead from the pole, and dominated the
event over brother Scott Bigelow. In heat 2, 2015 Champion
Anthony "The Tornado" Payne scored an impressive victory
running the fastest times of the qualifying events in the
19.60 range.
Ryan Bigelow led the field to green for
the 20 lap feature. He quickly jumped out into the lead and
stretched his lead to five carlengths. Behind him, Jim
Chambers in his #21 family owned entry was closing the gap
fast & furious, and within four laps he was on Bigelow's
tail. Chambers took the lead going down the back stretch on
lap five, and Bigelow made a bid in turns three and four to
take it back, but unfortunately the two made contact sending
both hard into the turn four fence, collecting Anthony
Nocella in the Seymour #29 along with them. All three
drivers were OK, although Nocella was a bit bruised and
shaken after a hard impact. All three cars retired to the
pits.
On the restart, PJ Stergios quickly jumped out
into the lead, and further back Danny Cugini had come from
last starting spot, and overtook second ahead of Paul
Scally, Anthony Payne and Randy Cabral. After a close call
between Cugini and Scally, Scally lost momentum and a number
of spots.
Once in the open, Cugini quickly ran down
Stergios and after a brief battle, took over the lead and
set sail, never seriously challenged from that point on for
the victory.
"We had struggled all morning with
getting the motor running right, but just before the heat
race Danny Cugini helped us get it running. I didn't get any
practice in before the heat and was just hoping to finish
the race. I got lucky missing the crash in turn 3, and was
kind of surprised to find myself leading. Cugini definitely
had the better handling car, and I tried to put up a fight,
which resulted in me getting into him off turn 2 which was
totally my fault. I'm glad he held onto it there, and picked
up the win after helping us get the car running so congrats
to him," said Stergios, satisfied with a second place run.
"I knew that I needed a caution, and after that, I
needed to get to the front quickly," said Cugini. "Once I
took the lead, I knew we had the car to beat. Chris
(Desrosiers) knows how to set the car up for the way I like
to run at Thompson. You need to be able to drive the car in
really deep here, and that's what I was able to do," he
said. "I'm just really excited to be able to take down the
first victory of the year here at Thompson Speedway
Motorsports Park," he concluded.
Cugini and Stergios
were chased across the line by 2015 champion Anthony Payne,
Randy Cabral, Avery Stoehr, Paul Scally, Jim Cataldo, Alan
Chambers, Jeff Locke, and Scott Bigelow.
NEMA makes
its next stop at the New London Waterford Speedbowl for its
first inaugural test & tune session on May 1. |
|
NEMA LITES - ICEBREAKER - 4/9/16 |
|
Pos.
|
#
|
Driver |
Hometown
|
Owner |
|
1 |
51 |
Danny Cugini |
Marshfield, MA |
D. Cugini |
|
2 |
11 |
PJ Stergios |
Candia, NH |
Bill Stergios |
|
3 |
21 |
Anthony Payne |
Fairlawn, NJ |
Mike Scrivani |
|
4 |
35 |
Randy Cabral |
Plymouth, MA |
Glen Cabral |
|
5 |
15a |
Avery Stoehr |
Lakeville, MA |
Russ Stoehr |
|
6 |
30 |
Paul Scally |
Raynham,
MA |
Paul Scally |
|
7 |
2 |
Jim Cataldo |
Sterling, MA |
Jim Cataldo |
8
DNF |
17 |
Alan Chambers |
Atkinson, NH |
Mike Chambers |
9
DNF |
38 |
Jeff Locke |
Raymond, NH |
Ken Locke |
10
DNF |
32 |
Scott
Bigelow |
E. Hampton, CT |
Scott
Bigelow |
11
DNF |
13 |
Ryan Bigelow |
E. Hampton, CT |
Ryan
Bigelow |
12
DNF |
12 |
Jim Chambers |
Atkinson, NH |
Jim Chambers |
13
DNF |
29 |
Anthony Nocella |
Woburn, MA |
Matt Seymour |
14
DNS |
14 |
Chad Labastie |
Uxbridge, MA |
Chad Labastie |
15
DNS |
41 |
Megan CuginI |
Marshfield, MA |
D. Cugini |
|
|
|
NEMA Lites Set for
Thompson Speedway
Motorsports Park’s 2016 ICEBREAKER |
The Northeastern Midget
Association has long considered Thompson Speedway
Motorsports Park (TSMP) the ultimate "separate the men from
the boys" facility. While any Thompson checkered is a
treasure, winning on opening day in the NEMA Lites feature
at this year's ICEBREAKER event will be a goal high on the
list of many attendees.
Sitting at the top of that
list is the all time Thompson winner - with twelve
victories, Randy Cabral, who will return at the ICEBREAKER
in his family owned #35 Lites car. There are certainly no
lack of favorites to win the event, outside of Cabral. Scott
Bigelow, last year's winner, is a tentative "yes" for this
weekend's festivities, dependent on his personal schedule.
Bigelow scored an impressive victory in the first ever NEMA
Lites feature at the Speedway.
In addition to
Bigelow and Cabral, one cannot count out last year's NEMA
Lites Champion, Anthony "The Tornado" Payne. Son of
legendary open cockpit mainstay, Joey Payne, the young Payne
had impressive outings at TSMP last season. NEMA competitor
Paul Scally will be debuting his new Drinan Lites car, and
2014 NEMA runner up Avery Stoehr, will return in his family
owned ride as well.
With a nearly twenty plus car
field rumored, that's just the beginning of the list.
Brothers Alan and Jim Chambers come to the ICEBREAKER with
two focus powered cars, and will highlight Alan's return to
the division in addition to a full time NEMA schedule for
both. Teammates Christian Briggs and Juris Kupris will bring
their RAM Bull racing entries to TSMP with high hopes of a
feature victory. The Cugini family brings their two strong
family owned entries to the Speedway. Ryan Bigelow is set to
return to Thompson in his focus powered BEAST chassis as
well. Other entrants include PJ Stergios, a multi time NEMA
Lite winner, set to run a full season in pursuit of a
Championship in 2016, and possibly long time Northeastern
racer, Chad Labastie.
Thompson, known for its long
straightaways and high banked corners presents a "mental
wrestling match from mid straightaway into the turns,"
pointing out to be successful "you have to pretty much keep
your foot in it deep into the corner" says long time NEMA
member and multi time winner Greg Stoehr.
NEMA and
Thompson have a relationship that goes back to 1960, the
legendary Dutch Schaefer the winner. Since then, Thompson
has helped write a ton of NEMA history. Greg Stoehr, driving
for John Zahar, passed brother Russ in the closing laps to
win in 1994. In 2001, Joey Payne, who like Greg Stoehr
started last, passed the same Russ Stoehr on the final lap
en route to the checkered. The latter was the famed car
owner Gene Angelillo's 100th NEMA win. Last fall, Randy
Cabral claimed the victory over his teammate Todd Bertrand
with a last lap pass in turns three and four that will go
down as "one for the ages."
The Lites kick off
ICEBREAKER weekend with all events, including practice,
taking place on Saturday only. One thing is for sure, with
as close as some of the big track races were last season -
reminiscent of Oswego, Thompson's ICEBREAKER should be a
"barn burner." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
